Announcing the Spring 2017 Series!

Here are a few highlights of a truly exciting season:

Robert Coover, beloved American fiction writer, with Huck Out West, a rollicking sequel to Huckleberry Finn.

Convicted murderer Shaka Senghor, with his memoir of redemption, Writing My Wrongs.

Jazz violinist and MacArthur Genius Regina Carter on stage with Joe Donahue.

Diane Ackerman, with the new film tie-in edition of Zookeeper’s Wife which will star Jessica Chastain.  

Preeminent Postmodernist painter David Salle with his book How to See, on stage with Joe Donahue.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor presenting her memoir, My Beloved World.

MacArthur Genius and filmmaker Stanley Nelson with his acclaimed new documentary, The Black Panthers.

Young Irish novelist Ruth Gilligan, the youngest author to reach #1 on Ireland’s Bestseller List, with a novel about Ireland’s Jews.

Iraq war interrogator and torturer Eric Fair with a memoir about his crisis of conscience.

Douglas Brinkley, CNN’s official Presidential Historian, with a new book on FDR’s crusade for public lands.

David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl, the basis of the Oscar-winning film.

AND MANY, MANY MORE!

All events are free and open to the public!

For a complete schedule, see the Visiting Writers Series here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html

See the Classic Film Series here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#.WHUQKE3FDs0

For more information, contact the Writers Institute visit our website at www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

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Stephen Burt, Leading American Poetry Critic, to Offer Free Community Poetry Class

Stephen Burt, “one of the most influential poetry critics of his generation” and “heir to the intellectual mantle long held by giants like Harold Bloom and Helen Vendler” (The New York Times), will lead a discussion and reading of poems based on his new book, The Poem is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (Sept 2016).

Sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute, and cosponsored by Friends of the New York State Library, the event is free and open to the public. No RSVP is necessary to attend.

For online access to the poems that will be discussed, please see links below.

Stephen Burt, poet, literary critic, and Harvard Professor

September 29 (Thursday)

Community Poetry Discussion and Reading-- 8PM, Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum, Empire State Plaza, Downtown Albany.

Poems to be discussed include the following:

"Paradoxes and Oxymorons" by John Ashbery: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/50986

“Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/47867

"Our Nature" by Rae Armantrout: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/54881

"Oversized T-shirts" by Gabby Gabby: http://vol1.illuminatigirlgang.com/gabbygabby

John Ashbery served as State Poet of New York under the auspices of the Writers Institute (2001-3). Yusef Komunyakaa is our current State Poet (2016-18). Rae Armatrout visited us in 2005. Gabby Gabby is the newest poet among them—a Target employee born in 1992.

Stephen Burt will also present a reading of his own poetry earlier that same day:  4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, University at Albany uptown campus.

For more information contact the New York State Writers Institute at 518 442 5620, writers@albany.edu, or visit our website at www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

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Her All-Time Favorite Short Stories-- Ann Beattie

Ann Beattie, who visits this coming Tuesday, shares some of her all-time favorite short stories in a New York Times "By the Book" interview:

Among them: “Twilight of the Superheroes” and “Your Duck Is My Duck,” by Deborah Eisenberg; “Way Down Deep in the Jungle,” by Thom Jones; “Oxygen,” by Ron Carlson; “Nettles” and “The Albanian Virgin,” by Alice Munro; “The Fat Girl,” by Andre Dubus; “We Didn’t,” by Stuart Dybek; “Tits-Up in a Ditch,” by Annie Proulx; “Bruns,” by Norman Rush; “Escapes,” by Joy Williams; “Yours,” by Mary Robison; “The Dog of the Marriage,” by Amy Hempel; “The Fireman’s Wife,” by Richard Bausch; “The Womanizer,” by Richard Ford; “Helping,” by Robert Stone; “No Place for You, My Love,” by Eudora Welty; “Are These Actual Miles,” by Raymond Carver; “People Like That Are The Only People Here,” by Lorrie Moore; “Last Night,” by James Salter; “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” by Russell Banks; “Hunters in the Snow,” by Tobias Wolff; Rebecca Lee’s collection, “Bobcat.”

