ALBANY, NY (01/12/2016)(readMedia)-- The New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany announces its Spring 2016 schedule of visiting writer appearances and film series screenings. Events take place on the University at Albany uptown and downtown campuses and are free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted).

Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild) and Richard Russo (Nobody's Fool) are two of the headliners in an exciting season of bestselling and prize-winning authors. The series will open on Friday, January 29th with a celebration of Zora Neale Hurston featuring a screening of Oprah's film, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, followed by Q&A with pioneering filmmaker Darnell Martin, a protégé of Spike Lee, who was also the first Black woman to direct a Hollywood film for a major studio (I LIKE IT LIKE THAT, 1994). Other events that same weekend will include a public library workshop for children and families on Hurston's collections of African American folktales, and a one-woman performance of American Place Theatre's biographical play, Zora!

On February 11th, the Writers Institute will honor the new New York State Author and New York State Poet, appointed by Governor Cuomo under the Institute's auspices. Edmund White, America's leading literary voice of Gay experience, will begin his term as State Author; and Yusef Komunyakaa, celebrated for poetry about jazz, Black experience and the Vietnam War, will begin his term as State Poet.

Journalist Jon Krakauer, renowned for his writing on outdoor subjects, will make a rare public appearance on February 23rd to discuss his new book, Missoula, about campus rapes and their aftermath at the University of Montana. Other notable journalists will include Pulitzer-winning New York Times health and medicine correspondent Sheri Fink, author of the recent bestseller about the impact of Hurricane Katrina, Five Days at Memorial (2013); Pulitzer-winning business journalist Charles Duhigg, whose book The Power of Habit spent over 120 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List; and animal behavior expert and writer for Psychology Today, Jennifer Verdolin, who applies her knowledge of the courtship of prairie dogs and other creatures to the mysteries of human dating and mating.

Richard Russo will make Albany the first stop on his book tour to present the new sequel to his landmark work of small town, upstate New York fiction, Nobody's Fool. That novel was made into an acclaimed film starring Paul Newman as the lovable ne'er-do-well protagonist, Sully. The new novel, Everybody's Fool, follows the misadventures of Sully's nemesis, officer Raymer, now the town's chief of police. Other fiction writers in the schedule include Pulitzer-winning novelist and short story writer Steven Millhauser, who will present the 75th Annual McKinney Reading at Rensselaer (RPI); new talent Laura van den Berg, whose work the New York Times calls "pleasingly strange.... impressively original"; and Colm Toíbín, author of the novel Brooklyn, the basis for the same-named hit film, which will also be screened.

Three events will celebrate the theatrical arts. On March 3rd, Steven Adly Guirgis, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and graduate of the University at Albany, will talk about his edgy, original works for the theatre, including Between Riverside and Crazy and Jesus Hopped the A Train. Pam MacKinnon, Tony Award-winning director, will present the 20th Annual Burian Lecture and discuss her celebrated Broadway revivals of the works of Edward Albee. And theater scholar Robert M. Dowling will present his authoritative new biography of master American dramatist Eugene O'Neill.

Other visitors in an eclectic season will include visionary computer scientist David Gelernter with a new explanation of the nature of human consciousness; filmmaker and UAlbany graduate David Shapiro with a true life murder mystery nominated for "Best Documentary" at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival; and young Black filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe, whose first film, EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL, about the terrible consequences of his own attempt to rob a Texas bank, received wide critical acclaim.

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

VISITING WRITER SERIES

January 29 – 31: Eyes on Zora: The Life and Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston

January 29 (Friday): THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

Film screening and discussion with film director Darnell Martin and literature scholar Emily Bernard - 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Darnell Martin (United States, 2005, 113 minutes, color)

Starring Halle Berry, Ruben Santiago Hudson, Michael Ealy

Based on Zora Neale Hurston's classic novel, this ABC-TV movie features Halle Berry as the free-spirited Janie, whose quest for love and a meaningful life challenges the morals of a small American town in the 1920s.

Darnell Martin was the first Black American woman to write and direct a film for a major Hollywood studio-I LIKE IT LIKE THAT (1994). Her other credits include CADILLAC RECORDS (2008), starring Beyoncé Knowles.

Emily Bernard is an author, and professor and scholar of African American literature. She is the author of the New York Times Notable Book, Remember Me to Harlem (2001).

