Unspeakably in love with books

"As a child I was unspeakably in love with books. My dad had built two massive shelves that ran the width of our knotty pine-paneled living room. These were laden with the many high quality volumes of great works sent regularly to my mother by a man who either was or fancied himself to be her suitor — an untold story unto itself. I was too young to appreciate either the distinction between the two or the peculiarity of my father having built the shelves for the books the supposed suitor sent."
Read the full column in the Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-opinion/article/Jo-Page-Reading-is-nothing-short-of-a-10987387.php

Come hear Jo Page speak about her new memoir, Preaching in My Yes Dress: Confessions of a Reluctant Pastor," this coming Tuesday, March 28. She'll share the stage with her teacher, UAlbany Professor Emeritus and novelist, 
March 28 (Tuesday):  Eugene Mirabelli, novelist, and Jo Page, memoir writer and journalist
Reading — 4:15 p.m., University Hall Room 110, Collins Circle, Uptown Campus
Jo Page, essayist, newspaper columnist, and ordained Lutheran minister, is the author of the new memoir, Preaching in My Yes Dress: Confessions of a Reluctant Pastor (2016), a candid, moving, and humorous account of her spiritual journey. Bestselling novelist Margot Livesey said the book is “all the things you hope a good memoir will be: profound, witty, deeply serious, wonderfully original, and utterly absorbing.” For 20 years the author of the "Reckonings" column for Metroland, Albany’s former newsweekly, Page now writes a column for the Albany Times Union. Read more
Eugene Mirabelli, Professor Emeritus of English at UAlbany, received the prestigious Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) Gold Medal for his 2012 novel, Renato the Painter: An Account of His Youth & His 70th Year in His Own Words, the story of an artist who lives life with gusto and practices his art in defiance of critical and public neglect. Author and NPR reviewer Andrei Codrescu described the book as “…a fresco of Sicilian-American-New England life….” Mirabelli’s new book is the sequel, Renato After Alba: His Rage Against Life, Love & Loss in His Own Words (2016), an account of Renato’s experience of widowerhood at the age of 83. Publishers Weekly said, “The reader feels such affection for Renato… you can forgive him anything.” Read more

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Paul Grondahl to host Diane Ackerman, Tuesday 3/7

Paul Grondahl, the newly-named director of the Writers Institute, will host his first events on Tuesday, March 7th. Please join us in giving him a warm welcome.

Grondahl earned a master’s degree in English at UAlbany in 1984. An award-winning journalist and biographer, he has been a staff writer at the Albany Times Union for more than 30 years.  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 prizes.

DIANE ACKERMAN

BESTSELLING AUTHOR, POET, AND NATURALIST TO READ FROM AND DISCUSS HER BOOK THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE

NYS Writers Institute, Tuesday, March 7, 2017

4:15 p.m. Seminar  University Hall Room 110, Collins Circle, Uptown Campus

8:00 p.m. Reading  Clark Auditorium, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, Downtown Albany

Diane Ackerman, renowned for her explorations of the natural world in nonfiction and poetry, received the National Outdoor Book Award and PEN’s Henry Thoreau Prize for her 2015 book The Human Age, about new efforts to save the planet. Her other works include A Natural History of the Senses (1990); the memoir and Pulitzer finalist One Hundred Names for Love (2011), and The Zookeeper’s Wife (2007), the true story of a Warsaw zookeeper’s family that saved 300 Jews during the Holocaust, which will be released as a film starring Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain on March 31st. A trailer for the new film will be screened at the 8PM event.

For more about Diane Ackerman:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/ackerman_diane17.html    

For more about the Visiting Writers Series:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html  

For more information, contact the NYS Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or visit us online at www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

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Nancy Jo Sales on Girls and Social Media

February 16 (Thursday):  Nancy Jo Sales, journalist and nonfiction writer
Reading/discussion — 8:00 p.m., Campus Center Room 375

Nancy Jo Sales is known for work that focuses on youth culture and crime, and pop-culture icons. Her book American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers (2016) is an investigation into how social media has presented girls with unprecedented challenges. USA Today said Sales, “… offer[s] a harrowing glimpse into a world where self-esteem, friendships and sexuality…are defined by the parameters of social media.” Newsday recommended “If you have a teenage daughter, read American Girls. Have her read it, too.” Sales is also the author of The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World (2013, see February 10 Classic Film Series listing).

