Celebrating Motherhood as a Choice-- Katha Pollitt

Connie Schultz of the Washington Post reviews Katha Pollitt's new book on abortion: Pro. Pollitt visits the Institute on Jan. 29th.

Schultz writes:  Katha Pollitt may not appreciate my starting this review with her description of her own experience of motherhood, but this is my attempt to broaden her audience beyond the predictable cast for her small, powerful book. “People think of pregnant women as weak and vulnerable, but when I was pregnant with my daughter I felt as if I could put my hand in fire and it would only glow,” she writes in “Pro.” “I never felt alone: There were two of us, right there. I didn’t think of my child as an embryo or fetus. . . . I thought of her first as a funny little sea creature of indeterminate sex, and later, yes, as a baby, even though she was only a baby in my thoughts.”

To state what should be obvious, Pollitt, like most other women who support abortion rights, celebrates motherhood as a choice. The poet and columnist for the Nation is also one of the most eloquent champions for women’s reproductive freedom, and her latest book is a manifesto.

More in the Washington Post:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-pro-reclaiming-abortion-rights-by-katha-pollitt/2014/11/21/ba6498f0-52fb-11e4-809b-8cc0a295c773_story.html

More about Pollitt's upcoming visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/pollitt_katha15.html

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Fiction Without Formula-- E. L. Doctorow

Here are some recent reviews of Andrew's Brain (2014) by E. L. Doctorow, who visits us tomorrow.

More about the visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/doctorow_el14.html

Review in the Washington Post, "E.L. Doctorow moves to fiction without formula in ‘Andrew’s Brain’":  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/el-doctorow-moves-to-fiction-without-formula-in-andrews-brain/2014/01/13/a9e07e40-7c69-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_story.html

Review in the Australian, "Mind games from EL Doctorow, a master storyteller":  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/mind-games-from-el-doctorow-a-master-storyteller/story-fn9n8gph-1226826888921

Review in th National of the United Arab Emirates:  http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-review/el-doctorows-new-novel-has-a-portnoys-complaint-flavour#full

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The Woman Upstairs on multiple "Best Books" lists

Claire Messud's novel The Woman Upstairs, about a woman who lives on the fringes of other people's achievements, was featured on several Best Books of 2013 lists, including those appearing in The Guardian, Washington Post, and The Irish Independent.

From the Guardian: "Original and daring is Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs (Virago), an extraordinarily brilliant book, fizzing with anger and wit...."

Messud visited the Writers Institute in 2006 and 1999.

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

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Looking back, and ahead, at journalism

Paul Grondahl talks about Bill Kennedy's appearance at the 40th anniversary celebration of UAlbany Journalism Program founder Bill Rowley last week:

Bill Kennedy was talking last week about his late, great friend Bill Rowley founding the University at Albany journalism program in 1973 — he was Rowley's first hire — and as the newspaperman-turned-novelist assessed the current state of journalism, his mood turned dark.

"Newsweek is gone. Time magazine is just a tattered print unit of Time Warner Cable," he said. "All the TV networks seem to have slid into the swamp of celebrity. The Times seems to be surviving, but I don't know how small papers can survive."

His talk was the centerpiece of what was billed as a 40th anniversary celebration, but as a truth-teller addressing an auditorium of professional skeptics and aspiring cynics, his forecast was stormy with a chance of extinction.

Kennedy quoted the prophecy of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, new owner of the Washington Post, who once said that newspapers as we know them will be gone in 20 years. "That does not seem unreasonable to me," Kennedy added.

More in the Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Looking-back-and-ahead-at-journalism-4898618.php

Picture: UAlbany undergraduate intern Michelle Checchi, a junior journalism major at UAlbany.

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"A Great Day for the Irish," Seamus Heaney Visits Albany

Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and Nobel Laureate who passed away today, visited the Writers Institute in 1985, the second year of our existence.

The late Tom Smith proclaimed it "a great day for the Irish" and "a great night for poetry."

Here are links to audio files from that visit, with an introduction by UAlbany Irish literature professor (now emeritus) William Dumbleton.

http://luna.albany.edu/luna/servlet/view/search?QuickSearchA=QuickSearchA&q=Seamus+Heaney&sort=Archive_Collection%2CAuthor_Name%2CAuthor_Name_2%2CAuthor_Name_3&search=Search

Here's an obituary for Seamus Heaney in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/family-says-irish-poet-and-nobel-winner-seamus-heaney-dies-at-74/2013/08/30/a5f38506-1162-11e3-a2b3-5e107edf9897_story.html

Explore the riches of our archive on the UAlbany Luna platform here;
http://luna.albany.edu/luna/servlet/UALBANYSCA~16~16

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#7 on the Bestseller List

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson, who visits today, Tuesday, Feb. 14th, is #7 on the Washington Post's hardcover fiction bestseller list.

Here's an excerpt from the Washington Post review by David Ignatius:

"A great novel can take implausible fact and turn it into entirely believable fiction. That’s the genius of The Orphan Master's Son. Adam Johnson has taken the papier-mache creation that is North Korea and turned it into a real and riveting place that readers will find unforgettable."

More.

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