More in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/books/review/ann-beattie-by-the-book.html?ref=books&_r=1

More about Ann Beattie's 2 events with Peg Boyers this Tuesday, 9/29:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/beattie_boyers15.html

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Tom Junod opens the Visiting Writers Series

One of America's most honored practitioners of magazine journalism, Tom Junod will return to his alma mater, the University at Albany, to meet with students and the general public on Thursday, September 10th. He'll speak again as part of a 9/11 memorial on Friday at the NYS Museum.

More about his events:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/junod_tom15.html

Here are some of Junod's articles in the Longform Archive:  http://longform.org/writers/tom-junod

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New Fall Series!

       The Writers Institute Fall 2015 schedule of events offers a rich variety of genres, from poetry to science writing to fiction to history to memoir to filmmaking and theatre. The upcoming series will even include a food writer—New York Times columnist and bestselling cookbook author Mark Bittman, whose work has been described by PBS as a “bible of basic cooking for millions of Americans.”

       The series will showcase two extraordinary former students at UAlbany—journalist Tom Junod, who holds the all-time record for National Magazine Award nominations (eleven!), and Edward Burns, director, actor, and one of the most prolific and influential independent filmmakers currently at work. Burns will present his new memoir, Independent Ed (2015), about which Matt Lauer of Today said, “Every young, hungry, creative person should view this as a textbook.... It’s a how-to.”
       
       Other guests will include Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Rachel Grady; young adult novelist Jason Reynolds, winner of the American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Award; major American short story writer Ann Beattie; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Adam Johnson; bestselling horror novelist Peter Straub; National Book Award finalist Mary Gaitskill; "Best New Documentary Filmmaker" at the Tribeca Film Festival, Sean Dunne; trail-blazing neuroscience writer Casey Schwartz; Vonnegut biographer Ginger Strand; and major American dramatist Tina Howe.

For more on the Visiting Writers Series, visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#.VdXvw1_D_s1

For more on the Classic Film Series, visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#.VdXwQF_D_s0

      We hope to see you soon!

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William Kennedy and Amy Hempel read at Skidmore

William Kennedy and Amy Hempel read tonight in the Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall at Skidmore College, 8PM, Monday, July 13th, as part of the 29th annual New York State Summer Writers Institute reading series.

The event is free and open to the public.

For directions:  https://www.skidmore.edu/directions/

For more about the reading series, which runs through July 24:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/#.VaP7R1_D_s0

Upcoming authors include:

JULY 14: Ann Beattie and Tom Healy.
JULY 15: Rick Moody and Lloyd Schwartz.
JULY 16: Nick Flynn and Adam Braver.
JULY 17: Robert Pinsky and Peg Boyers
JULY 20: Cristina Garcia and Wayne Koestenbaum
JULY 21: Russell Banks and Chase Twichell.JULY 22: Laura Kipnis and Jim Miller.
JULY 23: Jamaica Kincaid and Henri Cole.
JULY 24: Paul Harding and Binnie Kirshenbaum.

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New Spring Series!

You are invited to attend our Spring 2015 series of free events.

The Visiting Writers Series will feature  social critic Katha Pollitt, major novelist Alice McDermott, celebrated New Yorker proofreader Mary Norris, rising literary stars Yelena Akhtiorskaya and Elisa Albert, two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey, major American poet Alicia Ostriker, prize-winning Caribbean author Caryl Phillips, Shakespeare authority and stage actress Tina Packer, a celebration of local civil rights crusader Barbara Smith, and many other events!

