NY Writer’s Compendium

The topic of the weekly book review was A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einsteinby Palle Yourgrau, given by Jonathan Skinner, a retired statistician. I was not the only person in the audience thankful for his knowledge of twentieth century science, as he went on to explain the parameters of the book.

The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza was relaxed in the Sunday afternoon haze of October 7, 2018 until William Kennedy, accompanied by Paul Grondahl and Suzanne Lance came on the scene.

“Our open mics have had a good crowd; a lot of people come once and come back. Sometimes, it’s a person’s first poetry show and they’re nervous until they get on stage,” said Thom Francis, the President of Albany Poets.

The emcee went to the next question; villains, and whether humanizing villains is important. Finder started off with the idea that making a villain human is more interesting; almost identifying with the villain makes the villain more than just a villain. Lippman noted that during the publishing of one of her works, “My Life as a Villainess,” she was going through a divorce.

After, Havidan Rodriguez, the President of the University at Albany, SUNY, gave his opening remarks and thanks to the attending guests, Assembly member Patricia Fahy and John McDonald, were invited to the stage.

Following his certainly less than necessary introduction, Penn sat and detailed his rushed trip east to visit the college campus. He went on to discuss the writing of his novel, his excitement for the art and process of writing itself as evident as his boredom with acting.

Another point Ward noted was the fact that book bans were often targeted at Young Adult—YA books, like Thirteen Reasons Why, with the challenges coming from either parents, or patrons, 32 and 42 percent of all book ban petitioners respectively according to the ALA.

Acevedo credits her “teachers,” rap artists she grew up with like Nas, and J. Cole, who instilled in her the importance of believing in herself. She calls rap her “first writing workshop,” and believes it was hip hop that taught her the mindset necessary to succeed, the idea that “maybe I’m not supposed to be here, but I’m going to act like I am,” Acevedo said.

The first question I heard, was what lead Guggenheim down this path of screen writing. He replied that he started writing as a favor to his brother while in Law School and continued with the hobby over half a decade later. By that point, he grew disillusioned with Law practice and thus went to try and write for television.

It was a fun and entertaining event credited to the amusing videos, the humorous interludes where various professors were thanked by having their faces sloppily photoshopped onto the previous year’s hit movie characters such as those appearing in Wonder Woman and the Guardians of the Galaxy.