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.
Showing posts with label poet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poet. Show all posts
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Derek Walcott, in memoriam (1930-2017)
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Writers Institute Mourns the Passing of John Montague
The New York State Writers Institute mourns the passing of our beloved friend and colleague John Montague, major Irish poet of his generation and long-time faculty member of the Institute and the University at Albany. The author of more than 30 books of poetry and a recipient of the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur, France’s highest award, he died in Nice on December 10, 2016, following surgery.
Born in Brooklyn on February 28, 1929, and raised in County Tyrone, Montague served as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence for the New York State Writers Institute during each spring semester, teaching workshops in fiction and poetry and a class in the English Department, University at Albany. Governor Mario M. Cuomo presented Montague a citation in 1987 “for his outstanding literary achievements and his contributions to the people of New York.”
In 1998, he was named the very first Ireland Professor of Poetry, a new position created to honor the shared literary heritage of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, with joint appointments at Trinity College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast and University College Dublin.
Read this account of his funeral in the Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/john-montague-remembered-at-funeral-as-poet-of-wonder-1.2906056 Read More......
Monday, September 21, 2015
Poetry Prize Named for UAlbany Professor Len Slade
In the Times Union: Leonard A. Slade Jr., a professor of Africana Studies at the University at Albany, has been honored with a national poetry prize named for him.
The Southern Conference on African American Studies has named its annual poetry prize the Leonard A. Slade Jr. Poetry Prize. It recognizes his literary contributions to The Griot, a journal published by the Houston-based organization since 1979.
The prize will be awarded to the person whom judges decide has published the best poem or poems in the journal that year.
"I'm very humbled," said Slade, who has contributed poetry to The Griot for more than 25 years. He came to UAlbany in 1988 after 22 years on the faculty of Kentucky State University.
More in Paul Grondahl's interview in the Times Union:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/National-honor-for-UAlbany-professor-and-poet-6512661.php
Thursday, February 19, 2015
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
Thursday, October 30, 2014
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
Read More......
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Is Poetry Dead?
(Photo in the NY Times: Our NYS Poet Marie Howe at the Poetry in Motion Springfest at Grand Central Terminal)
Marie Howe, NYS Poet under the auspices of the NYS Writers Institute, appears in a New York Times feature article on poets laureate across the nation, Is Poetry Dead? Not if 45 Official Laureates are Any Indication...
"Other laureates have taken the tradition of occasional poetry in a more personalized direction. As part of the Poetry in Motion project’s Springfest, an event held in Grand Central Terminal in April, Marie Howe, the New York State laureate, organized The Poet Is In, a project inspired by Lucy Van Pelt’s advice booth in 'Peanuts.'”
“'The academic establishment, which I’m very much part of, has this idea of a poem as a monument, and I bow to that idea,' Ms. Howe said. 'But there are poems that are valuable without being monuments.'”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/arts/poet-laureates-multiply-but-job-requirements-vary-widely.html Read More......
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Passing of Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
From UAlbany's Facebook page:
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 Read More......
Friday, September 13, 2013
A Poem by Sydney Lea, Who Visits Tuesday, Sept. 17
Bestselling food writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), calls Sydney Lea “as fine a companion on the page as American writing about nature has to offer.” Indeed, Lea is widely regarded as the Robert Frost of his generation.
Lea visits this Tuesday to share the lectern with poet Marie Howe.
More about their visit here: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/howe_lea13.html
Much of Lea's poetry is inspired by the natural world and rural Vermont settings. Here's an example, "Cooking by Waters: An Non-Elegy," which appears on his website. The poem was first published in the Hudson Review, Autumn 2008.
The birch’s skin curls up like an ancient
letter.
The sweet smoke makes my breathing
harder.
On a streamside fir three goldfinches
teeter.
Late sun makes a tumult along their
feathers.
In an hour the hermit thrush will have
begun.
I accept the bittersweet gift of the
weather in fall.
The air’s so clear the only haze is
inward.
How did I learn these names and calls?
I can’t be sure. They simply gathered.
Read more of the poem here: http://sydneylea.net (click on "Sampler").
Read More......
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
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
Friday, August 30, 2013
Seamus Heaney, Irish Poet, Dies
Seamus Heaney, who visited the Writers Institute in 1985, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, died in Dublin today.
More in the New York Times:
Mr. Heaney, who was born in Northern Ireland but moved to Dublin in his later years, is recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century. His fellow poet Robert Lowell described Mr. Heaney as the “most important Irish poet since Yeats.”
In a statement, Faber & Faber, which published his work for nearly 50 years, called him “one of the world’s greatest writers. His impact on literary culture is immeasurable.”