Read more about Nancy Jo Sales:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/sales_nancy_jo17.html

Sponsored in association with UAlbany’s Sexuality Month, a program of the Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program of Counseling and Psychological Services

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Shaka Senghor's visit to UAlbany on Feb. 1st is featured in The Alt.

As much as Senghor’s story is the personal journey of one man seeking redemption and hope, it is also much larger than one single man. “Mr. Senghor’s story provides us with insight into the challenges faced by many young African American men in urban communities and American prisons,” said Frankie Bailey, UAlbany criminal justice professor and chairperson of the event committee. “His emergence as a leader in the criminal justice reform movement illustrates the capacity of those same men for redemption and growth. His message is about becoming a force for positive change.”


More: http://thealt.com/…/07/writing-wrongs-shaka-senghor-ualbany/

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Howard Frank Mosher, In Memoriam

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the passing of novelist Howard Frank Mosher who delighted Albany audiences on November 1st, 2016. Mosher was widely celebrated as "the voice of Vermont." Born in the Catskills, he spent much of his childhood in Altamont, New York.

From yesterday's Vermont Public Radio obituary:  "Acclaimed Vermont author Howard Frank Mosher has died. Mosher, 74, succumbed to cancer Sunday morning at his home in Irasburg.

His stories celebrated the Northeast Kingdom as the last bastion of a people and a way of life that has all but disappeared from Vermont."  More.


Listen to Joe Donahue's Nov. 1st WAMC interview.


More about Mosher's visit to the Writers Institute.


From the Oct. 2016 Times Union profile of Mosher by Joe Stalvey and Jack Rightmyer:  "I was actually born in the Catskill Mountains, and I lived there till I was 11 or 12," he says, "and then we moved to Altamont, where I attended grade six through nine. Many of my stories also reach back to that time in my boyhood."He fondly recalls fishing in the Helderberg Mountains and going to the Altamont Fair every summer. "The description of the county fair in my newest book 'God's Kingdom' is how I remember the Altamont Fair," he says. "("God's Kingdom") is pretty autobiographical," Mosher says. "Jim is based on me, and like him, I always wanted to be a writer. Most of the characters are based on my friends and relatives, including my wife. The newspaper editor is based on my dad, who was a teacher and once the principal of Altamont High School. He was the principal the first two years of Guilderland High School." More.

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2/1 Shaka Senghor, author imprisoned 19 years for murder

2017 Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Keynote Speaker
February 1 (Wednesday):  Shaka Senghor, author imprisoned 19 years for murder, and prison reform activist
Lecture: “Your Worst Deeds Do Not Define You” — 7:00 p.m., Campus Center Ballroom
Reception prior to the event, 5:30-6:45, Patroon Room, Campus Center, open to public

Shaka Senghor, inspirational speaker and leading voice in criminal justice reform, is the author of the memoir Writing My Wrongs (2016), a New York Times bestseller that candidly recounts his life growing up in an abusive household in Detroit during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic, his 19-year incarceration for murder at the age of 19, and the tools he used to confront his past and construct his future. Filmmaker J. J. Abrams praised the book describing it as “A profound story of neglect, violence, discovery, redemption and inspiration….Prepare to have your preconceptions shattered.”

 

Note:  A free reception with a variety of food and beverage options will be offered in advance of UAlbany's MLK Jr. Celebration and Lecture.

Senghor’s talk is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Student Association and University Auxiliary Services in collaboration with the New York State Writers Institute

 

For more information about the event visit the following news release,  http://www.albany.edu/news/75851.php or contact Media Relations at (518) 956-8150

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Announcing the Spring 2017 Series!

