William Kennedy and Amy Hempel read tonight in the Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall at Skidmore College, 8PM, Monday, July 13th, as part of the 29th annual New York State Summer Writers Institute reading series.
The event is free and open to the public.
For directions: https://www.skidmore.edu/directions/
For more about the reading series, which runs through July 24:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/#.VaP7R1_D_s0
Upcoming authors include:
JULY 14: Ann Beattie and Tom Healy.
JULY 15: Rick Moody and Lloyd Schwartz.
JULY 16: Nick Flynn and Adam Braver.
JULY 17: Robert Pinsky and Peg Boyers
JULY 20: Cristina Garcia and Wayne Koestenbaum
JULY 21: Russell Banks and Chase Twichell.JULY 22: Laura Kipnis and Jim Miller.
JULY 23: Jamaica Kincaid and Henri Cole.
JULY 24: Paul Harding and Binnie Kirshenbaum.
Monday, July 13, 2015
William Kennedy and Amy Hempel read at Skidmore
Friday, March 28, 2014
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Friday, August 30, 2013
Jonathan Lethem's Bedside Table
Jonathan Lethem, who visits Albany on 9/11, talks about what he's reading and what he's going to read next in last Sunday's New York Times "By the Book" interview:
I’ve got a beautiful stack right here: Hilton Als’s “White Girls,” Tao Lin’s “Taipei,” Jamie Quatro’s “I Want to Show You More,” the new compendiums of William Gaddis’s and Italo Calvino’s letters. And “Daniel Deronda,” which, you know, I always meant to read and never got around to. I hear it’s good.
More in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/books/review/jonathan-lethem-by-the-book.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0
More on Lethem's visit: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/lethem_jonathan13.html
Friday, July 12, 2013
On Horror: Stephen King reviews Joyce Carol Oates
Stephen King reviewed The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates (who reads tonight in Saratoga) this past May in the New York Times Book Review:
“Joyce Carol Oates has written what may be the world’s first postmodern Gothic novel: E. L. Doctorow’s ‘Ragtime’ set in Dracula’s castle. It’s dense, challenging, problematic, horrifying, funny, prolix and full of crazy people. You should read it. I wish I could tell you more.”
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/books/review/the-accursed-by-joyce-carol-oates.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Full schedule of free readings: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/sumread.html
Monday, July 8, 2013
This Week's Summer Reading Recommendations
3 out of 9 of Publishers Weekly's summer reading picks for the week of July 8th are new books by NYS Writers Institute visitors....
Chris Bohjalian, who brought out the Armenian community in droves this past April for The Sandcastle Girls:
"The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday) - An exploration of post-WWII Italy doubles as a murder mystery in this entertaining historical whodunit from Bohjalian (The Sandcastle Girls). In 1952 Florence, Francesca Rosati, a dress-shop worker, is brutally murdered by a killer who carves out her heart, and Detective Serafina Bettini is assigned to solve the homicide."
Howard Norman, regular visitor to the Summer Writers Institute, who reads again on July 25:
And Stacey D'Erasmo who visited us in 2009:
"The Art of Intimacy: The Space Between by Stacey D’Erasmo (Graywolf) - Part of Graywolf’s “Art of” series on the craft of writing, edited by Charles Baxter, this first work of nonfiction by novelist D’Erasmo (The Sky Below) examines the concept of intimacy and the ways this mysterious phenomenon has been conveyed by writers, visual artists, and filmmakers. D’Erasmo organizes the book into chapters based on the places where intimacy occurs, and the results are lucid and provocative."
More: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/58057-pw-picks-the-best-new-books-for-the-week-of-july-8-2013.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly&utm_campaign=27e6247d6a-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0bb2959cbb-27e6247d6a-304669825 Read More......
Friday, July 5, 2013
Robert Pinsky on the PBS News Hour
A July 4, 2001 appearance by poet Robert Pinsky (who presents a free reading today 7/5 in Saratoga) on the PBS NewsHour was reshared yesterday on that program's website.
Pinsky read some astonishing lines from a poem by Walt Whitman ("By Blue Ontario's Shore") that emphasize the importance of self-criticism in any true expression of patriotism-- of recognizing our country's failings so that we may work to improve and perfect it.
Also featured is Pinsky's July 4, 2002 reading of poet John Hollander's poem about fireworks, "Sparklers."
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2013/07/from-the-newshour-archives-robert-pinsky-on-the-4th-of-july.html
For a full schedule of free readings at the New York State Summer Writers Institute in Skidmore:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/sumread.html
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Honoring a Member of Our Audience
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 Read More......
