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 poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Derek Walcott, in memoriam (1930-2017)
Friday, February 3, 2017
Paul Grondahl to Lead NYS Writers Institute
Paul
Grondahl Tapped to Lead Writers Institute
Washington Park Press. Albany, N.Y., 1997.
(With an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy.)
A rich and compelling political biography of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, the nation's longest-tenured mayor of an American city and head of Albany's vaunted Democratic machine. First elected in 1941, Corning served until he died in office in 1983 after winning 11 consecutive elections.
"A minor classic — a highly readable, meticulously researched and illuminating history of some fascinating and shadowy byways in the politics of the Empire State."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"Detailed, accurate and eminently readable."
-- Mario M. Cuomo, former Governor of New York
"Here journalism at its finest merges with the art of the novelist. The book indeed resembles a series of fascinating interlocking novellas."
-- R.W.B. Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
Read More......
The New
York State Writers Institute and the University at Albany are very pleased to
announce the appointment of award-winning writer and reporter Paul Grondahl as
the new director of the New York State Writers Institute.
Grondahl,
who earned a master’s degree in English at UAlbany in 1984, was selected after
a national search for a successor to Donald Faulkner, who retired last year.
“Paul is
one of the best-known and most-loved writers in our community. I am confident
that under Paul’s leadership, the New York State Writers Institute will reach
new heights,” UAlbany’s Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic
Affairs Darrell P. Wheeler said. “I look forward to collaborating with him and
the Institute’s many friends and supporters.”
William
Kennedy, Founder and Executive Director of the Writers Institute said “Paul is
a great choice for director of the Writers Institute for a lot of
reasons. Above all, he’s a serious writer. He’s very savvy about
literature and writers, and as a journalist, he’s nonpareil – maybe the best
we’ve had in this town in 30 years or more. He’s written two
well-received biographies of major political figures on our local stage – Teddy
Roosevelt, and Erastus Corning, the singular mayor of Albany for 42 years.
Paul also got his masters in English at UAlbany and he’s covered many of the
major writers who have visited the Institute.”
Grondahl,
an award-winning journalist and biographer, has been a staff writer at the
Albany Times
Union since 1984, where his projects on domestic violence, death
and dying, mental illness in state prisons and the problems facing sub-Saharan
Africa have won local, state and national journalism awards.
The author of four books, Grondahl also leads writing workshops for students ranging from elementary school to college. He has taught as writer-in-residence at the Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls since 2005, and is an adjunct professor in the Africana Studies Department at UAlbany.
“I feel like I’m coming home,” Grondahl said about the appointment, and indeed in some ways he is.
The author of four books, Grondahl also leads writing workshops for students ranging from elementary school to college. He has taught as writer-in-residence at the Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls since 2005, and is an adjunct professor in the Africana Studies Department at UAlbany.
“I feel like I’m coming home,” Grondahl said about the appointment, and indeed in some ways he is.
Paul himself appeared twice as an author in the
Institute’s Visiting Writer Series—in 1997 with his book Mayor
Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma, and in 2004 to discuss his
biography of Theodore Roosevelt, I Rose Like a Rocket. Beginning
with Saul Bellow’s inaugural reading in 1984, Paul has attended hundreds of
Institute programs, not only as journalist, but also as a reader and a
passionate supporter of the art of the written word.
Paul
Grondahl Biography
Paul Grondahl is an award-winning journalist and author. Grondahl has been a staff writer at the Albany Times Union since 1984, where his assignments have taken him from the Arctic to Antarctica; from Northern Ireland to Africa; from New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina and Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake in 2010; and across New York State, from Ground Zero on 9/11 to the Adirondack wilderness.
His in-depth newspaper projects on domestic violence, death and dying, mental illness in state prisons and the problems facing sub-Saharan Africa have won a number of local, state and national journalism awards.
Grondahl’s writing prizes include the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for Feature Reporting; Scripps Howard National Journalism Award; New York Newspaper Publishers Association; two first place national feature writing prizes from The Society for Features Journalists; more than a dozen New York State Associated Press writing contest awards; and the Hearst Eagle Award, the highest recognition for a reporter in the Hearst Corp.
The author of four books, Grondahl also was named Albany Author of the Year in 1997 by the Albany Public Library and Notable Author of the Year by the Guilderland Public Library and East Greenbush Public Library, both in 2004. He has been featured on C-SPAN's "About Books" and "Book TV."