The Classic Film Series will feature young prize-winning director Tanya Hamilton (Night Catches Us), theater and film producer Ron Simons (winner of Tony Awards for for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; and the 2012 Porgy & Bess), prize-winning documentary filmmaker Jason Osder (Let the Fire Burn), and William Wellman, Jr., son and biographer of legendary Hollywood director William A. Wellman, whose career spanned four decades, from the Silent Era to the 1950s.

For more on the Visiting Writers Series visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#.VK1HZF8o7s0

For more on the Classic Film Series visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#.VK1Hfl8o7s0

We hope to see you soon!

Best regards and Happy New Year,

The New York State Writers Institute

For more information, visit our website at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#.VK1JEF8o7s1 and our blog at http://nyswiblog.blogspot.com/ , or call us at 518-442-5620.

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50 Writers You Need to See Read Live

The hip and influential webzine Flavorwire posted a list yesterday of "50 Writers You Need to See Read Live." Not to sound smug or anything, but 20 of them have appeared at the New York State Writers Institute (although we have a very unfair advantage in that 2 of them are part of our "family").

One them of course is our own Bill Kennedy, NYSWI Founder and Executive Director. Another is Elisa Albert, who lives in Albany, and is married to NYSWI Writing Fellow Ed Schwarzschild.

The rest are regular NYS Summer Writers Institute visitor Paul Harding, as well as Gay Talese, Claire Messud, Colson Whitehead, Gary Shteyngart, Mary Gaitskill, Denis Johnson, Shalom Auslander, J. M. Coetzee, Marilynne Robinson, Sigrid Nunez, Sherman Alexie, Isabel Wilkerson, Charles Simic, Karen Russell, Chang-Rae Lee, James Salter, and Jonathan Ames.

Picture:  Mary Gaitskill.

Full list here:  http://flavorwire.com/487668/50-writers-you-need-to-see-read-live/view-all

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Visiting Writers: Kirsten Gillibrand! William Gibson! Richard Norton Smith!

New York State Writers Institute Fall 2014 Visiting Writers Events Schedule

We are pleased to announce an exciting schedule of visiting writer appearances for Fall 2014.​

All events are free and open to the public, and hosted at UAlbany, unless otherwise noted.

For more details, times and locations, please visit our website at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/

Sept. 18:  Pulitzer-winning novelist and reigning NYS Author (2012-14) Alison Lurie talks about her new nonfiction book, The Language of Houses (2014), about the expressive power of everyday architecture, including homes, restaurants, schools, hospitals, prisons and more.

Sept. 23:  Edith Grossman, one of the most celebrated translators in any language, known for her bestselling translations of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Don Quixote, presents her new collection of the works of Sister Juana, the embattled 17th century nun and “Mother of Mexican Literature.”

Sept. 27:  US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand presents her new book on women’s empowerment, Off the Sidelines (2014). Admission charged (except students with valid ID). Contact The Book House for tickets, which include book purchase: 489-4761.

Oct. 1:  John Lahr, Senior Drama Critic for the New Yorker (1992-2012), Tony Award winning playwright, and son of Wizard of Oz “Cowardly Lion” Bert Lahr, presents his acclaimed new biography of troubled playwright Tennessee Williams.

Oct. 9:  Pulitzer-winning journalist David Finkel, author of the bestseller The Good Soldiers (2009), about being embedded with US troops in Iraq, presents his sequel to that book, Thank You For Your Service (2013), about those same soldiers adjusting to post-war life at home.

Oct. 15:  American Shakespeare Center’s Much Ado About Nothing. Admission charged. Contact the PAC box office for tickets:  (518) 442-3997

Oct. 16:  Two first-time novelists and rising stars of Black historical fiction, Tiphanie Yanique (Land of Love and Drowning) and Jacinda Townsend (Saint Monkey) will share the stage.

Oct. 21:  Major American poets in conversation— Edward Hirsch, MacArthur Fellow, President of the Guggenheim Foundation, and author of the surprise bestseller How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, presenting his magisterial reference volume, A Poet’s Glossary (2014); Kimiko Hahn, American Book Award winner, presenting her new volume Brain Fever (2014); and Marie Howe, the reigning New York State Poet (2012-14).