Friday, April 26, 2013
The Feminine Mystique at 50
Here's a bit of the introduction: "Every writer yearns to create a book that will seize the moment — to perfectly encapsulate the problem of an era before other people even notice the problem exists. Of course, that almost never happens. Mostly we’re happy if we can manage to explain, in an interesting way, something people already know is going on. But Betty Friedan won the gold ring. When “The Feminine Mystique” emerged in 1963, it created a reaction so intense that Friedan could later write another book about the things women said to her about the first one (“It Changed My Life”). If there’s a list of the most important books of the 20th century, “The Feminine Mystique” is on it. It also made one conservative magazine’s exclusive roundup of the “10 most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries,” which if not flattering is at least a testimony to the wallop it packed."
More in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/magazine/the-feminine-mystique-at-50.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
More about Gail Collins' visit: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/collins_gail13.html
Picture: Betty Friedan (UPI). Read More......
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Mathematics of Writing a Novel
Bestselling novelist Manil Suri will deliver a powerpoint presentation about the mathematical thinking behind his new novel, The City of Devi (2013), Friday, 8PM, UAlbany Campus Center.
From a Mumbai-based reviewer:
"The highlight of the programme was Suri’s power point presentation (ppt) on his novel. It was definitely the most entertaining ppt I’ve ever sat through in my life, besides being the first one by an author on his novel."
"Suri had included sound effects, cut-outs of faces to represent his characters, and used visual elements such as a maze and a pomegranate to illustrate the various aspects of his novel. The most fascinating dimension of his writing process was the mingling of the literary and the mathematical."
"He had actually plotted the various narrative arcs, only to end up with ‘mathematical proof’ that The City of Devi could not be written. Just as he was ready to give up, his agent/editor wanted to take a look at whatever he’d written till then. He decided to polish the draft one last time before sending it to her. And that’s when he found a way to approach his material afresh, and eventually managed to ‘balance’ the fictional equation."
Read more in DNA India: http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/1792748/report-third-degree-manil-suri-and-the-mystery-of-the-closed-door-book-launch
More on Suri's visit: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/suri_manil13.html
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Atheist Loves Christian Writer
Robinson visits RPI tomorrow: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/robinson_marilynne13.html
"When I say that I love Marilynne Robinson’s work, I’m not talking about half of it; I’m talking about every word of it."
More in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/05/marilynne-robinson.html
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Reading Tonight at the UAlbany Art Museum
Reading by fiction writers Scott Hutchins and Edward Schwarzschild. Edward Schwarzschild's short story will appear in the Day After Day exhibition catalogue.
Edward Schwarzschild teaches writing and literature in UAlbany's Department of English and holds a joint appointment as a fellow at the New York State Writers Institute. He was selected as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow, teaching courses in contemporary literature and American writing and visual arts in Zaragoza, Spain. Schwarzschild is the author of the novel, Responsible Men, named a "Best Book of the Year" by The San Francisco Chronicle and a finalist for the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His latest book, The Family Diamond, is a collection of stories about family, love, and loss, set in and around Philadelphia.
Scott Hutchins is a former Truman Capote fellow in the Wallace Stegner Program at Stanford University. His work has appeared inStoryQuarterly, Five Chapters, The Owls, The Rumpus, The New York Times, San Francisco Magazine and Esquire, and was recently set to music. He is the recipient of two major Hopwood awards and the Andrea Beauchamp prize in short fiction. In 2006 and 2010, he was an artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. His novel A Working Theory of Love was published in October 2012 by the Penguin Press. Read More......
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
The Big Read in Albany
You may have missed the kick-off event yesterday at The Palace, but there are also two panel discussions, a documentary screening and a musical performance.
You may also be interested in this:
American Place Theatre performance of The Things They Carried
November 7 (Wednesday)
Pre-Performance discussion at 7 p.m.
Performance — 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
$15 general public / $12 seniors & faculty-staff / $10 students Box Office: (518) 442-3997
Tim O’Brien’s masterwork of contemporary literature about the Vietnam War is taken from book to stage by American Place Theatre, the award-winning New York City based company. The verbatim adaptation of this compassionate tale of the American soldier includes five of the short stories from the book including “The Rainy River” and “The Man I Killed.” With original cello music as underscoring, the audience plays witness to the complex issues of war and the universal struggle of the soldier.
For more about the Big Read, visit the website of the Albany Public Library:
http://www.albanypubliclibrary.org/documents/thebigread_2012.pdf Read More......
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Of Bats, Pythons and the Marburg Virus
Quammen visits the Writers Institute tomorrow, Thursday.
"Astrid Joosten was a 41-year-old Dutch woman who, in June 2008, went to Uganda with her husband. At home in Noord-Brabant, she worked as a business analyst. Both she and her husband, Jaap Taal, a financial manager, enjoyed annual adventures, especially to Africa. The journey in 2008, booked through an adventure-travel outfitter, took them to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home to mountain gorillas. While there, the operators offered an optional trip, to a place called the Maramagambo Forest, where the chief attraction was a peculiar site known as Python Cave. African rock pythons lived there, languid and content, grown large and fat on a diet of bats."
