The New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has announced its Fall 2013 schedule of visiting writer appearances. Events take place on the UAlbany Uptown and Downtown campuses and are free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted).
This another packed schedule with some big name writers including two current state poets laureate–Marie Howe, New York State Poet (2012-2014), and Sydney Lea, Vermont Poet Laureate (2011-2014).
September 11 (Wednesday): Jonathan Lethem, fiction writer and essayist
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Jonathan Lethem received the National Book Critics Circle Award for his novel Motherless Brooklyn (1999), a New York Times Best Seller. His new novel is Dissident Gardens, the story of a family of American radicals as they participate in the home-grown Communism of the 1930s up through the Occupy Wall Street movement of more recent days.
September 17 (Tuesday): Marie Howe, New York State Poet, and Sydney Lea, Vermont Poet Laureate
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, Downtown Albany
Marie Howe, current New York State Poet (2012 – 2014), is the author of three collections of poetry: The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (2008), What the Living Do (1997), and The Good Thief (1988). She coedited the bestselling anthology, In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic (with Michael Klein).
Sydney Lea, current Vermont Poet Laureate (2011 – 2014), is the author of eleven collections of poetry, includingPursuit of a Wound (2000), a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and To the Bone: New and Selected Poems (1996), a co-winner of the Poet’s Prize. His latest book is the essay collection A North Country Life: Tales of Woodsmen, Waters, and Wildlife (2013).
Cosponsored by Friends of the New York State Library
September 26 (Thursday): Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction author
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Gilbert King, Niskayuna native, received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (2012), a meticulously researched, elegantly written account of the future Supreme Court Justice’s role in defending four black men falsely accused of raping a white woman in Florida in 1949.
Sponsored in conjunction with CELEBRATE AND ADVANCE, a weeklong celebration culminating in the inauguration of UAlbany’s 19th President, Robert J. Jones, Ph.D.
For additional information on all inauguration week events go to: www.albany.edu/inauguration
October 1 (Tuesday): Lydia Davis, short story author and translator
Reading – 4:15 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Lydia Davis, “an American virtuoso of the short story form” (Salon), NYS Writers Institute Writing Fellow, and UAlbany English Department faculty member, received the 2013 Man Booker International Prize. The award is given every two years to authors of any nationality to recognize an outstanding body of work in English or English translation. Davis is the author of five short story collections including, most recently, The Collected Stories (2009).
October 5 (Saturday): Bill Bryson, bestselling nonfiction author
Reading – 7:30 p.m., Clark Auditorium, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, Downtown Albany
Bill Bryson is a widely admired nonfiction writer whose bestsellers include At Home: A Short History of Private Life(2010), a Washington Post “Best Book of the Year;” A Short History of Nearly Everything (2004), winner of the Aventis Prize for science writing; and A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail(1998). His new book is One Summer: America, 1927 (2013), about a pivotal time in America’s national “coming of age.”
Cosponsored by the New York State Library and Friends of the New York State Library
October 8 (Tuesday): T. C. Boyle, fiction writer
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
T. C. Boyle, “one of the most inventive and verbally exuberant writers of his generation” (New York Times), is the bestselling author of fourteen novels (San Miguel, Drop City, The Road to Wellville, World’s End) and nine short story collections. His newest book is T. C. Boyle Stories II (October 2013), a 944-page sequel to T. C. Boyle Stories(1998), winner of the PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction.
October 9 (Wednesday): Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of UAlbany’s Journalism Program
Lecture/discussion by William Kennedy – 4:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
William Kennedy, prize-winning novelist and former professor in UAlbany’s Journalism Program, will help celebrate the Program’s 40th anniversary with a lecture on “William Rowley: Journalism and Social Justice.” Rowley, a former editor at the Albany Knickerbocker News, founded the Journalism Program in 1973 and hired Kennedy as the Program’s first faculty member.
October 18 (Friday): Luis Gutierrez, U. S. Congressman and author
Reading – 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Luis Gutierrez (D-IL-4), eleven-term U. S. Congressman from Illinois, and one of America’s preeminent champions of immigration reform and Latino civil rights, spent part of his formative years as a student at UAlbany. Gutierrez is the author of a new autobiography, Still Dreaming: My Journey from the Barrio to Capitol Hill (2013), an honest and often hilarious book that recounts his rise from teacher, social worker, cab driver, and community activist to one of the most influential members of Congress.
Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s Homecoming, Reunion, and Family Weekend
October 22 – 24 (Tuesday – Thursday): Women Writers of the Middle East
October 22 (Tuesday): NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS [KASI AZ GORBEHAYE IRANI KHABAR NADAREH]
Film screening with commentary by screenwriter Roxana Saberi – 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time],
Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi (Iran, 2009, 106 minutes, color, in Persian with English subtitles)
This quasi-documentary offers a glimpse into Iran’s forbidden underground music scene. The film won the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and the Miami Film Festival Audience Award. Roxana Saberi, who co-wrote the screenplay will provide film commentary and answer questions.
Roxana Saberi is an Iranian-American journalist, author, and human rights advocate who moved to Iran in 2003 to work as a foreign correspondent. Her book Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran (2010) chronicles the harrowing details of her arrest on charges of espionage, her 101-day imprisonment, and eventual acquittal.