Here are a few highlights of a truly exciting season:

Robert Coover, beloved American fiction writer, with Huck Out West, a rollicking sequel to Huckleberry Finn.

Convicted murderer Shaka Senghor, with his memoir of redemption, Writing My Wrongs.

Jazz violinist and MacArthur Genius Regina Carter on stage with Joe Donahue.

Diane Ackerman, with the new film tie-in edition of Zookeeper’s Wife which will star Jessica Chastain.  

Preeminent Postmodernist painter David Salle with his book How to See, on stage with Joe Donahue.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor presenting her memoir, My Beloved World.

MacArthur Genius and filmmaker Stanley Nelson with his acclaimed new documentary, The Black Panthers.

Young Irish novelist Ruth Gilligan, the youngest author to reach #1 on Ireland’s Bestseller List, with a novel about Ireland’s Jews.

Iraq war interrogator and torturer Eric Fair with a memoir about his crisis of conscience.

Douglas Brinkley, CNN’s official Presidential Historian, with a new book on FDR’s crusade for public lands.

David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl, the basis of the Oscar-winning film.

AND MANY, MANY MORE!

All events are free and open to the public!

For a complete schedule, see the Visiting Writers Series here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html

See the Classic Film Series here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#.WHUQKE3FDs0

For more information, contact the Writers Institute visit our website at www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

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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).

Sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute, and cosponsored by Friends of the New York State Library, the event is free and open to the public. No RSVP is necessary to attend.

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.

Poems to be discussed include the following:

"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.

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Writers Institute Announces Fall 2016 Season!

The New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany announces its Fall 2016 schedule of visiting writer appearances and film series screenings. Events take place on the UAlbany uptown and downtown campuses and are free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted).

Fall 2016 Visiting Writers Series:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html

Fall 2016 Classic Film Series:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html

The Writers Institute Fall 2016 schedule begins with an exciting new program collaboration "The Creative Life: A Conversation Series at UAlbany." Created and produced by the Writers Institute, University Art Museum, and UAlbany's Performing Arts Center, in collaboration with WAMC Public Radio, this new series features leading figures from a variety of artistic disciplines in conversation about their creative inspirations, their crafts, and their careers. Joyce Carol Oates, prolific author of more than 160 books, will lead off the series on September 15 followed by Savion Glover, tap dancing legend and Tony award-winning choreographer on October 15.

A second series, "The New Americans: Recent Immigrant Experiences in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Film" examines the experiences of recent immigrant groups in the United States. Guests will include Imbolo Mbue, recipient of a million dollar advance, whose first novel Behold the Dreamers (2016) is a riveting story about a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York City just as the depression of the 2000s upends the economy; Anne Fadiman, author of the bestselling nonfiction book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997), which explores the clash between Western medicine and the holistic healing traditions of a Hmong refugee family from Laos; and director Mary Mazzio, whose documentary film UNDERWATER DREAMS follows a group of high school students, sons of undocumented Mexican immigrants, who enter a sophisticated underwater robotics competition.

In addition to Joyce Carol Oates and Imbolo Mbue, the fall series includes an exciting lineup of fiction writers: Garth Risk Hallberg, author of the sweeping debut novel City on Fire, a national bestseller and recipient of the largest advance for a first novel in U.S. publishing history; Charles Baxter, who continues to show his mastery of the short story form with his collection There's Something I Want You to Do; James Lasdun, whose new novel is the psychological thriller The Fall Guy; and Howard Frank Mosher, author of 10 acclaimed novels set in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

The genre of poetry is represented by Stephen Burt, the most influential poetry critic of his generation, who shares the breadth of his knowledge of American poetry today in his new book The Poem is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them.

Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, the foremost expert on the biology of anxiety and fear, presents an accessible exploration of the nature of these emotions in his new book, Anxious: Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety.

