Howard Frank Mosher, In Memoriam

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the passing of novelist Howard Frank Mosher who delighted Albany audiences on November 1st, 2016. Mosher was widely celebrated as "the voice of Vermont." Born in the Catskills, he spent much of his childhood in Altamont, New York.

From yesterday's Vermont Public Radio obituary:  "Acclaimed Vermont author Howard Frank Mosher has died. Mosher, 74, succumbed to cancer Sunday morning at his home in Irasburg.

His stories celebrated the Northeast Kingdom as the last bastion of a people and a way of life that has all but disappeared from Vermont."  More.


Listen to Joe Donahue's Nov. 1st WAMC interview.


More about Mosher's visit to the Writers Institute.


From the Oct. 2016 Times Union profile of Mosher by Joe Stalvey and Jack Rightmyer:  "I was actually born in the Catskill Mountains, and I lived there till I was 11 or 12," he says, "and then we moved to Altamont, where I attended grade six through nine. Many of my stories also reach back to that time in my boyhood."He fondly recalls fishing in the Helderberg Mountains and going to the Altamont Fair every summer. "The description of the county fair in my newest book 'God's Kingdom' is how I remember the Altamont Fair," he says. "("God's Kingdom") is pretty autobiographical," Mosher says. "Jim is based on me, and like him, I always wanted to be a writer. Most of the characters are based on my friends and relatives, including my wife. The newspaper editor is based on my dad, who was a teacher and once the principal of Altamont High School. He was the principal the first two years of Guilderland High School." More.

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Kennedy Remembers Doctorow in the Times Union

In Wednesday's Times Union, William Kennedy remembers his friend, E. L. Doctorow, who passed away on July 21, 2015:

"I feel something has gone out of American life with Ed gone and the other great writers we've lost," Kennedy said, mentioning the death of James Salter last month, Peter Matthiessen last year and Norman Mailer and Joe Heller in years past.

"In a certain sense, those were the guys I was talking to when I was writing," he said. "We were having long conversations with each other and the world in our novels."

More in the TU (new subscribers may need to sign up for TU+):
http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/William-Kennedy-on-E-L-Doctorow-and-the-Albany-6411203.php

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E. L. Doctorow (1931-2015)

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the loss of E. L. Doctorow, novelist and editor. As an editor at The Dial Press, Doctorow acquired William Kennedy's first novel, The Ink Truck, in 1968.

Doctorow served as New York State Author under the Institute's sponsorship from 1989 to 1991.

Kennedy's 50 year friendship with Doctorow is detailed in a 2014 Times Union article by E. L. Doctorow at the time of his last visit to Albany in March 2014:

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

The New York Times obituary is here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/books/el-doctorow-author-of-historical-fiction-dies-at-84.html?_r=0

Doctorow's State Author page:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/doctorow.html

YouTube footage from Doctorow's visit here in 2014:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLSc-ovXhTKHdJMhm8WSYAJ2-0McMME_0v&v=fOvEeCPj4yQ

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Remembering Poet Philip Levine (1928-2015)

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the passing of Philip Levine who died on February 14, 2015.

Levine's poetry is grounded in the harsh reality of contemporary life. He describes his poetry as an attempt to create "a voice for the voiceless."

Watch our 26-minute episode about Levine on The Writer, our former collaboration with PBS affiliate WMHT:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p-6RA01qyY&feature=youtu.be&t=40s

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Mario Cuomo (1932-2015)

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the passing of Mario Cuomo, former New York Governor and a very dear friend of the Institute, who signed into law the legislation that created our organization in 1984.

Cuomo came to the Institute to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2009, his first public appearance in Albany since leaving the Governor's mansion in 1994. On that occasion, he shared the stage at Page Hall with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (pictured here).

More about his visit here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/cuomo_goodwin09.html 

The New York Times obituary:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/nyregion/mario-cuomo-new-york-governor-and-liberal-beacon-dies-at-82.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/nyregion/mario-cuomo-new-york-governor-and-liberal-beacon-dies-at-82.html?_r=0

More photos from the 25th Anniversary here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/celebrate25.pdf

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Galway Kinnell, 1927-2014

Poet Galway Kinnell, who visited the NYS Writers Institute in the Spring of 1996, is dead at the age
of 87.