January 30 (Saturday): The Folktales of Zora Neale Hurston

Children's workshop on African American Folktales - 11:00 a.m., Albany Public Library, Washington Avenue Branch (518-427-4310), and 3:00 p.m., Albany Public Library, Howe Branch (518-472-9485)

The Folktales of Zora Neale Hurston is an interactive theatre program developed by Young Audiences New York. A family activity, the workshop features folktales collected in Hurston's anthologies.

January 31 (Sunday): American Place Theatre performance of Zora!

Performance - 3:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

Pre-performance discussion at 2:30 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

A theatrical biography performed by Cheryl Howard, Zora! originally premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Adapted and directed by Wynn Handman, Zora! is rich with folklore, intimate portraits of Hurston's contemporaries, and excerpts from her significant body of literary work.

Cosponsored by UAlbany Performing Arts Center, Albany Public Library, Albany High School

February 1 (Monday): Carlotta Walls LaNier, memoirist and civil rights advocate

Lecture and public reception – 7:00 p.m., Campus Center Ballroom

Carlotta Walls LaNier will be the keynote speaker for the annual University at Albany Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration. LaNier is the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of Black students who worked to integrate Little Rock High School over the objections of segregationist Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus-- a landmark event of the Civil Rights Movement. She is also the author (with Lisa Frazier Page) of A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School (2009). President Bill Clinton, who wrote the Foreword, called it a "wonderful book.... a story we all need to know."

Sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President for Student Success, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Student Association, and University Auxiliary Services

February 4 (Thursday): Jennifer Verdolin, animal behavior scientist

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

Jennifer Verdolin, behavioral scientist, applies her knowledge of animal courtship and mating behaviors to human relationships in her book on the subject, Wild Connection (2014).

Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany's Sexuality Week

February 11 (Thursday): New York State Author and Poet Awards and Reading

Inauguration Ceremony and Reading - 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Edmund White, New York State Author 2016 – 2018

Edmund White is America's leading author on Gay life. He is best known for his trilogy of autobiographical novels: A Boy's Own Story (1982), The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988), and The Farewell Symphony (1997). Dave Eggers praised White as "one of the three or four most virtuosic living writers of sentences in the English language." White is a member of both the American Academies of Arts and Letters, and Arts and Sciences.

Yusef Komunyakaa, New York State Poet 2016 – 2018

Yusef Komunyakaa is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, including Dien Cai Dau (1988), about his experiences in Vietnam; and Neon Vernacular (1993), winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Other works include Thieves of Paradise (1998), Talking Dirty to the Gods (2000), and The Chameleon Couch (2011), all finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

February 16 (Tuesday): Randall Horton and Jacqueline Jones LaMon, poets

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

Reading - 7:00 p.m., University Art Museum, Fine Arts Building

Randall Horton, author of the poetry collections Pitch Dark Anarchy (2013) and The Definition of Place (2006), is the recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award. His memoir, Hook (2015), explores his downward spiral from student to incarcerated felon. Upon release from prison Horton earned a Ph.D. in English at UAlbany.

Jacqueline Jones LaMon is the author of the poetry collections Last Seen (2011), winner of the Felix Pollak Poetry Prize, and Gravity, U.S.A. (2006), winner of the Quercus Review Poetry Series Award. She is president of Cave Canem, America's leading Black poetry organization, committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of Black poets.

Sponsored in conjunction with the UAlbany Art Museum exhibition Race, Love, and Labor

February 18 (Thursday): Sherwin Bitsui, poet

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

Sherwin Bitsui, a Diné (Navajo) from the Navajo Reservation in White Cone, Arizona, is the author of the poetry collections Shapeshift (2003) and Flood Song (2009). His work explores collisions between Native American culture and contemporary American life.

February 23 (Tuesday): Jon Krakauer, journalist and mountaineer

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

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Jon Krakauer, one of America's biggest-selling authors of outdoor adventure nonfiction, is renowned for work that explores lives lived "on the edge." His books include the bestsellers Into the Wild (1996), Into Thin Air (1997), and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009). Krakauer's new book is Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015).

Cosponsored by the #JustAsk Campaign of UAlbany's Office of the Title IX Coordinator

March 3 (Thursday): Stephen Adly Guirgis, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright

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

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

Stephen Adly Guirgis, a graduate of UAlbany's Theatre Department, won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play Between Riverside and Crazy. His other plays include Jesus Hopped the A Train (2000), which received Edinburgh's Fringe Festival Award, and Our Lady of 121st Street (2003). A member of the LAByrinth Theatre Company, Guirgis has worked with director and actor Philip Seymour Hoffman and playwright John Patrick Shanley.