Our conflicted relationship with the natural world will be the topic of two events sponsored in conjunction with the UAlbany Art Museum's exhibition Future Perfect: Picturing the Anthropocene. Novelist Jennifer Haigh, whose new novel Heat and Light (2016) explores the allure of fracking for the residents of a ravaged coal town, and Jeff Goodell, author of the nonfiction book How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth's Climate will present a joint reading and discussion. As part of the Classic Film Series, screenwriter Kelly Masterson will offer film commentary following the screening of the cult film SNOWPIERCER, a science fiction thriller about the survivors of a failed climate-change experiment that inadvertently initiates an ice age.

Additional highlights of the Classic Film Series include screenings of ZOOT SUIT RIOTS, an episode in the PBS American Experience series with commentary by Joseph Tovares, the film's writer and director; a newly restored version of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (1965), directed by and starring Orson Welles; the 1924 French silent film L'INHUMAINE (THE INHUMAN WOMAN), with live piano accompaniment by Mike Schiffer; SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, based on Kurt Vonnegut's powerful anti-war novel; and a 30th Anniversary screening of IRONWEED, adapted for the screen by William Kennedy from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

For additional information contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

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NYS Writers Institute Announces Spring 2016 Schedule

The NYS Writers Institute announces a spectacular calendar of free events for the Spring of 2016.

Headliners will include bestselling author and mountaineer Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild, Into Thin Air); Pulitzer-winning playwright and UAlbany alum Stephen Adly Guirgis (Between Riverside and Crazy); pioneering Black female Hollywood director Darnell Martin (Their Eyes Were Watching God); Pulitzer-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg whose previous book The Power of Habit spent 120 weeks on the Times bestseller list; visionary computer scientist who foresaw the Internet and who teaches computers to write poetry, David Gelernter; New York Times health reporter Sheri Fink, author of the major bestseller about Hurricane Katrina, Five Days at Memorial; 2013 Tony Winner for Best Director, Pam MacKinnon (the revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?); major Irish fiction writer Colm Toibin, author of Brooklyn, the basis of the Oscar-nominated film; local son and Pulitzer winner Richard Russo with the new novel, Everybody’s Fool, the sequel to his beloved classic Upstate New York novel, Nobody’s Fool; and much, much more. Visit the links below for more details.

Mark your calendars for the State Author and Poet inauguration ceremony on February 11^th at 8PM at Page Hall. The new State Author will be Edmund White, one of America’s finest prose writers, and its leading chronicler of Gay experience. The new State Poet will be Yusef Komunyakaa, Pulitzer winner and one of America’s most influential and most anthologized poets.

In honor of the Pulitzer Centennial (1916-2016), the series will feature seven Pulitzer winners— if you include William Kennedy who will present a special program on Old Albany in March.

For more on the Visiting Writers Series, visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#.Vp5_S01wXs0

For more on the Classic Film Series, visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#.Vp5_W01wXs0

      We hope to see you soon!

For more information, visit us online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst or call us at 518-442-5620.

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Her All-Time Favorite Short Stories-- Ann Beattie

Ann Beattie, who visits this coming Tuesday, shares some of her all-time favorite short stories in a New York Times "By the Book" interview:

Among them: “Twilight of the Superheroes” and “Your Duck Is My Duck,” by Deborah Eisenberg; “Way Down Deep in the Jungle,” by Thom Jones; “Oxygen,” by Ron Carlson; “Nettles” and “The Albanian Virgin,” by Alice Munro; “The Fat Girl,” by Andre Dubus; “We Didn’t,” by Stuart Dybek; “Tits-Up in a Ditch,” by Annie Proulx; “Bruns,” by Norman Rush; “Escapes,” by Joy Williams; “Yours,” by Mary Robison; “The Dog of the Marriage,” by Amy Hempel; “The Fireman’s Wife,” by Richard Bausch; “The Womanizer,” by Richard Ford; “Helping,” by Robert Stone; “No Place for You, My Love,” by Eudora Welty; “Are These Actual Miles,” by Raymond Carver; “People Like That Are The Only People Here,” by Lorrie Moore; “Last Night,” by James Salter; “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” by Russell Banks; “Hunters in the Snow,” by Tobias Wolff; Rebecca Lee’s collection, “Bobcat.”