Grondahl also has been selected several times in recent years as Best Local Journalist and Best Local Author in Metroland and Times Union readers’ polls.
In addition, he received the 2006 Dr. James M. Bell Humanitarian Award from Parsons Child and Family Center.
His work has appeared in a number of publications, including Smithsonian magazine, Newsday, The New York Times Book Review, the Houston Chronicle and other newspapers.
His second book, That Place Called Home, was excerpted in Reader’s Digest and optioned to CBS, where it went into development as a made-for-TV movie but was never produced.
In addition to his own books, Grondahl has contributed introductions to A Collection of Poems by Lewis A. Swyer (The Swyer Foundation/Mount Ida Press, 2004) and Stepping Stones by Marty Silverman (Whitston Publishing Co., 2003).
Grondahl is a veteran teacher who leads highly regarded writing workshops with students ranging from elementary school to college. For the past decade, he has worked with high school students through the Minds-On workshop program at the Rensselaerville Institute and with high school seniors in the New Visions Public Communications program at the Times Union. He has taught as writer-in-residence at the Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls since 2005. He also has been an adjunct professor in the Africana Studies Department at the University at Albany.
Grondahl received his bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington in 1981 and a Master’s degree in English literature from the University at Albany in 1984. He was honored in 2005 as a distinguished alumni in arts and letters from UAlbany.
Paul Grondahl is an award-winning journalist and author. Grondahl has been a staff writer at the Albany Times Union since 1984, where his assignments have taken him from the Arctic to Antarctica; from Northern Ireland to Africa; from New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina and Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake in 2010; and across New York State, from Ground Zero on 9/11 to the Adirondack wilderness.
His in-depth newspaper projects on domestic violence, death and dying, mental illness in state prisons and the problems facing sub-Saharan Africa have won a number of local, state and national journalism awards.
Grondahl’s writing prizes include the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for Feature Reporting; Scripps Howard National Journalism Award; New York Newspaper Publishers Association; two first place national feature writing prizes from The Society for Features Journalists; more than a dozen New York State Associated Press writing contest awards; and the Hearst Eagle Award, the highest recognition for a reporter in the Hearst Corp.
The author of four books, Grondahl also was named Albany Author of the Year in 1997 by the Albany Public Library and Notable Author of the Year by the Guilderland Public Library and East Greenbush Public Library, both in 2004. He has been featured on C-SPAN's "About Books" and "Book TV."
Grondahl also has been selected several times in recent years as Best Local Journalist and Best Local Author in Metroland and Times Union readers’ polls.
In addition, he received the 2006 Dr. James M. Bell Humanitarian Award from Parsons Child and Family Center.
His work has appeared in a number of publications, including Smithsonian magazine, Newsday, The New York Times Book Review, the Houston Chronicle and other newspapers.
His second book, That Place Called Home, was excerpted in Reader’s Digest and optioned to CBS, where it went into development as a made-for-TV movie but was never produced.
In addition to his own books, Grondahl has contributed introductions to A Collection of Poems by Lewis A. Swyer (The Swyer Foundation/Mount Ida Press, 2004) and Stepping Stones by Marty Silverman (Whitston Publishing Co., 2003).
Grondahl is a veteran teacher who leads highly regarded writing workshops with students ranging from elementary school to college. For the past decade, he has worked with high school students through the Minds-On workshop program at the Rensselaerville Institute and with high school seniors in the New Visions Public Communications program at the Times Union. He has taught as writer-in-residence at the Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls since 2005. He also has been an adjunct professor in the Africana Studies Department at the University at Albany.
Grondahl received his bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington in 1981 and a Master’s degree in English literature from the University at Albany in 1984. He was honored in 2005 as a distinguished alumni in arts and letters from UAlbany.
Publications:
I Rose Like a Rocket: The Political Education of Theodore Roosevelt
University
of Nebraska Press. (Paperback edition) May, 2007.
"A well-told new biography...Albany is Mr. Grondahl's turf, and here he gives free rein to his expertise."
-- The New York Sun
"What Mr. Grondahl makes clearer is how Roosevelt's principled stands on civil service reform and social responsibility periodically sidetracked his phenomenal career."