Here's the NY Times obit:

Galway Kinnell, who was recognized with both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for a body of poetry that pushed deep into the heart of human experience in the decades after World War II, died on Tuesday at his home in Sheffield, Vt. He was 87.

 

The cause was leukemia, his wife, Barbara K. Bristol, said.

 

Mr. Kinnell came of age among a generation of poets who were trying to get past the modernism of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound and write verses that, as he said, could be understood without a graduate degree. He succeeded well enough that all of the volumes of poems he published from 1960 to 2008 — evocations of urban streetscapes, pastoral odes, meditations on mortality and frank explorations of sex — are still in print.

 

More in the Times:   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/books/galway-kinnell-poet-who-went-his-own-way-dies-at-87.html

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Ruby Dee (1922-2014)

The Writers Institute mourns the passing of Ruby Dee, pioneering stage and screen actress, and civil rights activist.

Ruby Dee visited the Writers Institute in March 2005 where she delivered the 9th Annual Burian Lecture, funded by the Jarka and Grayce Susan Burian Endowment, and cosponsored by the Department of Theatre.

From the New York Times:

"Ruby Dee, one of the most enduring actresses of theater and film, whose public profile and activist passions made her, along with her husband, Ossie Davis, a leading advocate for civil rights both in show business and in the wider world, died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. She was 91."

More about her visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/dee_ruby.html

Some obituaries:  http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/12/showbiz/obit-ruby-dee/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/arts/ruby-dee-actress-dies-at-91.html?_r=0
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/06/12/daughter-actress-ruby-dee-dead-at-91/10373935/

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Passing of Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

From UAlbany's Facebook page:

UAlbany is saddened by the passing of Maya Angelou. She captivated audiences through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.

We were fortunate to have her on the UAlbany campus in April 1998 where she spoke about her extraordinary life and read from her numerous works.

Share your favorite Maya Angelou quote in the comments. #RIP #MayaAngelou

More at:  https://www.facebook.com/universityatalbany

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Gabriel García Márquez (1927 – 2014)

The New York Times obituary:

Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombian novelist whose “One Hundred Years of Solitude” established him as a giant of 20th-century literature, died on Thursday at his home in Mexico City. He was 87.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” would sell tens of millions of copies. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda called it “the greatest revelation in the Spanish language since ‘Don Quixote.’ ” The novelist William Kennedy hailed it as “the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.”

More in the New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/books/gabriel-garcia-marquez-literary-pioneer-dies-at-87.html?_r=0

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Peter Matthiessen (1927 - 2014)

Peter Matthiessen, major American writer and former New York State Author under the auspices of
the New York State Writers Institute (1995-1997) has died at the age of 86.

Here's the New York Times obituary:   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/peter-matthiessen-author-and-naturalist-is-dead-at-86.html?_r=0

 

More about Matthiessen as State Author appointed by then-Governor Mario Cuomo:

http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/matsnsa.html

Picture:  Peter Matthiessen, Grace Paley, William Kennedy and UAlbany President Karen Hitchcock at the Writers Institute's 1995 New York State Author and Poet awards ceremony.

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Author Joe McGinniss Dies

Joe McGinniss, one of the creators and most influential authors of the "true crime" genre, is dead at age 71.

McGinniss visited the Writers Institute at UAlbany in November 2007 to present his true crime book, Never Enough.

Obituary in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/books/joe-mcginniss-71-dies-wrote-about-politics.html?_r=0

A remembrance in the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/postscript-joe-mcginniss-1942-2014.html

McGinniss also wrote the major nonfiction bestseller, The Selling of the President, 1968 (1969), a pioneering study of the role of marketing in Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign.

More about his visit to Albany:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/jmcginniss.html

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Michael Kammen, Historian of the American Psyche, Dies

Michael Kammen, Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural historian who visited the Writers Institute in 2007, has died.

From the New York Times obituary:

Michael Kammen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian whose scholarly aim was no less than the illumination of the collective American psyche, died on Nov. 29 in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 77.

Professor Kammen (pronounced KAY-man) received the 1973 Pulitzer for history for People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization, published the previous year. That book sought to describe the national character from the country’s earliest days to the 20th century.

More in the Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/07/us/michael-kammen-historian-of-us-psyche-dies-at-77.html

More about Kammen's visit to UAlbany to discuss his book, Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture  (2006):  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/kammen_michael.html

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Heaney Obituary in the Associated Press

"He was a wonderful raconteur. There was so much local enthusiasm for his work...." --NYS Writers Institute Director Donald Faulker, quoted in the AP obituary for Seamus Heaney (with contributions from Bethany Bump of the Schenectady Gazette).