More in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/books/review/ann-beattie-by-the-book.html?ref=books&_r=1

More about Ann Beattie's 2 events with Peg Boyers this Tuesday, 9/29:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/beattie_boyers15.html

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What is it like to collaborate with Stephen King?

Bestselling horror novelist Peter Straub will interact with audiences via Skype this coming Thursday, September 20th.

Straub will share the stage (on a large screen) with two of his friends at the literary magazine  Conjunctions -- editor and murder mystery author Bradford Morrow, and MacArthur Fellowship-winning poet Ann Lauterbach (who will appear live).

Elizabeth Floyd Mair of the Times Union profiled Straub this past Sunday:

Q: You have written two novels with Stephen King. How does that work? How do you actually write them together? Write alternating chapters? And how does it compare to writing novels on your own?

A: If you must have a collaborator in writing fiction, Stephen King is pretty much your ideal partner. I recommend him, like, highly. The dude is fast, strong, smart and, you know, sort of powerful and sort of humane at the same time, which cannot be said of many. And besides that, he's really funny. Flat-out funny, also grossout funny, a lot of the time.

More in the Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-features/article/Horror-writing-his-happy-place-6511583.php

More about the upcoming event:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/conjunctions15.html

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Dr. Robert Putnam, Author of Bowling Alone, at UAlbany Tomorrow

The UAlbany School of Public Health in Rensselaer will host bestselling author Dr. Robert Putnam tomorrow. The event is free and open to the public.

MEET THE AUTHOR:  Harvard University’s Dr. Robert Putnam, the author of Our Kids:  The American Dream in Crisis, will speak at the School of Public Health on Wednesday evening, September 16^th, at 5:00 p.m. in the main auditorium.  Dr. Putnam will sign copies of his books (including his equally well-known Bowling Alone) following his talk.  This event is part of the School of Public Health’s “All School Read” program which began last spring when students chose Our Kids to read over the summer and explore the issues when they returned to classes this fall.  Join us for a lively conversation about the growing inequality of opportunity in the U.S.  Light refreshments will be served.  Haven’t read the book?  You are welcome to come and join the discussion of the timely public health issues raised by Dr. Putnam.  Copies of the book will be available for purchase at a 20% discount from The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza.  Members of book groups and all interested individuals are welcome to attend.  Directions to the School of Public Health are here:  http://www.albany.edu/sph/map_directions.php

For more information contact the School of Public Health:  University At Albany Foundation, 1 University Pl, Rensselaer, NY 12144

(518) 402-0283

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A Writer's Path from UAlbany to Acclaim

Tom Junod, who visits on Thursday 9/10 and Friday 9/11, is profiled and interviewed by Paul Grondahl in today’s Times Union.

Junod recalls his professors at UAlbany, including Fred LeBrun, Eugene Mirabelli, Warren Roberts and Judith Barlow.

Tom Junod's jagged path from UAlbany to journalistic acclaim

By Paul Grondahl

Updated 6:44 am, Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The only journalism course that Tom Junod — one of the nation's most acclaimed journalists as a two-time National Magazine Award winner and 10-time finalist — ever took was Fred LeBrun's Journalism 101 course his senior year at the University at Albany.

His jagged career path offers an object lesson in perseverance, lucky breaks, the drive of an underdog — and the gift of great teachers who didn't try to fit his square peg of creativity into a round hole.