Oct. 24, Nov. 1, 6 & 13:  Events connected with the life and work of Lemon Andersen, Tony award winning member of the Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam, child of heroin addicts, and three-time felon, who found purpose and redemption in the art of poetry. We screen Lemon: The Movie on Oct. 24 and Nov. 1st. Lemon visits UAlbany on Nov. 6th. And a dramatization of Lemon’s life story is presented on Nov. 13th.

Oct. 28:  Actress and playwright Najla Said, daughter of Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said, presents her memoir, Looking for Palestine:  Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family (2013).

Nov. 7:  Major American composer of film music David Shire, winner of 2 Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, and the Oscar for Norma Rae, discusses his score for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, following a 40th Anniversary screening of that film.

Nov. 9:  William Gibson, one of the most influential living writers of science fiction, author of Neuromancer (1984), which helped define the pop culture of the Computer Age, will present his new far-future novel, The Periperhal (2014), about cybersecurity, drone warfare, video gaming and lots of other things, at RPI’s EMPAC Concert Hall.

Nov. 11: Two young novelists share the stage—Angela Pneuman, former UAlbany grad student and an exciting new voice in Southern American literature, presenting her first novel, Lay It on My Heart, and Julie Orringer, author of the bestselling Holocaust novel, The Invisible Bridge.

Nov. 18: Neuroscience writer and developmental psychologist Susan Pinker, author of the international bestseller, The Sexual Paradox,  presents her new book, The Village Effect: How Face to Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier and Smarter (2014).

Nov. 20:  Eminent historian of the American presidency and frequent PBS NewsHour commentator Richard Norton Smith presents his definitive biography of Nelson Rockefeller, On His Own Terms (2014).

Dec. 2:  Joseph O’Neill, author of the bestselling novel Netherland, presents his new 2014 novel The Dog (long-listed for the Man Booker Prize).

Dec. 5:  Author Betty Medsger and filmmaker Johanna Hamilton present their award-winning 2014 documentary 1971: The Film, based on Medsger’s book, The Burglary (2014), about eight ordinary citizens who broke into FBI offices and revealed the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal program of spying on law-abiding Americans (the burglars’ identities have been kept secret until now). Medsger also broke the original story in the Washington Post in 1971.

For additional details on our visiting writers and a listing of Classic Film Series events, please visit our website at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/

 

 

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Free Events in Saratoga This Summer

Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid! Joyce Carol Oates!  William Kennedy! Robert Pinsky!  Marilynne Robinson! Russell Banks! And many more….

You are invited to attend the NYS Summer Writers Institute’s free public readings at Skidmore in Saratoga this summer, every weekday from June 30th to July 25th, cosponsored by Skidmore College and the New York State Writers Institute.

SUMMER PUBLIC READING LIST 2014
All Readings are at 8:00 p.m. in Davis Auditorium, Palamountain Hall
815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Free and open to the public

JUNE 30
Fiction reading by Elizabeth Benedict and poetry reading by Campbell McGrath.

JULY 1
Fiction reading by Francine Prose and non-fiction reading by Nicholas Delbanco.

JULY 2
Poetry reading by Frank Bidart and fiction reading by Jim Shepard.

JULY 3
Fiction reading by Russell Banks and poetry reading by Chase Twichell.

JULY 4
Fiction reading by Howard Norman and poetry reading by Jane Shore.

JULY 7
Poetry reading by Rosanna Warren and fiction reading by Cristina Garcia.

JULY 8
Non-Fiction reading by Phillip Lopate and fiction reading by Victoria Redel.

JULY 9
Poetry reading by James Longenbach and fiction reading by Joanna Scott.

JULY 10
Poetry reading by Louise Gluck and fiction reading by Caryl Phillips.

