NYS Writers Institute announces Spring 2015 Visiting Writer and Classic Film Series schedule

ALBANY, NY (01/07/2015)(readMedia)-- The New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany announces its Spring 2015 schedule of visiting writer appearances and film series screenings. Events take place on the UAlbany uptown and downtown campuses and are free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted).

"Now in its 30th year, the Writers Institute remains committed to sponsoring literary and performance programs of the highest standards that are free and open to the public. This spring we will continue presenting novelists, poets, and nonfiction writers, but we also are concentrating on film and theatre. And, as is appropriate in these times, many of our events focus on issues of race, cultural divisions, and the impact of technology," said Institute Director Donald Faulkner.

As part of the Classic Film Series the Writers Institute will screen five examples of the best work of legendary Hollywood director William A. Wellman. Displaying a remarkable range of styles and interests over the course of his long and prolific career, the films will include THE PUBLIC ENEMY, NOTHING SACRED, BEAU GESTE, YELLOW SKY, and the silent, WINGS. The festival will culminate with an appearance by the director's son, William Wellman, Jr., who will discuss his new biography, Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel (2015).

Two films, LET THE FIRE BURN, a documentary, and NIGHT CATCHES US, a fictional narrative, focus on race relations in the city of Philadelphia. Cosponsored in conjunction with UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice's Civility, Surveillance, and Public Spaces Film Series, the screenings will feature commentary by the films' directors. The works of several visiting writers deal with issues of race relations and cultural divisions including: essayist and critic Katha Pollitt, whose new book Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, reaffirms the priority of a woman's life, well-being, and health; first time novelist Jess Row, whose book Your Face in Mine is the story of a white man who undergoes "racial reassignment surgery" because he believes that he is a black man trapped in a white man's body; Barbara Smith, pioneering activist, who will engage in conversation about the new book Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks); and British Caribbean novelist Caryl Phillips, whose new novel The Lost Child uses Emily Brontë's classic novel Wuthering Heights as a basis for the story of a young woman who has been cast out by her family for marrying a Caribbean man. The film WUTHERING HEIGHTS will be screened prior to Phillips' appearance.

Theatre offerings include American Place Theatre's performance of INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL, a verbatim adaptation of Harriet Jacobs' book that recounts her seven years spent hiding out in a crawl space to protect her children. This spring's Burian Lecture features theatre director and actor Tina Packer, founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. Her new book, Women of Will, explores Shakespeare's female characters and his changing understanding of the feminine. In conjunction with Packer's visit the Institute will screen the 1993 film version of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

The subject of Peter Carey's new novel, Amnesia, might have been ripped from today's headlines: a reporter investigates the methods and motives of a cyber-terrorist in a story that explores themes of journalistic freedom and Internet ethics. Environmental scientist Jennifer Jacquet, in her new book Is Shame Necessary?, also examines one of the most pressing issues of our time: how societies can be motivated and mobilized to address large-scale environmental crises such as climate change and overfishing. New Yorker grammar queen Mary Norris addresses questions not as earth-shaking, but no less vexing: how to preserve and apply sensible rules of grammar in the age of email, tweets, and instant messaging.

Other authors, frequently in humorous fashion, explore evolving conceptions of timeless human roles, life cycle events, and rites of passage. Journalist Kent Russell takes on "masculinity" in his nonfiction collection, I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son; fiction writer Elisa Albert explores the frustrations and absurdities of new motherhood in After Birth; Yelena Akhtiorskaya retells the American immigrant experience from the perspective of the most recent wave of Russian migrants in Panic in a Suitcase; and, in her new book, Someone, major American novelist Alice McDermott poses the brave and provocative question, "What is the meaning of an ordinary, unremarkable life?"

The complete listing of the Visiting Writers Series and Classic Film Series schedules follows.