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
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
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Hillary Clinton's 1969 Commencement Speech at Wellesley
Robert Pinsky, former U.S. Poet Laureate, who reads July 5th at the New York State Summer
Writers Institute in Saratoga, remembers Hillary Clinton's commencement speech at Wellesley, which he attended as a young poetry professor. The piece appeared yesterday in Slate:
"What was amazing, and not standard, was the gift for rising to an occasion: a political gift and a matter of talent surging toward its realization. As part of the prepared part of her speech, Hillary Rodham read a poem by a classmate, a composition also touchingly of that era. On that day in May, in other words, the notes that were struck may have been unremarkable, but the occasion was like hearing a very young, uniquely gifted musician play: something in the sheer, expressive command—a word used about athletes, as well as musicians—was extraordinary, unmistakable, and already formed."
More: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/07/hillary_clinton_wesleyan_commencement_speech_robert_pinsky_on_the_politician.html
Full schedule of free summer events:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/sumread.html
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Marie Howe: The Poetry of Eating
Read more of our own New York State Poet laureate Marie Howe's restaurant review of The French Laundry in the New York Times: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/a-poet-at-the-french-laundry/?smid=tw-nytdining
Read more about Marie Howe here: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/howe_marie12.html Read More......
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
NPR Interview with Joy Harjo
"I [had] felt like I had lost my voice, too. And sometimes, to find it ... what I've learned is it needs to be lost for a while. And when it wants to be found, you'll find it.
"But I would say is that you just put yourself in the place of poetry. You just go where poetry is, whether it's in your heart or your mind or in books or in places where there's live poetry or recordings.
"And, you know, it's like looking for love. You can't look for love, or it will run away from you. But, you know, don't look for it. Don't look for it. Just go where it is and appreciate it, and, you know, it will find you."
Read more or listen to the interview: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/09/156501436/joy-harjos-crazy-brave-path-to-finding-her-voice
Harjo visits UAlbany tomorrow, 4:15 and 8pm, Campus Center 375, with a catered reception by SUNY Press to follow the evening event. Read More......
Friday, October 26, 2012
Edwin Torres: A Startling Performer, Tonight in the Ballroom
"I have seen Edwin Torres dancing to the sound of a musical saw while wearing a hat of dirt on his head in a store window, and once wearing pure white with the painter/poet Elizabeth Castagna on New Year's day 1999. I've always wanted to be Edwin Torres for a day, to think like him, to wear cool glasses, to be as tall and thin, to have Puerto Rican soul so I could write 'I'm near a tiger's smooch, BURP!'"
Read more of Brenda Coultas' Electronic Poetry Center review of Edwin Torres' poetry collection, Fractured Humorous here: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/torrese/fractured.html
Get a taste of Torres' performance style on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8uOPBn5jW4 Read More......
Larry La Fountain-Stokes on Sexual Persecution and Migration
View his talk on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoyjL23Bwhc
Books by La Fountain-Stokes include the scholarly work, Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (2009), and the bilingual fiction collection, Uñas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails (2009). Read More......
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Poet Joy Harjo profile in High Country News
Native American poet and musician Joy Harjo, who visits Albany on Thursday, Nov. 1, is profiled in High Country News, a Colorado based magazine about public policy and culture in the American West:
http://www.hcn.org/hcn/issues/44.17/already-gone-a-profile-of-native-american-poet-joy-harjo Read More......
Monday, October 15, 2012
Zaqtan in the Times Union
Paul Grondahl of the Times Union profiles major Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan, and interviews Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah. Both will visit Albany tomorrow:
Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan, whose application for a visa was held up in a case described as "ethnic profiling," has rescheduled a hastily canceled April U.S. tour and will visit the University at Albany on Tuesday on a triumphant note.
"We are so happy to have him here finally, but it was a disappointing and frustrating case of an entrenched and bizarre U.S. bureaucracy," said Dr. Fady Joudah, a Houston physician who also is a Palestinian-American poet, winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize and a translator of the poetry of Zaqtan (pronounced ZOCK-tawn), who writes in Arabic.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Poetic-license-3943081.php#ixzz29NwMLZTw
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
New York State Poet & Author Inaugurated Tomorrow
Dear Readers, Writers, Teachers, Students and All Members of
the General Public,
You are invited to attend the following free event:
NEW YORK STATE AUTHOR AND POET AWARDS AND READINGAlison Lurie, New York State Author 2012-2014 and Marie Howe, New York State Poet 2012-2014
September 20 (Thursday)
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
For more information contact 518-442-5620 or writers@albany.edu, or visit us online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/
. You may also wish to visit our blog at http://nyswiblog.blogspot.com/, or to
friend us on Facebook.
Read More......
Friday, September 14, 2012
"Hurry"-- A Poem About a Young Child
Hurry
Marie Howe
We stop at the dry cleaners
and the grocery store
and the gas station and the
green market and
Hurry up honey, I say,
hurry,
as she runs along two or three
steps behind me
her blue jacket unzipped and
her socks rolled down.
Where do I want her to hurry
to? To her grave?
To mine? Where one day she
might stand all grown?
Today, when all the errands
are finally done, I say to her,
Honey I'm sorry I keep saying
Hurry—
you walk ahead of me. You be
the mother.
And, Hurry up, she says, over
her shoulder, looking
back at me, laughing. Hurry up
now darling, she says,
hurry, hurry, taking the house
keys from my hands.
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