JULY 11
Fiction reading by Joyce Carol Oates.

JULY 14
Poetry reading by Carolyn Forche and fiction reading by Amy Hempel.

JULY 15
Fiction reading by Marilynne Robinson and poetry reading by Peg Boyers.

JULY 16
Fiction reading by Danzy Senna and nonfiction reading by Honor Moore.

JULY 17
Fiction reading by William Kennedy.

JULY 18
Poetry reading by Robert Pinsky.

JULY 21
Poetry reading by Mark Strand and fiction reading by Binnie Kirshenbaum.

JULY 22
Poetry reading by Charles Simic and fiction reading by Adam Braver.

JULY 23
Fiction reading by Rick Moody and poetry reading by Tom Healy.

JULY 24
Fiction reading by Jamaica Kincaid and poetry reading by Henri Cole.

JULY 25
Fiction reading by Paul Harding and poetry reading by Carl Dennis.

For more information:

NYS Summer Writers Institute
Office of the Dean of Special Programs

PHONE
518-580-5593

MAIL
NYS Summer Writers Institute
Office of the Dean of Special Programs
Skidmore College
815 North Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

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Francesca Marciano in Lina Wertmuller's "Seven Beauties"

 

Friday's guest Francesca Marciano starred in a number of Italian films prior to achieving success as a fiction writer and screenwriter.

Her credits include the virgin Carolina [pictured here, billed as "Francesca Marciani"] in Lina Wertmüller's outrageous 1975 film Seven Beauties, which was nominated for four Oscars.

Other film roles include the second-billed "Francesca" in Pupi Avati's The House of the Laughing Windows (1976) and Tutti defunti... tranne i morti (1977); and the Italian TV miniseries, La riva di Charleston (1978).

More about Marciano:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/marciano_francesca14.html

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Julia Glass on Francesca Marciano

Last week's guest, National Book Award winner Julia Glass [pictured here], contributes a praise blurb to this Friday's guest's new story collection, The Other Language:

“I loved every single one of these affecting, suspenseful, and sublimely crafted stories. It’s clear that Francesca Marciano is worldly as well as wise, yet what she’s surprisingly insightful about is the hazardous nature of worldliness itself. Because our modern lives are so mobile, our ways of communicating so refined, we risk coming to believe that the borders defining class, culture, and gender are somehow more permeable. Think again, she tells us in these nine cautionary tales—the best new collection I’ve read in years.” —Julia Glass

Francesca Marciano visits tomorrow:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/marciano_francesca14.html

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Please Subscribe to the Blog!

If you enjoy reading our blog, please sign up for email updates about NYS Writers Institute events and literary news.

It’s easy. Just type your email address in the little white box at the right.

We appreciate your interest!

Happy Reading,

The NYS Writers Institute Staff

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Front Page of NY Times Book Review: Dinaw Mengestu

Dinaw Mengestu, who visited us on March 13 to present his new novel All Our Names, landed on the front page of the New York Times Book Review this past Sunday.

Malcolm Jones writes:  "The victories in this beautiful novel are hard fought and hard won, but won they are, and they are durable."

More in the NY Times Book Review:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/books/review/all-our-names-by-dinaw-mengestu.html?_r=0

More about Mengestu's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mengestu_dinaw14.html

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From Africa to America: Dinaw Mengestu

Elizabeth Floyd Mair profiles Dinaw Mengestu (who visits us on Thursday) in the Times Union.

Q: How did the idea for this book come to you? Did you need to do any mapping out in advance of what would happen?

A: I began this novel while finishing my second book. It started off with a simple image/idea — a group of young friends on a college campus somewhere in Africa just after independence. I thought the story would remain there, and since I had no plan, or map for it, I had to work out the rest of the narrative slowly over the several years.