More in the Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/Tom-Junod-s-jagged-path-from-UAlbany-to-6492017.php

More about Tom Junod’s events tomorrow and Friday:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/junod_tom15.html

 

WRITER FOR ESQUIRE, UALBANY GRADUATE AND 11-TIME FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARD, TO DISCUSS HIS WORK

 

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015, 4:15 p.m. Seminar, Standish Room, Science Library Uptown Campus

 

Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, 7:00 p.m. Reading in observance of 9/11, New York State Museum, Huxley Theater, Downtown Albany

CALENDAR LISTING:
Tom Junod, journalist, UAlbany graduate, winner of two National Magazine Awards, and the record holder for nominations for that award (11 times), will present a seminar on magazine writing on Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 4:15 p.m. in the Standish Room, Science Library, on the UAlbany uptown campus, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany. The following day, Friday, September 11, 2015 at 7:00 p.m., in observance of 9/11 at the New York State Museum’s Huxley Theatre in downtown Albany, Junod will read from and discuss his famous article, “The Falling Man,” a 2003 meditation on AP photographer Richard Drew’s iconic image of a 9/11 victim plunging to his death. Free and open to the public, the events are cosponsored by the University at Albany, New York State Museum, and New York State Writers Institute.

For more information contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at www.albany.edu/writers-inst

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On 9/11, Tom Junod discusses his classic Esquire piece, "The Falling Man"

Friday, September 11, 2015
     
7:00 p.m. Reading in observance of 9/11 | The New York State Museum, Huxley Theatre, Albany

For Esquire’s 75th Anniversary in 2008, the editors of the magazine selected his 9/11 story “The Falling Man” as one of the seven top stories in Esquire’s history. Many of the stories he has written over the last two decades are still avidly read. On September 11 of each year, when Esquire posts “The Falling Man” online, the story gets hundreds of thousands of readers.

Here's the article (readers will need to subscribe for access):
http://classics.esquire.com/the-falling-man/

More about Junod's events (including his visit to UAlbany the day before, 9/10, which is also free and open to the general public:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/junod_tom15.html

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Tom Junod opens the Visiting Writers Series

One of America's most honored practitioners of magazine journalism, Tom Junod will return to his alma mater, the University at Albany, to meet with students and the general public on Thursday, September 10th. He'll speak again as part of a 9/11 memorial on Friday at the NYS Museum.

More about his events:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/junod_tom15.html

Here are some of Junod's articles in the Longform Archive:  http://longform.org/writers/tom-junod

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E. L. Doctorow (1931-2015)

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the loss of E. L. Doctorow, novelist and editor. As an editor at The Dial Press, Doctorow acquired William Kennedy's first novel, The Ink Truck, in 1968.

Doctorow served as New York State Author under the Institute's sponsorship from 1989 to 1991.

Kennedy's 50 year friendship with Doctorow is detailed in a 2014 Times Union article by E. L. Doctorow at the time of his last visit to Albany in March 2014:

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/A-literary-friendship-spanning-five-decades-5289119.php

The New York Times obituary is here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/books/el-doctorow-author-of-historical-fiction-dies-at-84.html?_r=0

Doctorow's State Author page:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/doctorow.html

YouTube footage from Doctorow's visit here in 2014:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLSc-ovXhTKHdJMhm8WSYAJ2-0McMME_0v&v=fOvEeCPj4yQ

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William Kennedy and Amy Hempel read at Skidmore

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.

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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

 

JUNE 29: Non-fiction reading by Phillip Lopate and fiction reading by Linda Spalding.

JUNE 30: Fiction reading by Francine Prose and fiction reading by Caryl Phillips.

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.

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UAlbany Grad Stephen Guirgis Wins Pulitzer

Stephen Adly Guirgis, who graduated from the University at Albany in 1990 with a major in Theatre, is the 2015 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his new play "Between Riverside and Crazy."

The Pulitzer jury called the work, "a nuanced, beautifully written play about a retired police officer faced with eviction that uses dark comedy to confront questions of life and death."

Guirgis visited the New York State Writers Institute on April 12, 2010.

More about his visit here:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/guirgis_stephen10.html

An interview with Guirgis posted on the Institute's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFR2iMDmcFE

Guirgis studied theatre with NYS Writers Institute Fellow and UAlbany Professor W. Langdon Brown and with the late Jarka Burian of the Theatre Department who-- together with his wife Grayce Burian-- established and endowed the Institute's annual Burian Lecture on the art of the theatre.

More on the Burian Lecture here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/burian_lectures.html

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