VISITING WRITER SERIES

January 29 (Thursday): Katha Pollitt, essayist, critic, and poet

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Campus Center Room 375

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Campus Center Room 375

Katha Pollitt, influential voice of American feminism and long-time columnist for The Nation, is the author of a much-talked-about new book, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights (2014). Publishers Weekly described it as "an impassioned, persuasive case for understanding abortion in its proper context." Cosponsored by Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy

February 3 (Tuesday): Peter Carey, novelist

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Campus Center 375

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Lecture Center 20, Academic Podium

Peter Carey, Australian novelist, is one of only three writers to have received the Man Booker Prize twice, his first for Oscar and Lucinda (1988), and his second for True History of the Kelly Gang (2000). His new novel is Amnesia (2015), a cyber-terrorism political thriller set in a counter-historical Australia that has endured American interference in its governmental affairs. Cosponsored by The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza

February 10 (Tuesday): Jess Row, novelist and short story writer

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library

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

Jess Row is the author of the audacious first novel, Your Face in Mine (2014), the tale of a young Jewish man who undergoes "racial reassignment surgery" because he believes that he is a black man trapped in a white man's body. Novelist Richard Price described the book as "one of the most slyly penetrating novels on race and identity politics I've ever had the pleasure of reading."

February 24 (Tuesday): Jennifer Jacquet, environmental scientist and author

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library

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

Jennifer Jacquet is a scholar in the emerging field of environmental social science, the study of how societies deal with large-scale crises such as climate change and overfishing. In her new book, Is Shame Necessary?: New Uses for an Old Tool (2015), she argues that shame, used judiciously, is a powerful force of political change and social reform. Cosponsored by UAlbany's Office of Environmental Sustainability

March 3 (Tuesday): A CELEBRATION OF THE ACTIVISM OF BARBARA SMITH

Panel Discussion - 7:00 p.m., Milne 200, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Barbara Smith, pioneering activist and former member of Albany's Common Council, will discuss the new book, Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (2014). The book, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks, combines historical documents with new interviews to uncover the deep roots of today's "identity politics" and serves as an essential primer for practicing solidarity and resistance. Cosponsored by SUNY Press and Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy

March 10 (Tuesday): Caryl Phillips, novelist, playwright, and essayist

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library

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

Caryl Phillips, British Caribbean writer, is the author of the new novel, The Lost Child (2015). The book intertwines the life of Heathcliff, the dark-skinned orphan of Emily Brontë's classic Victorian novel, Wuthering Heights, with the modern tale of a young woman struggling to raise her sons in the wild moors of northern England after she is cast out by her family for marrying a Caribbean man.

March 12 (Thursday): Kent Russell, essayist and journalist

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library

Kent Russell, a writer of adventurous, first-person journalism, explores the notion of "masculinity" in his new nonfiction collection, I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son (2015). Author Jim Shepard said in advance praise, "For those of us who've been missing Hunter Thompson lately, good news: [Kent Russell] is as close as we're going to get to his second coming when it comes to full-on gonzo passionate observation...."

March 24 (Tuesday): American Place Theatre performance of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Performance - 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center Pre-performance discussion at 7 p.m.

Tickets: general public $15 in advance, $20 day of; students/seniors/UA faculty & staff $10 in advance, $15 day of. Box Office: (518) 442-3997; tickets@albany.edu

Commissioned by The New York Historical Society, this "page to stage" work developed by American Place Theatre is a verbatim adaptation of Harriot Jacobs' inspiring tale of resilience and survival that recounts the author's seven years spent hiding out in a crawl space in her grandmother's attic, in order to protect her children and ensure their eventual freedom. Sponsored by UAlbany's Performing Arts Center in conjunction with the Writers Institute, with support provided by the Office of Intercultural Student Success and Holiday Inn Express

March 26 (Thursday): Elisa Albert, novelist and short story writer, and Yelena Akhtiorskaya, novelist

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Campus Center 375

Elisa Albert is the author of the new novel After Birth (2015), a piercingly candid and outrageously funny story of motherhood. Author Lydia Davis called it, "a fast-talking, opinionated, moody, funny, and slightly desperate account of the attempt to recover from having a baby."

Yelena Akhtiorskaya is the author of a brilliant debut novel, Panic in a Suitcase (2014), the story of two decades in the life of a Ukrainian immigrant family in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Hailed by the critics as "ingenious" (NPR), "marvelous" (Library Journal) and "hilarious" (Publishers Weekly), Panic in a Suitcase was named a "Notable Book of 2014" by the New York Times and Washington Post.

