Robert Coover's Rollicking Tale, Scathing Satire 1/31

We kick off an exciting Spring 2017 season with major American author Robert Coover who will present Huck Out West. The book is a rollicking adventure tale, an homage to Twain, and-- at the same time-- a scathing satire of American racism, greed and brutality.

January 31 (Tuesday): Robert Coover, award-winning fiction writer

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

Robert Coover, pioneer of experimental and electronic fiction, is celebrated for work that reinvents and reimagines the art of storytelling. The New York Times has called him “a one-man Big Bang of exploding creative force.”. His new novel, Huck Out West (2017), picks up where Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn leaves off – on the eve of the Civil War. In a starred review Booklist described the book as “a near-masterpiece…a surprisingly tender, touching paean to the power of storytelling and the pains of growing up.”

Cosponsored by UAlbany’s English Department to inaugurate its new Creative Writing minor

Following Huck west as he rides shotgun with the Pony Express, mines for gold, and lives with the Lakota, the novel explores a formative period in American history, from the Civil War to the

centennial year of 1876. In the West, it’s a time of grand adventure, but also one of greed, religious insanity, mass slaughter, virulent hatreds, widespread poverty and ignorance, ruthless military and civilian leadership, and huge disparities of wealth.

For more information about the upcoming Spring Series, visit http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html  or call 518 442 5620.

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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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Writers Institute Mourns the Passing of John Montague

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the passing of our beloved friend and colleague John Montague, major Irish poet of his generation and long-time faculty member of the Institute and the University at Albany.

The author of more than 30 books of poetry and a recipient of the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur, France’s highest award, he died in Nice on December 10, 2016, following surgery.


Born in Brooklyn on February 28, 1929, and raised in County Tyrone, Montague served as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence for the New York State Writers Institute during each spring semester, teaching workshops in fiction and poetry and a class in the English Department, University at Albany. Governor Mario M. Cuomo presented Montague a citation in 1987 “for his outstanding literary achievements and his contributions to the people of New York.”


In 1998, he was named the very first Ireland Professor of Poetry, a new position created to honor the shared literary heritage of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, with joint appointments at Trinity College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast and University College Dublin.


Read this account of his funeral in the Irish Times:  http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/john-montague-remembered-at-funeral-as-poet-of-wonder-1.2906056

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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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Joseph LeDoux: Neuroscientist and Expert on Fear and Anxiety, Tues. 9/27

Casey Schwartz reviews Joseph LeDoux's new book, Anxious, in New York magazine.

"If this is the age of anxiety, LeDoux is our Lewis and our Clark: It was LeDoux who laid down the first map of what is called the brain’s 'fear circuit,' the regions — centered on the amygdala and its adjacent structures — that together give rise to our ability to respond to threats and danger. But with his new book, he wants to redraw that map...."

LeDoux visits Albany next week. More about his visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/ledoux_joseph16.html#.V-QMe01kDs0


More from Schwartz's review in New York:  http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/07/everybody-misunderstanding-fear-and-anxiety.html

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Joyce Carol Oates Visits Thursday!

WAMC's Joe Donahue will join her on stage in conversation. William Kennedy will introduce!

Joyce Carol Oates, fiction writer, essayist, poet, and playwright
September 15 (Thursday)Conversation — 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center


For more details:  http://readme.readmedia.com/Major-author-Joyce-Carol-Oates-and-legendary-dancer-Savion-Glover-open-new-arts-conversation-series-at-UAlbany/13976552/print

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The Creative Life!

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 inspiration, their craft, 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.

For more information: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#joyce

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