-- Washington Times
"An outstanding job of documenting Theodore Roosevelt's evolution from brash young political reformer to shrewd and pragmatic political operator...painted quite deftly by Grondahl."
-- Publishers Weekly
"A well-told new biography...Albany is Mr. Grondahl's turf, and here he gives free rein to his expertise."
-- The New York Sun
"What Mr. Grondahl makes clearer is how Roosevelt's principled stands on civil service reform and social responsibility periodically sidetracked his phenomenal career."
-- Washington Times
"An outstanding job of documenting Theodore Roosevelt's evolution from brash young political reformer to shrewd and pragmatic political operator...painted quite deftly by Grondahl."
-- Publishers Weekly
Mayor Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma
Washington Park Press. Albany, N.Y., 1997.
(With an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy.)
A rich and compelling political biography of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, the nation's longest-tenured mayor of an American city and head of Albany's vaunted Democratic machine. First elected in 1941, Corning served until he died in office in 1983 after winning 11 consecutive elections.
"A minor classic — a highly readable, meticulously researched and illuminating history of some fascinating and shadowy byways in the politics of the Empire State."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"Detailed, accurate and eminently readable."
-- Mario M. Cuomo, former Governor of New York
"Here journalism at its finest merges with the art of the novelist. The book indeed resembles a series of fascinating interlocking novellas."
-- R.W.B. Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
That Place Called Home
Servant
Publications. Ann Arbor, Mich., 2000.
(With a foreword by Eunice Kennedy Shriver)
This heartwarming story describes how Sr. Mary Ann LoGiudice, a Sister of Mercy in Albany, N.Y., gained approval from her religious order to adopt and raise a young girl named Barbara, both of whose parents died of AIDS. The nun and the young, HIV-positive girl formed an unlikely family and enjoyed many delightful, challenging and inspiring years together as mother and daughter.
"Her story is immensely moving and life-affirming."
-- Bob Keeler, Newsday religious writer
"One of the most moving testimonies to the power of love that I have ever read."
-- Sister Mary Rose McGeady, D.C. President of Covenant House, New York City
(With a foreword by Eunice Kennedy Shriver)
This heartwarming story describes how Sr. Mary Ann LoGiudice, a Sister of Mercy in Albany, N.Y., gained approval from her religious order to adopt and raise a young girl named Barbara, both of whose parents died of AIDS. The nun and the young, HIV-positive girl formed an unlikely family and enjoyed many delightful, challenging and inspiring years together as mother and daughter.
"Her story is immensely moving and life-affirming."
-- Bob Keeler, Newsday religious writer
"One of the most moving testimonies to the power of love that I have ever read."
-- Sister Mary Rose McGeady, D.C. President of Covenant House, New York City
Whitston
Publishing Company Inc. Albany, N.Y., 2006.
A narrative history of one of the oldest orphanages in the United States that draws on archival research and oral histories. Founded in 1829 and formerly known as the Albany Orphan Asylum and the Albany Home for Children, this is a powerful and emotionally charged chronicle of often forgotten children left in institutional care.
"Grondahl uses his storytelling skills to make readers curious about the institution, to draw them into the lives of children and staff -- and to inspire them to care about those lives.
A narrative history of one of the oldest orphanages in the United States that draws on archival research and oral histories. Founded in 1829 and formerly known as the Albany Orphan Asylum and the Albany Home for Children, this is a powerful and emotionally charged chronicle of often forgotten children left in institutional care.
"Grondahl uses his storytelling skills to make readers curious about the institution, to draw them into the lives of children and staff -- and to inspire them to care about those lives.
-- The Sunday Gazette, Schenectady, NY
For
additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online
at www.albany.edu/writers-inst.
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......
Thursday, September 22, 2016
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).
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.
"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.
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, August 20, 2015
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!
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
2015 NYS Summer Writers Institute Reading Series
The Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore in Saratoga will run from July 29 through July 24.
All readings are at 8PM in Davis Auditorium, Palamountain Hall, Skidmore College, 815 N. Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.
For more information: 518-580-5000, info@skidmore.edu
Picture: Claire Messud
JULY 1: Fiction reading by Michael Ondaajte and poetry reading by Campbell McGrath.
JULY 2: Poetry reading by Charles Simic and fiction reading by Howard Norman.
JULY 3: Fiction reading by Claire Messud and fiction reading by Elizabeth Benedict.
