NYS Writers Institute Events Week of April 14 - 18, 2008

ALBANY, NY (04/02/2008)(readMedia)-- Dava Sobel, Best-selling Science Writer, to Speak Following a Staged Reading of her New Play About Nicolaus Copernicus, April 14, 2008

Dava Sobel, science writer and author of the “New York Times” bestsellers, “Longitude” (1995) and “Galileo’s Daughter” (1999), will speak and answer questions following a staged reading of “And the Sun Stood Still,” her new play-in-progress about the life and struggles of 16th century Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus at 7:00 p.m. [NOTE EARLY START TIME] on Monday April 14, 2008 in the Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. Sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute as part of its “Authors Theatre” series, the event is free and open to the public.

“And the Sun Stood Still” presents Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in his struggle to understand and describe the solar system. Copernicus’s master work, “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,” caused a firestorm of controversy in its own day, particularly among religious authorities who believed, based on statements in Scripture, that the Earth stood—fixed and immoveable—at the center of the Universe. The play was commissioned by the Manhattan Theatre Club with funds provided by the Sloan and Guggenheim Foundations.

Sobel hit upon the idea for the play more than 30 years ago but, as she told the History of Science Society in 2007, “at that time... I lacked the courage to attempt writing one.” She eventually composed the play in 2006 while serving as the Robert Vare Nonfiction Writer-in-Residence at the University of Chicago. A 2007 Guggenheim grant allowed Sobel to travel to Krakow and view the original manuscript of Copernicus’s “De Revolutionibus” at the Jagiellonian Library.

A bestselling science writer and an award-winning former science reporter for the “New York Times,” Sobel is renowned for her ability to present arcane subjects in riveting and readable prose. Her most recent book is “The Planets” (2005), a lavishly illustrated history of the individual members of our “solar family” as they have been explained by science, mythology, visual art, and popular culture throughout the ages.

Sobel’s other books include the 1995 surprise bestseller, “Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time” and “Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love” (1999), which became a number one “New York Times” nonfiction bestseller, and received the “Los Angeles Times” Book Award.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

Russell Banks, Major American Novelist, to Read From New Novel Set in the Adirondacks During the Great Depression, April 16, 2008

Russell Banks, major American novelist, will read from and discuss his new novel, “The Reserve” (2008), set in the Adirondacks during the 1930s, at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 in the Darrin Communication Center, Room 308, on the Rensselaer (RPI) campus in Troy. Earlier that same day at 4:00 p.m., the author will present an informal seminar in the Heffner Alumni House, 1301 Peoples Ave., on the Rensselaer campus. The events are cosponsored by the New York State Writers Institute in association with Rensselaer’s 67th McKinney Writing Contest and Reading, and are free and open to the public.

Russell Banks, the author of eleven novels and five short story collections, has been called, “...a writer we, as readers and writers, can actually learn from, whose books help and urge us to change” (Fred Pfeil, “Voice Literary Supplement”). A leading voice of working class experience in modern letters, Banks writes fiction that typically deals with issues of family conflict, addiction, economic hardship, and racism. From 2004 to 2007, he served as New York’s official state author.

His newest novel, “The Reserve,” is set in the Adirondacks at the height of the Great Depression. An exploration of social conflict in the 1930s, part love story, part murder mystery, the novel is set on the grounds of a private mountain preserve that serves as a vacation playground for the very rich. The preserve is staffed by an army of servants and caretakers whose job it is to maintain a vision (or illusion) of paradise in the American wilderness. Scott Turow, writing in “Publishers Weekly,” called it, “A vividly imagined book. It has the romantic atmosphere of those great 1930s tales in film and prose, and it speeds the reader along from its first pages…. ‘The Reserve’ is a pleasure well worth savoring.”

Banks is a past recipient of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the John Dos Passos Award, and the O. Henry Memorial Award. He received the American Book Award for “The Book of Jamaica” (1980). His novels, “Continental Drift” (1986), and “Cloudsplitter” (1998), were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Two other novels, “Affliction” (1990) and “The Sweet Hereafter” (1991) were adapted as major motion pictures. His recent novel, “The Darling” (2004), was a finalist for the “Los Angeles Times” Book Award. Banks’s collected stories, “The Angel on the Roof,” appeared in 2000.

Two of Banks’s novels have been adapted for feature-length films, “The Sweet Hereafter” (winner of the Grand Prix and International Critics Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival) and “Affliction” (which earned a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar for James Coburn). Film adaptations of “Continental Drift,” “Rule of the Bone,” and “Cloudsplitter” are currently in production.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

Hudson Valley Writers Guild and NYS Writers Institute Sponsor Panel Discussion on Peer Writing Groups, April 17, 2008

The Hudson Valley Writers Guild and the New York State Writers Institute will sponsor a panel discussion on Peer Writing Groups at the William K. Sanford Town Library in Colonie, NY on Thursday, April 17 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The program is free and open to the public.

The panel will discuss how to start a writing group or improve an existing one, the differences between groups for various genres, and how groups are being conducted on the Internet. Panelists will also read brief selections from their own work. Participants will have an opportunity to network with other writers, and even to join a peer writing group. Peer groups are ways for both beginning and experienced writers to get immediate feedback, comments, and advice on their work. The Hudson Valley Writers Guild lists a number of local peer groups on its website, www.hvwg.org.

The panel will be moderated by Donald Faulkner, Director of the New York State Writers Institute and Associate Professor, English Department at the University at Albany. Others on the panel in addition to Mr. Faulkner will be: Lucia Nevai (author of “Seriously,” a novel published by Little Brown & Company) on novels; Gary Maggio (poet) on poetry; Rodney Aldrich (poet), on online peer writing; Marilyn Day (poet and essayist) on non-fiction; and Amy Halloran (teacher and writer of children’s books) on short fiction.

The Hudson Valley Writers Guild, founded in 1983, is a non-profit membership organization of about 200 writers throughout the region. The Guild serves as an information clearinghouse for the local writing community, and furthers writing and reading in the region through its public programs, peer workshops, and special member benefits. For more information, go to www.hvwg.org. For information about this event, contact Nan Thomas at 732-7806.

“La Bête Humaine” to be Screened on April 18, 2008

“La Bête Humaine” (France, 1938, 100 minutes, b/w, DVD, in French with English subtitles, directed by Jean Renoir), will be shown on Friday, April 18, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. in Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, on the University at Albany’s downtown campus. Sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute, the screening is free and open to the public.

A train engineer, given to fits of violence, falls for a kittenish station-master’s wife in this dark, atmospheric, pre-film noir treatment of Emile Zola’s novel by master-director Jean Renoir. A classic of poetic realism and “proletarian” cinema, the film features “stunning images of trains and railway lines as a metaphor for the blind, immutable forces that drive human passions to destruction” (Time Out New York).

For additional information contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

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Posted Wednesday April 02, 2008 at 09:21 am by New York State Writers Institute