More in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/28/deadly-viruses-ebola-marburg-sars
More on Quammen's visit: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/quammen_david12.html
Picture: Egyptian fruit bats, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda Read More......
Friday, August 17, 2012
Books vs. the iPad
"Devotees of the old-fashioned printed book who are distressed by the onrushing digital future — and there are more of them out there than you might think — cherish William H. Gass’s 1999 essay, “A Defense of the Book.” Personally, I own multiple copies, including its original appearance in Harper’s magazine, its reappearance in Mr. Gass’s collection, A Temple of Texts, even a slightly strange limited edition done in cardboard. Nothing has ever summed up so well the book’s virtues as an object."
More in the New York Times: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/a-champion-of-the-book-takes-to-the-ipad/ Read More......
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Poets Wanted
Poet Alan Casline writes:
This year we will be presenting from the Hotel Altamont stage in the Village and Carriage Museum.
To sign up to read or for more information contact: Alan Casline at acasline@aol.com
Our host will be Pat Canaday.
Having a stage opens up some new possibilities and we are looking for Performance Poets to contribute some mixed media, musical and theatrical pieces to the event.
The schedule would be for a poets to read from their work for 10 min. each with there also being 4 (or more depending on interest) performance slots scheduled for 15 min. each.
Last year at 2:00 PM we had a LEGENDS OF LOCAL POETRY ROUND-ROBIN where poets read the work of other departed poets like W.W. Christman, Art Willis, Magdalene Merritt, Tom Nattel, etc. This will be a feature of this year’s reading as well.
Of course if there are not that many poets in the house everyone will have more time to read.
An unrelated idea is I have discovered the Altamont Fair is a tri-county fair. The counties are Albany, Schenectady and Greene Counties. I am especially looking for a few Greene County poets to participate. My problem is I don’t know any.
26th Annual POETS AT THE FAIR
Wednesday August 15, 2012 at 1:00 PM
at the Altamont Fair Grounds, Altamont, New York
presenting from the Hotel Altamont stage in the Village and Carriage Museum.
Local Poets reading from their work
Legends of Local Poetry from the near and historical past
Performance Poetry Read More......
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The Work of a Single Sentence: Jamaica Kincaid
From the New York Times, June 7, 1999:
"How do I write? Why do I write? What do I write? This is what I am writing: I am writing "Mr. Potter." It begins in this way; this is its first sentence: "Mr. Potter was my father, my father's name was Mr. Potter." So much went into that one sentence; much happened before I settled on those 11 words." More.
Picture: Jamaica Kincaid with William Kennedy. Read More......
Monday, July 23, 2012
Jamaica Kincaid, Writing as "Self Rescuing"
Growing up as an only child until the age of 9, her mother and stepfather gave birth to three sons in quick succession....
"I don't know if having other children was the cause for our relationship changing - it might have changed as I entered adolescence, but her attention went elsewhere. And also our family money remained the same but there were more people to feed and to clothe and so everything got sort of shortened not only material things but emotional things, the good emotional things I got a short end of that. But then I got more of things I didn't have, like a certain kind of cruelty and neglect. In the end it didn't matter. When I was first a young person it did matter a lot because I didn't know what had happened to me.. If I hadn't become a writer I don't know what would have happened to me; that was a kind of self rescuing."
Jamaica Kincaid will share the stage with novelist Henri Cole, tomorrow, Tuesday, July 24th, 8PM, Davis Audiorium, Palamountain Hall, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga. Free.
Click here for more events in the series. All are free and open to the general public. Read More......
Monday, April 23, 2012
David Sedaris Reading Shalom Auslander
I was a judge for this year’s Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, so until very recently I was reading essays written by clever high school students. Now I’ve started Shalom Auslander’s “Hope: A Tragedy.” His last book, “Foreskin’s Lament,” really made me laugh.
Read more about what Sedaris is reading in the New York Times.
Auslander visits tomorrow, Tuesday, April 24th.
Sedaris visited October 1998.
Picture: Sedaris as Santa's helper for the Santaland Diaries.
Read More......
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The Beginnings of His Literary Education
Teju Cole talks about how his literary education really began when he grabbed books randomly off the shelf to read during his morning commute to a short internship as an exchange student in Boston.
The three books (The Old Man and the Sea, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and The Catcher in the Rye) that he read during this time left an impression not only on him but also on his new, award-winning novel, Open City.
See the YouTube video of Cole's archival interview at the Writers Institute, February 10, 2012.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Your Brain on Fiction
The New York Times has an interesting op-ed piece by Annie Murphy Paul about the neurological experience of reading fiction:
"The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Keith Oatley, an emeritus professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto (and a published novelist), has proposed that reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that “runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.” Fiction — with its redolent details, imaginative metaphors and attentive descriptions of people and their actions — offers an especially rich replica. Indeed, in one respect novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers an experience unavailable off the page: the opportunity to enter fully into other people’s thoughts and feelings." More.