More here:  http://www.dailygazette.net/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=U0NILzIwMTMvMDgvMzEjQXIwMzAwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

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F. D. Reeve, Poet and Translator Dies

F. D. Reeve, poet, translator of Russian literature, and father of actor and disability activist Christopher Reeve has died.

NYS Writers Institute Director Donald Faulkner, a friend of Reeve, said, "Like the cat that he used as a mask in his later poems, Franklin Reeve had a boundless curiosity, an electric energy, and many lives.  As a poet, thinker, teacher, father, and friend he was fearless, fierce in his beliefs and his loyalties. His great, loving spirit abides."

Full obituary in the New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/books/f-d-reeve-poet-and-translator-dies-at-84.html?ref=obituaries

Reeve visited the Institute to present poetry and jazz in 2008:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/fdreeve_bluecat08.html

Here's a clip from his visit to the Institute:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSetkKNZoHA

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Honoring a Member of Our Audience

 

We'd like to take a moment to honor the memory of a "regular" at our Visiting Writers Series events,
one who once told us in passing that he would put up posters of some of our visitors in his garage.

From the Times Union:

Guilderland

Richard "Dick" Patrick, Albany's first city planner and an intimate of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, who brought a quirky sense of humor and spirit of play to his wide-ranging interests, died Saturday at the Hospice Inn at St. Peter's Hospital.

He had undergone three heart bypass surgeries and had a brief battle with cancer. He was 76.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Albany-s-first-city-planner-dies-at-76-4481172.php#ixzz2S9o4YTw3

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Chinua Achebe Dies

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, giant of world literature, who visited the Writers Institute on October 15, 1998, has died.

Though he never received the Nobel Prize, his 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, is the world's most widely read African novel.

See an excerpt from his talk here in Albany on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZNAMPsmS4I

Read a BBC obituary here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21898664

Read the New York Times obit here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/world/africa/chinua-achebe-nigerian-writer-dies-at-82.html?_r=0

NPR obit here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/22/175025166/chinua-achebe-nigerian-author-of-things-fall-apart-dies

Photo: Video still,  Achebe at the New York State Writers Institute.

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The Art of the Obituary

"Novelist, short story writer, and essayist Ann Hood loves obituaries. She says that they are a difficult form to write, since they must bring a character 'back to life' in a very compressed space."

Elizabeth Floyd Mair of the Times Union interviews Ann Hood about her new novel, The Obituary Writer (2013):  http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Telling-tales-of-two-lives-4298288.php

Ann Hood shares the stage with novelist Eugene Mirabelli tomorrow, Tuesday, 2/26:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mirabelli_hood13.html

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Praise for Ann Hood, Who Visits Tuesday

Bestselling author Ann Hood's soon-to-be-released novel, The Obituary Writer (Feb. 25, 2013) has earned high praise from some recent visitors to the NYS Writers Institute:

Andre Dubus III: “It is a rare novelist who can summon the creative nerve to plumb the depths of grief, but that's just what Ann Hood does here with such compassion and grace. The Obituary Writer is an unflinching exploration of loss and the love that somehow remains, one that both wounds and heals. This is a deeply engaging and moving book.”

Tom Perrotta:  “In this poignant and incisive novel, Ann Hood brings history back to life in the most intimate way, chronicling the love affairs and heartbreaks of two very different women in two very different times. Moving gracefully and persuasively between post-earthquake San Francisco and the early 1960s, The Obituary Writer makes unexpected connections between these two bygone eras, and in the process, manages to illuminate the present as well as the past.”

More on Ann Hood's upcoming visit with Gene Mirabelli, Tuesday, Feb. 26: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mirabelli_hood13.html

More on Dubus' 2008 visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/dubus_andre08.html

More on Perrotta's 2011 visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/perrotta_tom11.html

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Mary C. Henderson (1928-2012)

Mary C. Henderson, who delivered the Burian Lecture at UAlbany in 2004, receives an obituary in yesterday's New York Times:

Mary C. Henderson, a scholar of the theater whose interests as a historian and curator spanned centuries and as a Tony nominator and critic were up to the minute, died on Jan. 3 at her home in Congers, N.Y. She was 83.

Read more.

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