October 23 (Wednesday): Ava Homa and Kaziwa Salih, writers of the Kurdish Diaspora
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Ava Homa, Kurdish fiction writer born and educated in Iran, is author of the short story collection, Echoes from the Other Land (2010), featuring tales of modern Iranian women in conflict with social and cultural norms. The book was nominated for the 2011 Frank O’Connor International Award.
Kaziwa Salih, writer, researcher, and activist from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, is the author of ten books, both fiction and nonfiction, published in the Kurdish language. She is also the founder and chair of the Canada Anti-Genocide Project, and has served on the board of the United Nations Association in Canada (Toronto branch).
October 23 (Wednesday): THE PEAR TREE [DERAKHTE GOLABI]
Film screening – 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Directed by Dariush Mehrjul (Iran, 1998, 95 minutes, color, in Persian with English subtitles)
Goli Taraghi (see October 24 listing) wrote the screenplay for this film that is based on her original story about an author with writer’s block who returns to his family’s vacation house in the Iranian countryside to regain his muse. The film received the Silver Hugo for Best Feature at the Chicago International Film Festival.
October 24 (Thursday): Goli Taraghi, Iranian fiction writer
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
Goli Taraghi is a highly regarded Iranian fiction writer. Her newest work in English translation is the story collection,The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons (October 2013). Honored as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, Taraghi also wrote the screenplay of the Iranian film, THE PEAR TREE (see October 23 listing).
Cosponsored by the UAlbany Office of International Education in conjunction with the “Women of the Middle East” Series. For more information on the entire series go to: http://www.albany.edu/intled
October 25 (Friday): A Celebration of Swedish Author Stig Dagerman (1923-1954) with his daughter Lo Dagerman and translator Steven Hartman
Reading and Film Screening – 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Stig Dagerman was considered to be Sweden’s next great literary phenomenon for his critically acclaimed fiction and essays until, in 1954, at the age of 31, he committed suicide. Working with the author’s daughter, Lo Dagerman, Steven Hartman, UAlbany Ph.D. graduate, has translated numerous stories that have been collected in the new volume, Sleet (2013). This event will feature readings and discussions of Dagerman’s work by Lo Dagerman and Hartman, as well as screenings of short films based on Hartman’s translations of two stories, OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION (19 min., 2012), and THE GAMES OF NIGHT (20 min., 2008).
October 29 (Tuesday): Douglas Bauer, fiction writer and essayist
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Douglas Bauer’s new book is What Happens Next? Matters of Life and Death (2013), a collection of memory-rich, deeply-felt personal essays on the meaning of human existence. Novelist Andre Dubus III praised the book as “… a masterful, soul-nourishing work, and I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.” A graduate of UAlbany with a Ph.D. in English, Bauer is the author of the novels The Book of Famous Iowans (1997), The Very Air (1993), andDexterity (1989).
November 7 (Thursday): American Shakespeare Center performance of Othello
Performance – 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
In advance: $15 general public / $10 students, seniors & UAlbany faculty-staff
Day of show: $20 general public / $15 students, seniors & UAlbany faculty-staff | Box Office: (518) 442-3997
In a magnificently complex study of extremes, Shakespeare pairs his most loving and trusting leading man with his most conniving and ruthless villain in a dangerous dance of deceit and revenge. American Shakespeare’s production is presented in classic Shakespeare style with actors playing multiple roles and surrounded by the audience on three sides.
Presented by the Performing Arts Center in conjunction with the Writers Institute. Support provided by the UAlbany Foundation and University Auxiliary Services.
November 14 (Thursday): Robert Orsi, eminent religious studies scholar
Keynote Lecture – 7:30 p.m., NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, Downtown Albany
Robert Orsi, “the reigning scholar of American Catholicism” (Publishers Weekly), will deliver the keynote lecture of the Researching New York 2013 conference. The title of Orsi’s talk is “The Gods of Gotham: Religion and the Making of New York, 1800 to 1950.” Orsi is the author of the landmark study, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950 (1985, 25th Anniversary edition 2010).
Cosponsored by UAlbany’s Department of History and the NYS Archives Partnership Trust. For additional information on all Researching New York conference events go to: http://nyshistory.org/researchny
November 21 (Thursday): David Treuer, Native American fiction and nonfiction writer
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
David Treuer, prize-winning Native American author, critic, and academic is the author of the highly-praised nonfiction work, Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life (2012), which provides an insider’s view of modern Native American community experience. The Boston Globe called it a “blistering, illuminating, ultimately hopeful book.”
Cosponsored by SUNY Press in conjunction with the annual John G. Neihardt Lecture
December 3 (Tuesday): Ayana Mathis, novelist
Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Ayana Mathis is the author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (2012), a widely praised first novel about a family’s struggles, set against the backdrop of the African American “Great Migration.” A New York Times bestseller, the book was also the second selection for Oprah’s newly-revived “Book Club 2.0.” The Writers Institute encourages area book clubs to include The Twelve Tribes of Hattie in their fall reading selections, as the paperback, which is scheduled for release on October 1st, will include a special reading group guide.
For additional information contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.