Presented in conjunction with the department-wide reading project of UAlbany's English Department

March 10 (Thursday): Robert M. Dowling, Eugene O'Neill scholar and biographer

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

Robert M. Dowling is the author of the critically acclaimed biography Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts (2014), a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and Publishers Weekly "Top Ten Pick" for Literary Biography.

Sponsored by Friends of the New York State Library

March 21 (Monday): Charles Duhigg, Pulitzer Prize-winning business writer

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Charles Duhigg is an award-winning investigative reporter for the New York Times and author of the bestselling book The Power of Habit (2012). Duhigg's New York Times series on Apple's manufacturing practices, "iEconomy," won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2013. His new book is Smarter, Faster, Better (2016), which explores the science of productivity.

Cosponsored by UAlbany's School of Business

March 31 (Thursday): David Gelernter, computer scientist and theorist, and author

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

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

David Gerlernter, a "rock star" (New York Times) in the computer world, is an expert in the fields of parallel computing, "mirror worlds," artificial intelligence, and cognitive thinking. His new book is The Tides of Mind (2016), a revolutionary explanation of the phenomenon of human consciousness. In 1993 Gelernter was a victim of a mail bomb sent by the "Unabomber," an experience he recounts in Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber (1997).

Cosponsored by UAlbany's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

April 13 (Wednesday): Steven Millhauser, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer

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

Steven Millhauser, author of four novels and nine short fiction collections, received the Pulitzer Prize for his 1996 novel Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer. His new book is the story collection Voices in the Night (2015), which the Boston Globe called "Masterful . . . intriguing and disturbingly intoxicating."

Sponsored in conjunction with RPI's 75th Annual McKinney Writing Contest and Reading and the Vollmer Fries Lecture

April 15 (Friday): Sheri Fink, award-winning journalist and nonfiction author

Keynote Speaker, Disasters, Ethics, and Social Justice Conference - 12:30 p.m., Ballroom, Campus Center

Sheri Fink, New York Times correspondent, is the author of the bestselling book Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (2013), about choices made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Sponsored by UAlbany's College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity (CEHC)

The 20th Annual Burian Lecture Funded by the Jarka and Grayce Burian Endowment

April 18 (Monday): Pam MacKinnon, Tony Award-winning theatre director

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

The Burian Lecture - 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

Pam MacKinnon, theatre director, received the 2013 Tony Award for Best Direction for the 50th Anniversary Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Widely hailed as a leading interpreter of Edward Albee's work, MacKinnon also helmed the Broadway revival of Albee's A Delicate Balance (2014-15).

Cosponsored by the Jarka and Grayce Burian Endowment and UAlbany's Theatre Department

April 21 (Thursday): Laura van den Berg, short story writer and novelist

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

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

Laura van den Berg is the author of two story collections, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (2009), a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection, and The Isle of Youth (2013), which was named a "Best Book of 2013" by more than a dozen venues. Her debut novel is Find Me (2015), set in a post-apocalyptic America.

Cosponsored by Friends of the New York State Library

April 29 (Friday): Colm Tóibín, Irish fiction and nonfiction writer and journalist

Reading - 4:15 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

Colm Tóibín is one of Ireland's foremost living novelists and journalists. His novels include The Master (2004), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award; and The Blackwater Lightship (1999) and The Testament of Mary (2012), both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His newest novel is Nora Webster (2014).

Film screening of BROOKLYN with commentary by Colm Tóibín - 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by John Crowley (Ireland/UK, 2015, 111 minutes, color)

Starring Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson

BROOKLYN, a hit independent film based on Colm Tóibín's 2009 same-titled novel, tells the tale of a young Irish woman who emigrates to Brooklyn, where she must choose between two countries and her life in each. The film stars Saoirse Ronan, whose performance in BROOKLYN earned her a 2016 Screen Actors Guild nomination for best female actor in a leading role.

Sponsored in association with Albany Pro Musica's City of Immigrants Concert, a celebration of the rich cultural heritage of the Capital Region

May 6 (Friday): Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist

Reading - 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Richard Russo, born in Johnstown and raised in Gloversville, is celebrated for work that fictionalizes small town life. His novels include That Old Cape Magic (2009), Empire Falls (2001), which received the Pulitzer Prize, and Nobody's Fool (1993), which was made into a 1994 film starring Paul Newman. His eighth novel, Everybody's Fool, a sequel to Nobody's Fool, will be released in May 2016.

