"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
Monday, September 8, 2014
NYS Poet Marie Howe in the Huffington Post
Friday, September 5, 2014
Alison Lurie in National Geographic
Acclaimed novelist Alison Lurie, who opens our Fall 2014 Visiting Writers Series, is interviewed in the August 17 issue of National Geographic:
Acclaimed Novelist Alison Lurie Thinks Buildings Say a Whole Lot About Us
Your house can tell others whether you’re happy or well organized or friendly—even what your politics are.
A critic once remarked that Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alison Lurie writes so simply that a cat or a dog can understand her. It was meant as a compliment and taken as such. In her new book she turns her lucid gaze on a subject baffling to many of us: architecture.
In this candid interview she talks about what buildings tell us about their owners' aspirations and politics, why she built houses for fairies as a child, how she feels about being compared to Balzac and Jane Austen, and what her own home in upstate New York reveals about her.
More in National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140817-alison-lurie-architecture-cornell-spoils-of-poynton-great-expectations-booktalk/
More about Alison Lurie's events in Albany: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/lurie_alison14.html
More about the Fall 2014 Visiting Writers Series: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#lurie Read More......
Visiting Writers: Kirsten Gillibrand! William Gibson! Richard Norton Smith!
We are pleased to announce an exciting schedule of visiting
writer appearances for Fall 2014.
All events are free and open to the public, and hosted at
UAlbany, unless otherwise noted.
For more details, times and locations, please visit our
website at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/
Sept. 18:
Pulitzer-winning novelist and reigning NYS Author (2012-14) Alison Lurie talks about her new
nonfiction book, The Language of Houses (2014), about the expressive power of
everyday architecture, including homes, restaurants, schools, hospitals,
prisons and more.
Sept. 23: Edith Grossman, one of the most
celebrated translators in any language, known for her bestselling translations
of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Don Quixote, presents her new
collection of the works of Sister Juana, the embattled 17th century nun and “Mother
of Mexican Literature.”
Sept. 27: US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand presents her new
book on women’s empowerment, Off the Sidelines (2014). Admission charged (except
students with valid ID). Contact The Book House for tickets, which include book
purchase: 489-4761.
Oct. 1: John Lahr, Senior Drama Critic for the
New Yorker (1992-2012), Tony Award winning playwright, and son of Wizard of Oz
“Cowardly Lion” Bert Lahr, presents his acclaimed new biography of troubled
playwright Tennessee Williams.
Oct. 9: Pulitzer-winning
journalist David Finkel, author of
the bestseller The Good Soldiers (2009), about being embedded with US troops in
Iraq, presents his sequel to that book, Thank You For Your Service (2013),
about those same soldiers adjusting to post-war life at home.
Oct. 15: American Shakespeare Center’s Much Ado
About Nothing. Admission charged. Contact the PAC box office for
tickets: (518) 442-3997
Oct. 16: Two
first-time novelists and rising stars of Black historical fiction, Tiphanie Yanique (Land of Love and
Drowning) and Jacinda Townsend
(Saint Monkey) will share the stage.
Oct. 21: Major
American poets in conversation— Edward
Hirsch, MacArthur Fellow, President of the Guggenheim Foundation, and
author of the surprise bestseller How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with
Poetry, presenting his magisterial reference volume, A Poet’s Glossary (2014); Kimiko Hahn, American Book Award
winner, presenting her new volume Brain Fever (2014); and Marie Howe, the reigning New York State Poet (2012-14).
Oct. 24, Nov. 1, 6 & 13:
Events connected with the life and work of Lemon Andersen, Tony award winning member of the Russell Simmons
Def Poetry Jam, child of heroin addicts, and three-time felon, who found
purpose and redemption in the art of poetry. We screen Lemon: The Movie on Oct.
24 and Nov. 1st. Lemon visits UAlbany on Nov. 6th. And a dramatization of
Lemon’s life story is presented on Nov. 13th.
Oct. 28: Actress and
playwright Najla Said, daughter of
Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said, presents her memoir, Looking for
Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an
Arab-American Family (2013).
Nov. 7: Major
American composer of film music David
Shire, winner of 2 Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, and the Oscar
for Norma Rae, discusses his score for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation,
following a 40th Anniversary screening of that film.
Nov. 9: William Gibson, one of the most
influential living writers of science fiction, author of Neuromancer (1984),
which helped define the pop culture of the Computer Age, will present his new
far-future novel, The Periperhal (2014), about cybersecurity, drone warfare,
video gaming and lots of other things, at RPI’s EMPAC Concert Hall.