More in the Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/From-Africa-to-America-5294425.php

More about Mengestu's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mengestu_dinaw14.html

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A Literary Friendship Spanning 5 Decades

Bill Kennedy's long friendship with E. L. Doctorow (who visited 2/27) is the subject of an article by Paul Grondahl in the  Times Union:

"They are both in their 80s now, William Kennedy and E.L. Doctorow, two acclaimed American novelists whose literary friendship spans 50 years, three dozen books, a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, four National Book Critics Circle awards and a shelf of other prestigious fiction prizes between them."

"The two met in 1968 when Doctorow, an editor at The Dial Press, acquired Kennedy's first novel, The Ink Truck, a metaphysical tale loosely based on a 1964 newspaper strike at the Times Union, where Kennedy worked as a reporter...."

More in the TU:  http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/A-literary-friendship-spanning-five-decades-5289119.php

More about Doctorow's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/doctorow_el14.html

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Is Twitter a Literary Form?

Recent Institute visitor Teju Cole discusses the limits and possibilities of Twitter as a literary form in the "6th floor blog" of the New York Times:

"When the merits of Twitter are debated, one sentiment invariably is at the top of the con column: 140 characters are seldom enough to express the full weight of an idea. Or at least an idea that’s worth expressing."

"People have found ways around this: conjoined tweets, live-tweeting, etc. … The novelist Teju Cole expanded on this theme on Wednesday, when he posted an entire short story via tweet. Yes, that has been done before. But Cole’s project was different, because the individual tweets were posted not by him, but by his followers, and then @TejuCole retweeted them in chronological order to form a sort of quilted story."

More in the New York Times:  http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/teju-cole-puts-story-telling-to-the-twitter-test/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

More about Teju Cole's visit in February 2012: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/cole_teju12.html

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Carolyn Forche, Winner of 2013 Poetry Academy Fellowship

Carolyn Forche, the first guest of the NYS Writers Institute's Spring 2014 Visiting Writers Series, is the recent recipient of the 2013 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, awarded annually to an individual poet for "distinguished poetic achievement."

More:  Prestigious Poetry Prize Goes to Professor, Activist Carolyn Forché
http://www.georgetown.edu/news/carolyn-forche-wins-prestigious-poetry-fellowship.html

Forche will visit the University at Albany to present her new anthology of poetry written under duress by men and women as they face political violence and persecution, Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500 – 2001 (2014), a sequel to her landmark anthology, Against Forgetting (1993).

More about Forche's visit here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/forche_carolyn14.html

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Goli Taraghi in the Times Union

Susan Comninos interviews Goli Taraghi, major voice in Iranian literature who visits Albany today.

"An intriguing time warp exists in the fiction of Persian expatriate author Goli Taraghi. While many fear rising nuclear capability in today's Iran, Taraghi, 74, remains gripped by her homeland's past. Decades after the 1979 revolution that toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Taraghi, in her new collection of short stories, "The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons" (W.W. Norton, Oct. 23, 2013), continues to chronicle the lives of exiles like herself, who fled to Western countries from the Islamic Republic. For Taraghi, their exodus is a trauma that never ended, but keeps getting painfully re-enacted."

More in the Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Expatriate-author-feels-pull-of-home-4904546.php

More about Goli Taraghi's visit: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/taraghi_goli13.html

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Gil King, Finalist for 2013 Dayton Literary Peace Prize

Gilbert King, who visits us tomorrow to discuss his 2013 Pulitzer-winning book, Devil in the Grove, which was just named a runner-up for the 2013 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

More about King's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#king

About the prize:  The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, inaugurated in 2006, is the first and only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace. The Dayton Literary Peace Prize invites nominations in adult fiction and nonfiction books published within the past year that have led readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. Both awards carry a $10,000 cash prize.

More:  http://www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/

The 2013 winners include Adam Johnson (fiction) for The Orphan Master's Son, which he presented at the Writers Institute in 2012:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/johnson_adam12.html

Also among the finalists is Louise Erdrich, who visited us back in 1987.

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