CLASSIC FILM SERIES

January 29 (Friday): THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD (see Visiting Writers Series listing)

February 5 (Friday): THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE

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

Directed by John Cassavetes (United States, 1976, 135 minutes, color)

Starring Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassel

Ben Gazzara plays an insolvent strip club owner at the mercy of the Mob in this highly original film noir.

February 12 (Friday): LA RONDE

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

Directed by Max Ophüls (France, 1950, 97 minutes, b/w, in French with English subtitles)

Starring Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani

Romantic love is portrayed as a kind of carousel in this bittersweet and comic film about interlinked love affairs, based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1897 play. The film was nominated for a "Best Screenplay" Oscar.

February 19 (Friday): INTO THE WILD

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

Directed by Sean Penn (United States, 2007, 148 minutes, color)

Starring Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener

Adapted by director Sean Penn from Jon Krakauer's bestselling book, INTO THE WILD tells the true, tragic story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who cashes in his savings and hitchhikes to Alaska to make a home in the wilderness.

Shown in association with the appearance of Jon Krakauer on February 23 (see Visiting Writers Series listing)

February 26 (Friday): MISSING PEOPLE

Film screening and commentary by film director David Shapiro - 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by David Shapiro (United States, 2015, 76 minutes, color)

MISSING PEOPLE is a nonfiction mystery about a woman who investigates her brother's long unsolved murder. The film won the Best Documentary Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

David Shapiro, filmmaker, artist, and UAlbany graduate, directed the acclaimed 2000 documentary KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT: A MODERN CANNIBAL TALE, winner of many major film festival awards.

Seminar: David Shapiro will hold an afternoon seminar on documentary filmmaking and art on Friday, February 26 at 4:15 p.m. in the University Art Museum, Fine Arts Building, on the UAlbany Uptown Campus.

Cosponsored by the UAlbany Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibition Race, Love, and Labor, and the School of Criminal Justice's Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series

March 4 (Friday): LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

Film screening - 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Sidney Lumet (United States, 1962, 174 minutes, b/w)

Starring Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards

A family teeters on the brink of disintegration in Lumet's adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's classic autobiographical play about an alcoholic father and drug-addicted mother.

Shown in association with the appearance of O'Neill biographer Robert M. Dowling on March 10 (see Visiting Writers Series listing)

March 11 (Friday): THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE [KÖRKARLEN]

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

Directed by Victor Sjöström (Sweden, 1921, 93 minutes, b/w, silent with live accompaniment by Mike Schiffer)

Starring Victor Sjöström, Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg

The last person to die on New Year's Eve becomes the next year's driver of the coach that carries the souls of the dead in this silent classic based on the novel by Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf.

April 1 (Friday): IN BETWEEN DAYS

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

Directed by So Yong Kim (USA/Canada/South Korea, 2006, 83 minutes, color, in Korean and English)

Starring Taegu Andy Kang, Bokja Kim, Gina Kim

A Korean immigrant girl confronts the challenges of making a new life in a cold, bleak, unnamed North American city. Director So Yong Kim received the Special Jury Prize at Sundance for the film, her first feature.

Sponsored in association with Albany Pro Musica's City of Immigrants Concert, a celebration of the rich cultural heritage of the Capital Region

April 8 (Friday): EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL

Film screening and discussion with director Darius Clark Monroe - 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Darius Clark Monroe (United States, 2014, 81 minutes, color)

Ten years after robbing a bank, filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe takes a personal look at how his actions affected the lives of family, friends, and victims. Screened at over 100 international film festivals, the film received numerous awards including the IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award.

Darius Clark Monroe was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" and "10 Filmmakers to Watch" by The Independent.

Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice's Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series

April 15 (Friday): WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

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

Directed by Mike Nichols (United States, 1966, 131 minutes, b/w)

Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal

This adaptation of playwright Edward Albee's hilarious and harrowing masterpiece received thirteen Oscar nominations, and earned "Best Actress in a Leading Role" for Elizabeth Taylor.

Shown in association with the April 18 Burian Lecture with theatre director Pam MacKinnon (see Visiting Writers Series listing).

April 29 (Friday): BROOKLYN (see Visiting Writers Series listing)

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

-30-

Posted Tuesday January 12, 2016 at 12:21 pm by New York State Writers Institute