Derek Walcott, in memoriam (1930-2017)

The Writers Institute mourns the passing of poet and Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott who visited us in
1998.

See video from his Albany visit here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tlWeaErcVE

See more about his Albany visit here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/walcott.html

Read the New York Times obituary here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/books/derek-walcott-dead-nobel-prize-literature.html?_r=0

Derek Walcott, whose intricately metaphorical poetry captured the physical beauty of the Caribbean, the harsh legacy of colonialism and the complexities of living and writing in two cultural worlds, bringing him a Nobel Prize in Literature, died early Friday morning at his home near Gros Islet in St. Lucia. He was 87.

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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

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"A Great Day for the Irish," Seamus Heaney Visits Albany

Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and Nobel Laureate who passed away today, visited the Writers Institute in 1985, the second year of our existence.

The late Tom Smith proclaimed it "a great day for the Irish" and "a great night for poetry."

Here are links to audio files from that visit, with an introduction by UAlbany Irish literature professor (now emeritus) William Dumbleton.

http://luna.albany.edu/luna/servlet/view/search?QuickSearchA=QuickSearchA&q=Seamus+Heaney&sort=Archive_Collection%2CAuthor_Name%2CAuthor_Name_2%2CAuthor_Name_3&search=Search

Here's an obituary for Seamus Heaney in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/family-says-irish-poet-and-nobel-winner-seamus-heaney-dies-at-74/2013/08/30/a5f38506-1162-11e3-a2b3-5e107edf9897_story.html

Explore the riches of our archive on the UAlbany Luna platform here;
http://luna.albany.edu/luna/servlet/UALBANYSCA~16~16

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Eric Kandel, Writer and Scientist, Leads Breakthrough Study on Memory

Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize winner in Medicine who visited the Writers Institute in 2006, is the lead researcher of a new study on memory in the brain (with new implications for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease). The study is receiving widespread media coverage, and widespread attention in the neuroscience community.

The 84-year-old laureate came to the New York State Writers Institute to present his memoir, In Search of Memory, about his boyhood as a member of a Jewish family in Nazi Germany and his remarkable career at the leading edge of neuroscience.

More on the new study:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57600507/scientists-find-clue-to-reasons-for-age-related-memory-loss/

More on Kandel's visit to Albany:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/kandel_eric.html

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2 Nobel Prize-winners Discuss Origins of Life at UAlbany

Two Nobel Laureates will discuss the chemistry that produced the origins of life when they serve as the keynote lecturers at Albany 2013: The 18th Conversation, presented by University at Albany’s departments of Chemistry and Biological Sciences on June 11- 15. The event will draw more than 300 delegates from over 20 countries to the UAlbany Uptown Campus.

Jack Szostak from Harvard University and Ada Yonath from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, will speak on June 12 at 8 p.m. in Lecture Center 18.

The lectures are open to the public!

Szostak is the co-editor of the book, The Origins of Life (2010).

The 18th Conversation is sponsored by the University’s departments of Chemistry and Biological Sciences and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which has funded the Conversation since 1981.

For more information, email Dr.Ramaswamy Sarma at rhs07@albany.edu.

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Institute in the Times Union's "Year in the Arts"

"What stood out the most, though, was the New York State Writers Institute's fall season. To name just of few of the visitors from one of the best Writers Institute seasons of recent memory: Nobel Prize-winning novelist J. M. Coetzee and novelist Paul Auster lead a seminar on Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" in the afternoon on Oct. 12 and shared a conversation that night; Pulitzer-winner Junot Diaz, who was also named a MacArthur "genius" grant winner just days before his Oct. 4 appearance, led a seminar and a reading; and National Book Award-winner Denis Johnson gave a seminar and had his new play "Des Moines" presented as a staged reading on Nov. 12."

So writes Steve Barnes in today's Times Union.  Read more in "2012: Year in the Arts"--
http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/2012-Year-in-the-arts-4146769.php#page-3

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