Monday, September 21, 2015

Poetry Prize Named for UAlbany Professor Len Slade

In the Times Union:  Leonard A. Slade Jr., a professor of Africana Studies at the University at Albany, has been honored with a national poetry prize named for him.

The Southern Conference on African American Studies has named its annual poetry prize the Leonard A. Slade Jr. Poetry Prize. It recognizes his literary contributions to The Griot, a journal published by the Houston-based organization since 1979.

The prize will be awarded to the person whom judges decide has published the best poem or poems in the journal that year.

"I'm very humbled," said Slade, who has contributed poetry to The Griot for more than 25 years. He came to UAlbany in 1988 after 22 years on the faculty of Kentucky State University.

More in Paul Grondahl's interview in the Times Union:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/National-honor-for-UAlbany-professor-and-poet-6512661.php

Read More......

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Debra Pane, Author and Teacher, Discusses School-to-Prison Pipeline

Debra Mayes Pane will deliver the keynote address of the UAlbany "Continuing Critical Conversations through Transformative Teaching and Learning" Speakers Series at 2PM on Friday, Sept. 18th in the Standish Room of the Science Library on the University at Albany uptown campus.

The event is free and open to the public (space permitting).

Pane is the author of Transforming the School to Prison Pipeline:  Lessons from the Classroom (2013, with Tonette S. Rocco). She is also founder and director of E-SToPP-- Eradicating the School-to-Prison Pipeline Foundation.

Sponsored by a University at Albany collaborative of faculty and staff from the School of Education, Departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Economics, Educational & Counseling Psychology, Educational Theory and Practice,  Music and Theater, Philosophy, Political Science, Public Health, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, The Justice and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century Project (School of Criminal Justice), The Office of Sustainability, The University Libraries, The Institute for Teaching, Learning & Academic Leadership, The Office of Intercultural Student Engagement, UAS, UUP Albany, and The Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
 
For more information, contact Deborah LaFond, dlafond@albany.edu.


Read More......

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 16th, 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

Read More......

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

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 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

Read More......

Friday, September 4, 2015

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

Read More......

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

Read More......

Thursday, August 20, 2015

New Fall Series!

       The Writers Institute Fall 2015 schedule of events offers a rich variety of genres, from poetry to science writing to fiction to history to memoir to filmmaking and theatre. The upcoming series will even include a food writer—New York Times columnist and bestselling cookbook author Mark Bittman, whose work has been described by PBS as a “bible of basic cooking for millions of Americans.”

       The series will showcase two extraordinary former students at UAlbany—journalist Tom Junod, who holds the all-time record for National Magazine Award nominations (eleven!), and Edward Burns, director, actor, and one of the most prolific and influential independent filmmakers currently at work. Burns will present his new memoir, Independent Ed (2015), about which Matt Lauer of Today said, “Every young, hungry, creative person should view this as a textbook.... It’s a how-to.”
       
       Other guests will include Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Rachel Grady; young adult novelist Jason Reynolds, winner of the American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Award; major American short story writer Ann Beattie; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Adam Johnson; bestselling horror novelist Peter Straub; National Book Award finalist Mary Gaitskill; "Best New Documentary Filmmaker" at the Tribeca Film Festival, Sean Dunne; trail-blazing neuroscience writer Casey Schwartz; Vonnegut biographer Ginger Strand; and major American dramatist Tina Howe.

For more on the Visiting Writers Series, visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#.VdXvw1_D_s1

For more on the Classic Film Series, visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#.VdXwQF_D_s0

      We hope to see you soon!

Read More......