Photo of the Day on the UAlbany Website

UAlbany students pose with Kirsten Gillibrand at our event in the Campus Center Ballroom on Saturday, September 27, presented by the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza and cosponsored by the NYS Writers Institute.

http://www.albany.edu/gallery/index.php?WT.eml=nc
           

NY Senator Kirstin Gillibrand poses with UAlbany students, Marc Cohen (Vice President of UAlbany’s Student Association), Rose Avellino, Christina Mamone, Raymond Webb, Jr. at her recent visit to the University at Albany sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute to speak and promote her new book. 

                
                   

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Gillibrand's Event on Saturday

Here's Dennis Yusko's article in the Times Union on this past weekend's wonderful event with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the Ballroom of the UAlbany Campus Center:

Speaking at a book-signing in the University of Albany's Campus Center Ballroom, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand received hardy applause Saturday when she pledged to keep fighting to have military lawyers — not superiors — hear allegations of sexual abuse among service members. The author of "Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World" told nearly 300 people who bought her book that some victims of sexual assault in the military don't report the crimes because they do not trust military brass to properly investigate and punish suspects.

Gillibrand, 47, said removing military leaders from decision-making roles was crucial for objective investigations. She said she is committed to ensuring victims weren't blamed.

"That second betrayal is the thing they cannot overcome," the senator said.

Gillibrand spent more than an hour at the book signing and reading, which was sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute and Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza. She answered questions from Marion Roach Smith, author of "The Memoir Project, A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text on Writing & Life." Seated and separated by a coffee table, the women discussed some of the major themes from "Off the Sidelines": female empowerment, politics, family.

More in the TU:   http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Gillibrand-Military-sex-abuse-bill-will-pass-5785655.php

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New Sci-Fi Mystery Set in Albany in 2019

The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza will host a book launch party for a new futuristic mystery by Frankie Bailey, Professor in the School of Criminal Justice and frequent Writers Institute programming co-conspirator,  Saturday, September 14, 2013, 3 – 5:30 PM (you're invited!).

Here's the Booklist review by Michele Leber, "In 2019, a serial killer is on the loose in Albany, New York. Two women in their twenties have been murdered by having phenol injected into their hearts, and when Broadway actress Vivian Jessup, known as the Red Queen for her role in Alice in Wonderland, is killed in the same manner, Albany PD detective Hannah McCabe and partner Mike Baxter struggle to connect the dots in what has become an even higher-profile case. In the near future, everyone has an ORB (smartphone successor?), a drug named Lullaby can erase memories of crime victims (but causes a problem when used by a witness), and a threader (blogger successor?) with inside knowledge plagues the police. What has not changed is that crime solving requires hard work and good instincts. McCabe shows she has what it takes to succeed at her work and to win readers. University of Albany criminal justice professor Bailey, author of the Lizzie Stuart mysteries, leaves some intriguing questions unanswered in this strong start to a projected series."

There’ll be food, drink, a door prize, and volunteers who have agreed to read scenes from the book.

Book House event link: http://bookhouse.indiebound.com/event/bh-frankie-failey-signs-her-newest-book-red-queen-dies

Frankie Bailey's website: http://www.frankieybailey.com/

Professor Bailey cooked up our Food, Crime, and Justice Film Series which features "The Garden" on October 11th, and Exterminating Angel on November 1, followed by a Q&A with William Kennedy and Donald Faulkner.  More:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html

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Courageous Learning: William Patrick

Bill Patrick, director of the NYS Summer Young Writers Institute at Skidmore, has a new book coming out: Courageous Learning: Finding a New Path through Higher Education, an exploration of the brave new world of adult education and online learning. The book was written with Excelsior College President John Ebersole.

A launch party and signing will be held at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza on Wednesday, December 14 at 7:00 pm. Light refreshments will be served.

"Our nation is facing a great education crisis, and if we fail to respond quickly and seriously, we can expect our economy to grow weaker and our standard of living to decline. Courageous Learning is for those adults who, seeking to face this challenge, are considering returning to school, either to finish an undergraduate degree or to start a graduate one." More on the Excelsior College Press website.

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A Letter from Martha Rozett

UAlbany English Professor Martha Rozett sent us an e-letter about her new book, When People Wrote Letters: A Family Chronicle:

I am writing to tell you about my new book, WHEN PEOPLE WROTE LETTERS: A FAMILY CHRONICLE. If you can, please come to my book signing on December 8th at Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.

Many of you have heard me talk about this project during the past few years. It is a tale told through wonderfully witty and moving letters, photographs, clippings and pamphlets, excerpts from an unpublished autobiography and from family history narratives, along with other saved objects. The main characters are Betty and Edith Stedman, my mother and her aunt, two eloquent and adventurous women whose relationship serves as the book’s central narrative. Their travels, and the travels of other family members, take the reader from 19th and early twentieth century New England, to Key West in the 1830s, to the Minnesota Territories in the 1860s, to France during World War I, to small towns in Texas and to China in the 1920s, to Spain in the 1930s, and across America during World War II.

WHEN PEOPLE WROTE LETTERS is also an account of my great aunt Edith’s extraordinary career during the early years of medical social work, and a love story in which the religious and cultural differences between New England Episcopalians and New York Jews threaten to disrupt my parents’ romance in the 1940s. And finally, it is about how family chronicles emerge in piecemeal fashion from the objects and documents people save and pass on.
My book will be available after December 8th for $19.95 from the Troy Book Makers (TBMBooks.com), from Book House and other local independent bookstores, and from Amazon and B&N online. It will be available in e-book format in mid to late January. My husband (and very patient tech consultant) John has created a WHEN PEOPLE WROTE LETTERS Facebook page which will tell you more about how I came to write the book. I hope you will join my community of readers and spread the word to others.

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In Case You Missed the Torrente Ballester Celebration....

Unbeknownst to most Albany residents, one of Spain's major writers lived among us from 1966 to 1972 (and, as it happens, spent an inordinate amount of time hanging out at Stuyvesant Plaza because he didn't own a car). In Spain, Gonzalo Torrente Ballester's image appears on postage stamps; while in the U.S., it is difficult even to find his literary works in English translation.

UAlbany celebrated the late Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Distinguished Professor of Spanish, this past October. A new 35 minute documentary about his life that was screened on that occasion has recently been posted on the Web, and can be accessed in two parts via the UAlbany Library website.

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