Nov. 11: Two young novelists share the stage—Angela Pneuman, former UAlbany grad
student and an exciting new voice in Southern American literature, presenting
her first novel, Lay It on My Heart, and Julie
Orringer, author of the bestselling Holocaust novel, The Invisible Bridge.
Nov. 18: Neuroscience writer and developmental psychologist Susan Pinker, author of the
international bestseller, The Sexual Paradox,
presents her new book, The Village Effect: How Face to Face Contact Can
Make Us Healthier, Happier and Smarter (2014).
Nov. 20: Eminent
historian of the American presidency and frequent PBS NewsHour commentator Richard Norton Smith presents his
definitive biography of Nelson Rockefeller, On His Own Terms (2014).
Dec. 2: Joseph O’Neill, author of the
bestselling novel Netherland, presents his new 2014 novel The Dog (long-listed
for the Man Booker Prize).
Dec. 5: Author Betty Medsger and filmmaker Johanna Hamilton present their
award-winning 2014 documentary 1971: The Film, based on Medsger’s book, The
Burglary (2014), about eight ordinary citizens who broke into FBI offices and
revealed the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal program of spying on law-abiding
Americans (the burglars’ identities have been kept secret until now). Medsger
also broke the original story in the Washington Post in 1971.
For additional details on our visiting writers and a listing
of Classic Film Series events, please visit our website at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Colin Powell recalls Joe Persico in today's Gazette
Gloversville native Persico's work, friendship recalled
Author died Saturday at 84
Bill Buell, Schenectady Gazette
More in the Gazette: http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2014/sep/04/gloversville-native-persicos-work-friendship-fondl/
Joe Persico on YouTube at the NYS Writers Institute
Watch an interview with Joe Persico at the Writers Institute in 2004 on our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5gbTLDeLEo&feature=youtu.be
Best-selling nonfiction writer Joseph Persico authored 11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 (2004, Random House), which recounts the final bloody days and hours of the First World War. The book details how Allied commanders, in pursuit of military glory, sacrificed the lives of thousands of soldiers in senseless attacks on German positions, though fully aware that nation had already surrendered. Persico's books, some of them bestsellers, have included My Enemy, My Brother: Men and Days of Gettysburg (1977), Piercing the Reich: The Penetration of Nazi Germany by American Secret Agents during World War II (1979), The Imperial Rockefeller: A Biography of Nelson A. Rockefeller (1982), Murrow: An American Original (1988), Casey: The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey from OSS to CIA (1990); Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial (1994), and Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage (2001). Persico collaborated with General Colin Powell on My American Journey (1996), which follows Powell's life from his birth in Harlem through his distinguished career in the U.S. Military, including his rise to influence at the Pentagon, as well as his role in the Vietnamese, Panamanian and Iraqi conflicts. A graduate of UAlbany and Guilderland resident, Persico served on the commission that oversaw the design of the new National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC, and penned the words that appear on the monument, "Here we mark the price of freedom."
More on Joe Persico in the Times Union
Two community treasures lost: An appreciation
Paul Grondahl, Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Joe was an acclaimed historian and the author of 12 books. You may have seen him as a "talking head" expert in History Channel documentaries or as a guest on "Face the Nation" and "Morning Joe." His books had reached the best-seller list and "Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial" was made into a TV movie. The Gloversville native was among a troika of the region's most famous authors alongside Albany natives Andy Rooney and Bill Kennedy.Yet he was always willing to write a blurb, celebrate literary successes of friends and offer pragmatic advice to writers like myself. He called me "young fella" even after I turned 55 this summer. He said there were no shortcuts to success. He had a small sign in a book-lined study at his Guilderland apartment that was a kind of mantra: "The harder I work, the luckier I get."
He worked hard to the end.
More: http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Two-community-treasures-lost-An-appreciation-5729437.php Read More......
Mourning Joe Persico, One of the Finest Writers in the Region
Joseph E. Persico, acclaimed historian and biographer, dies at 84
Ex-Rockefeller aide's work noted for its humanity
By Paul Grondahl
Joseph E. Persico of Guilderland, an acclaimed historian and biographer and former chief speechwriter for Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, who published 12 books, including the autobiography of Gen. Colin Powell for which he was the ghost writer, died Saturday at St. Peter's Hospital after a long illness. He was 84.
Persico, son of glove makers, rose from a blue-collar upbringing in Gloversville. He graduated with a bachelor's degree and a double major in English and political science from the New York State College for Teachers in 1952 (now the University at Albany).
More in the Times Union: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Joseph-Persico-acclaimed-historian-biographer-5724215.php
Read More......
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