JULY 6: Poetry reading by Carolyn Forche and fiction reading by Victoria Redel.
JULY 7: Poetry reading by Frank Bidart and fiction reading by Rivka Galchen.
JULY 8: Fiction reading by Mary Gaitskill and non-fiction reading by Honor Moore.
JULY 9: Fiction reading by Joseph O'Neill and fiction reading by Joanna Scott.
JULY 10: Fiction reading by Joyce Carol Oates.
JULY 13: Fiction reading by Amy Hempel and fiction reading by William Kennedy.
JULY 14: Fiction reading by Ann Beattie and poetry reading by Tom Healy.
JULY 15: Fiction reading by Rick Moody and poetry reading by Lloyd Schwartz.
JULY 16: Non-fiction reading by Nick Flynn and fiction reading by Adam Braver.
JULY 17: Poetry reading by Robert Pinsky poetry reading by Peg Boyers.
JULY 20: Fiction reading by Cristina Garcia and poetry reading by Wayne Koestenbaum.
JULY 21:Fiction reading by Russell Banks and poetry reading by Chase Twichell.
JULY 22: Non-fiction reading by Laura Kipnis and non-fiction reading by Jim Miller.
JULY 23: Fiction reading by Jamaica Kincaid and poetry reading by Henri Cole.
JULY 24: Fiction reading by Paul Harding and fiction reading by Binnie Kirshenbaum.
Read More......
Monday, April 20, 2015
Joan Murray in the Times Union
Poet Joan Murray discusses her friendship with poet Alicia Ostriker in the Times Union. The two poets will visit together on Thursday, April 23rd:
"I've known Alicia since we were both young poets in the second wave feminist movement in the '70s. We were attracted to each other's work, because we were both young moms writing about motherhood and war. We've kept up a literary friendship since then, staying in touch and seeing each other now and then. Alicia is fun, but she's also famous and brilliant in a down-to-earth way."
"While our poems are different, we're both dramatic, and we can riff like the old masters when we want to. We both deal with serious social and political issues. We also write about God, though we're not believers. (Alicia has a whole book talking with him.) And we're both risk-takers: I have that book in the voice of the Niagara woman, and Alicia's new book is in the voices of an old woman, a tulip and a dog."
More in the Times Union interview with Elizabeth Floyd Mair: http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-features/article/Writing-from-experiences-6204800.php
More about the upcoming visit: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/ostriker_murray15.html
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......
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Lemon Andersen on the front page of the TU Preview section
Andersen is profiled on the front page of the Times Union "Preview" section by Connor Kelly:
Brooklyn wordsmith, artist and actor Lemon Andersen, 39, will be visiting the University at Albany next month, but the group he will resonate most with just might be high school students.
That's because Andersen, a high school dropout himself, believes in inspiring young people through his stories, just as stories he read while in prison inspired him. He hopes those in similar situations can escape the life of poverty and crime that he experienced firsthand.
The stories Andersen crafts, typically inspired by his experiences growing up and living in Brooklyn, take the form of performance-based spoken word poetry, with a focus on rhythm and storytelling.
"I don't do anything without teaching," said Andersen. "I'm teaching what I'm learning everywhere I go. For me, it's not a job, it's a lifestyle. I like being a rock star in the classroom; I like showing up with a strong curriculum — hopefully, it inspires alternatives.
More in the Times Union: http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/Unorthodox-educator-5840311.php
More about our events celebrating Lemon Andersen: http://www.albany.edu/news/54982.php Read More......
Monday, October 20, 2014
Ed Hirsch Interviewed in the Times Union
Poet Ed Hirsch visits tomorrow (10/21) to have a conversation about poetry with fellow poets Kimiko Hahn and Marie Howe. Hirsch is interviewed by Elizabeth Floyd Mair of the Times Union about his new reference work on the art of poetry, A Poet's Glossary:
Q: You're a poet. What was it like for you to work for 15 years or so on this project of explaining in a concise yet thorough way such a huge array of poetic traditions?
A: It was a great pleasure, an offshoot of my vocation. I found working on "A Poet's Glossary" utterly absorbing. Of course, I also worked on other things during those 15 years — I had poems to write, a job to go to — but I always seemed to return to the glossary with renewed curiosity. I see the world of poets as a kind of extended family. I was always wondering what other members of the family were doing at different times in different parts of the world. Sometimes I was outraged, sometimes delighted. But I was always interested in what they were up to.