April 9 (Thursday): Mary Norris, proofreader, copy editor, and author

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Humanities Building Room 354

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Huxley Auditorium, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, Albany

Mary Norris, celebrated proofreader and copy editor at The New Yorker since 1978, is the author of the new book, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen (2015), which features hilarious meditations on grammar, as well as memorable tussles about usage with such writers as Ian Frazier and Philip Roth. Cosponsored by Friends of the New York State Library

The 19th Annual Burian Lecture

Funded by the Jarka and Grayce Burian Endowment

April 13 (Monday): Tina Packer, theatre director, actor, and author

Seminar - 4:15 p.m, Campus Center Room 375

The Burian Lecture - 8:00 p.m., Studio Theatre, Performing Arts Center

Tina Packer, one of the world's leading authorities on Shakespeare's work, is the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her new book is Women of Will: The Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays (2015), a fierce and funny exploration of the Bard's female characters and his changing understanding of the feminine. Cosponsored by UAlbany's Theatre Department

April 15 (Wednesday): Alice McDermott, novelist and short story writer

Reading and McKinney Writing Contest Award Ceremony - 8:00 p.m., Biotech Auditorium, Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies Building, Rensselaer (RPI), Troy

Alice McDermott, winner of the National Book Award for the novel, Charming Billy (1998), is the author most recently of the novel, Someone (2013), the story of one woman's "ordinary" life across the decades of the 20th century in an Irish-American enclave in Brooklyn, New York. Someone was named a "Best Book of the Year" by NPR, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Cosponsored in conjunction with Rensselaer's 74th Annual McKinney Writing Contest and Reading.

April 23 (Thursday): Alicia Suskin Ostriker and Joan Murray, poets

Seminar - 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Campus Center Room 375

Alicia Suskin Ostriker, author of fifteen poetry collections, is a two-time finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry for The Little Space: Poems Selected and New, 1968–1998 (1999) and The Crack in Everything (1996). Her new collection is The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog (2014), which poet Mark Doty called a "marvelously idiosyncratic, urgent, no-holds-barred book, a masque and pageant not to be missed."

Joan Murray has been called, "one of the few poets whose work remains accessible to both scholars of poetry and the casual reader" (The Harvard Review). Her new collection is Swimming for the Ark: New & Selected Poems 1990-2015 (2015). Earlier collections include Dancing on the Edge (2002) and Looking for the Parade (2000), winner of the National Poetry Series Open Competition.

CLASSIC FILM SERIES

WILLIAM A. WELLMAN FILM FESTIVAL

The Writers Institute will screen five examples of the best work of legendary Hollywood director William A. Wellman. Displaying a remarkable range of styles and interests over the course of his long and prolific career, the films will include THE PUBLIC ENEMY, NOTHING SACRED, BEAU GESTE, YELLOW SKY, and the silent WINGS. The festival will culminate on May 1 with an appearance by the director's son, William Wellman, Jr., who will discuss his new biography, Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel (2015).

January 30 (Friday): WILLIAM A. WELLMAN FILM FESTIVAL: THE PUBLIC ENEMY

Film screening - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by William A. Wellman (United States, 1931, 83 minutes, b/w)

Starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods

Two young hoodlums seek fame and fortune in the Chicago Underworld in this classic American gangster film. The film earned an Oscar nomination for "Best Writing."

February 6 (Friday): LET THE FIRE BURN

Film screening and discussion with director Jason Osder - 7:00 p.m. [note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Jason Osder (United States, 2013, 88 minutes, b/w and color)Starring Birdie Africa, Ramona Africa, Wilson Goode

This multiple award-winning documentary presents a history of the tragic conflict between the City of Philadelphia and the Black Liberation organization, MOVE, in the mid-1980s.

