Charles McGrath profiles major American writer Lorrie Moore and her new book of short stories (her first in 15 years) in yesterday's New York Times.
From the article: Lorrie Moore doesn’t much resemble a Lorrie Moore character. She’s shy and self-deprecating but not melancholy, witty but not jokey. Her conversation doesn’t bristle with wordplay or throwaway one-liners; there are no zingers. Two of her favorite expressions are “I don’t know” and, added to the end of a sentence, “Or maybe not.”
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/books/lorrie-moores-new-book-is-a-reminder-and-a-departure.html?ref=arts&_r=0
A Glens Falls native, Moore visited the Writers Institute in 2009 and shared the stage with fellow upstater Richard Russo (of Gloversville) to celebrate the New York State Writers Institute's 25th Anniversary.
More on their visit: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/moore_russo09.html
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Lorrie Moore has a new book
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Alice Munro Wins Nobel Prize
STOCKHOLM (AP) - Alice Munro, a Canadian master of the short story revered as a thorough but forgiving chronicler of the human spirit, won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday.
Munro is the first Canadian writer to receive the prestigious $1.2 million award from the Swedish Academy since Saul Bellow, who left for the U.S. as a boy and won in 1976.
Seen as a contemporary Chekhov for her warmth, insight and compassion, she has captured a wide range of lives and personalities without passing judgment on her characters. Unusually for Nobel winners, Munro's work consists almost entirely of short stories. "Lives of Girls and Women" is her only novel.
"I knew I was in the running, yes, but I never thought I would win," the 82-year-old said by telephone when contacted by The Canadian Press in Victoria, British Columbia.
Munro is beloved among her peers, from Lorrie Moore and George Saunders to Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen. She is equally admired by critics. She won a National Book Critics Circle prize for "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage," and is a three-time winner of the Governor General's prize, Canada's highest literary honor.
More from the Associated Press: http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268773/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=BFDTleAC
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
25th Anniversary Celebration Updates
The work of the Institute has been all-consuming of late, and to note that we haven't posted since early October is, well, an embarrassment, both of silences, and of riches. Sometimes it's wonderful to have so many things going on that you can't stop to whistle at them.
On November 16 we celebrated our 25th anniversary with a highlight film and remarks 
by Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York who signed the establishing legislation for the
formation of the NYSWI into law, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, biographer/historian who has appeared at the Writers Institute six times since its inception.
Visits prior to that, by Richard
Russo, Lorrie Moore, Don DeLillo, Russell Banks, Henry Louis Gates, and others (celebrations of Rumi, and Jazz history included), will be chronicled in due course. Sometimes it's better to be living than to be blogging!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Fall Plans for the NYSWI 25th Anniversary
The Writers Institute Fall 2009 season will be a celebration of of the 25th Anniversary of the organization.
Here's one teaser item on the list:
Oct 15 Richard Russo and Lorrie Moore.
Each will be reading from newly published work. Lorrie Moore's novel A Gate at the Stairs is her first in more than a decade.
Richard Russo's new novel, That Old Cape Magic, continues his mediation on place, family, and marriage.
Both books are wicked good.