More in the Times Union: http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Chapter-and-verse-5827472.php
More about the event: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/poets_hirschhahnhowe14.html
Monday, September 8, 2014
NYS Poet Marie Howe in the Huffington Post
"This morning I stumbled upon the poetry of Marie Howe, and once again I'm humbled by the power of words on a page, and a writer's ability to bestow meaning to feelings that would otherwise remain forever trapped inside me. In a recent podcast interview, the poet Marie Howe was speaking of the power of words to reveal the human condition, and how the older she gets, the more of herself she unmasks through her writing. She later said, 'to be able to move through your life transparently would be a relief.'"
More in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeanpaul-bedard/in-the-company-of-words-and-strangers_b_5762190.html
Reigning New York State Poet Marie Howe visits the Writers Institute on Tuesday, October 21st with fellow poets Edward Hirsch and Kimiko Hahn.
For a full schedule of events, visit our webpage: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/#.VA26El_D_s1
For more about NY State Poet Marie Howe: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/howe_marie12.html
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, May 2, 2014
NY State "Favorite Poem" Essay Winners Announced
Winners of the First New York State “Poetry Unites – My Favorite Poem” Contest
Announced
Marie Howe, State Poet of
the State of New York under the auspices of the NYS Writers Institute and Corinne Evens, a philanthropist, in coordination with
the Academy of American Poets, the New York State Writers Institute, and the
New York State Office of Cultural Education, are pleased to announce the winners
of the 2014 Poetry Unites contest for the best short essay about a favorite
poem. The winners of the contest, which was open to all New York State
residents, are in alphabetical order:
Marita Boulos, literacy program coordinator from Rouse's Point,
Clinton County, NY, for her straightforward and eloquent prose that candidly
brings John Donne’s “Song” into her village.
Rosanna Oh, from Jericho, Long Island, a student, for her deeply
personal response to the humility and precision in Robert Hayden’s “Those
Winter Sundays.”
Matthew Powers, a teacher from Syracuse, NY, for the way he
realistically invokes the incantatory and communal nature of poetry in Mark
Strand’s “Lines for Winter.”
Paul White a healthcare provider from Cheektowaga, NY, for
recognizing the talismanic power and healing capacity of poetry in David
Ignatow’s “Sunday at the State Hospital.”
The winners will each be
featured in short film profiles directed by Ewa Zadrzynska, which will be
posted on Poets.org as well as the State Library, and NYS Writers Institute’s websites,
and may be broadcast by public television across the United States. They will
be awarded a Certificate of Merit and invited to a celebratory film screening
on October 18, 2014 in NYC.
The Jury selection members
included:
Marie Howe, State Poet of
the State of New York, 2012-2014;
Jeffrey Cannel, Deputy
Commissioner, New York State Office of Cultural Education;
Nina Darnton, Author;
Donald Faulkner,
Director, New York State Writers Institute;
Edward Hirsch, Poet and
Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets;
Robert Pinsky, Poet,
former US Poet Laureate and the Founder of Favorite Poem Project;
Ewa Zadrzynska, Writer
and Filmmaker.
Read More......
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Short Essay Contest, Deadline April 15th
You are invited to enter the first New York State “Poetry
Unites” short essay contest.
Open to all New York State residents for the best short
essay (no longer than 600 words) about your favorite poem
After a successful six-year run in Europe, the Poetry Unites
contest, inspired by Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem project, has come to New York
State.
Marie Howe, the New York State Poet (appointed by Governor
Cuomo under the sponsorship of the New York State Writers Institute), and
Corinne Evens, a philanthropist, in co-ordination with the Academy of American
Poets, the New York State Writers Institute, and the New York State Office of
Cultural Education, are pleased to announce a contest for the best short essay
about a favorite poem. The contest is open to all New York State residents.
Awards:
· The four
winners of the main prize will be featured in short film profiles, which will
be placed on the Academy of American Poets website, New York State Library
website, New York State Writers Institute website, and may be broadcast in the
USA by Public Television .
· All winners
will be invited to NYC gala in October 2014. The invitation will cover travel expenses
within New York State.
Picture: Walker
Hancock's bust of Robert Frost.
Read More......
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