Jason Osder teaches documentary filmmaking at George Washington University and is the coauthor of the filmmaking guide, Final Cut Pro Workflows: The Independent Studio Handbook (2007). Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice's Civility, Surveillance, and Public Spaces Film Series

February 13 (Friday): NIGHT CATCHES US

Film screening and discussion with director and screenwriter Tanya Hamilton and producer Ron Simons - 7:00 p.m. [note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Tanya Hamilton (United States, 2010, 90 minutes, color)

Starring Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Jamara Griffin

A finalist for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, NIGHT CATCHES US is a powerful evocation of the American inner city in 1976. A former Black Panther returns to his old Philadelphia neighborhood, where he confronts the unresolved problems of his past.

Tanya Hamilton is an award-winning film director and screenwriter, and a Sundance Filmmaking Fellow.

Ron Simons, film producer, is also a three-time Tony Award-winning producer of Broadway plays.

Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice's Civility, Surveillance, and Public Spaces Film Series

February 20 (Friday): WILLIAM A. WELLMAN FILM FESTIVAL: NOTHING SACRED

Film screening - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by William A. Wellman (United States, 1937, 77 minutes, color)

Starring Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger

In this beloved screwball comedy a woman wrongly compensated by her employer for a misdiagnosed case of radium poisoning decides to accept the money anyway and spend it on one grand "last hurrah."

February 27 (Friday): WILLIAM A. WELLMAN FILM FESTIVAL: BEAU GESTE

Film screening - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by William A. Wellman (United States, 1939, 112 minutes, b/w)

Starring Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston

In this all-time classic action-adventure film, three brothers under suspicion of theft run off to join the French Foreign Legion. At a remote desert fort in North Africa they struggle to survive a siege in which they are hopelessly outnumbered.

March 6 (Friday): WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Film screening - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by William Wyler (United States, 1939, 104 minutes, b/w)

Starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven

This adaptation of Emily Brontë's tempestuous romance-one of the most enduring classics of English literature-received eight Academy Award nominations, including one for "Best Picture."

Shown in association with the March 10 appearance of award-winning fiction writer Caryl Phillips, who reimagines elements of Wuthering Heights in his new novel, The Lost Child (2015) (See Visiting Writers Series listing)

March 27 (Friday): WILLIAM A. WELLMAN FILM FESTIVAL: YELLOW SKY

Film screening - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by William A. Wellman (United States, 1948, 98 minutes, b/w)

Starring Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark

In this highly original Western shot in Death Valley, a prospector and his tomboy daughter attempt to protect their secret gold mine when six fugitive bank robbers appear on the scene. Lamar Trotti won a Writers Guild award for the screenplay, which was inspired by Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

April 10 (Friday): MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Film screening - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Kenneth Branagh (United Kingdom/United States, 1993, 111 minutes, color)

Starring Kate Beckinsale, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves

Nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, this production of Shakespeare's dark comedy was hailed by the New York Times as "triumphantly romantic, comic and, most surprising of all, emotionally alive."

Shown in association with the April 13th appearance of Tina Packer, founder of Shakespeare & Company. (See Visiting Writers Series listing.)

April 17 (Friday): NOBODY KNOWS [DARE MO SHIRANAI]

Film screening - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan, 2004, 141 minutes, color, in Japanese with English subtitles)

Starring Yûya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura

Barely into his teens, performer Yûya Yagira won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his portrayal of a boy who raises his young siblings in a Tokyo apartment after their mother abandons them.

April 24 (Friday): WILLIAM A. WELLMAN FILM FESTIVAL: WINGS

Film screening - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by William A. Wellman (United States, 1927, 144 minutes, b/w, silent with live musical accompaniment by Mike Schiffer)

Starring Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen

A former flying ace with the French Foreign Legion during World War I, director William Wellman used his familiarity with aviation to craft this silent film about two fighter pilots in love with the same woman. The film received the inaugural Academy Award for Best Picture.

May 1 (Friday): WILLIAM A. WELLMAN FILM FESTIVAL: William Wellman, Jr., author and actor

Reading and discussion on the work of film director William A. Wellman - 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

William Wellman, Jr. is the author of Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel (2015), a biography of his father, director William A. Wellman, a giant of the motion picture industry from the Silent Era to the 1950s. Drawing on his father's unpublished letters, diaries, notes and unfinished autobiography, the new book presents the first full portrait of the man.

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

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Posted Wednesday January 07, 2015 at 10:01 am by New York State Writers Institute