NYS Writers Institute presents "Telling Your Story: The Art of Memoir" with author James Hart, Sept. 7, 2017

Program features writers from the local community reading from their autobiographies and James Hart reading from his new memoir "Lucky Jim"

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James Hart, author of the new memoir "Lucky Jim" (2017)

ALBANY, NY (08/22/2017) (readMedia)-- The NYS Writers Institute will present "Telling Your Story: The Art of Memoir," a program featuring memoir writers from the local community, sharing the stage with James Hart, author of the powerful new memoir Lucky Jim (2017), an account of his violent childhood, marriage to pop singer superstar Carly Simon, and struggles with addiction and sexual identity. Celebrated memoir coach Marion Roach Smith will host the evening event on Thursday, September 7 at 7:00 p.m. [note early start time] in the Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, in downtown Albany. Earlier that same day at 4:15 p.m., Hart will offer an informal seminar in the Standish Room, Science Library on the UAlbany uptown campus. Free and open to the public, the events are cosponsored by the NYS Writers Institute, NYS Office of Cultural Education, and the Friends of the New York State Library.

"Telling Your Story: The Art of Memoir" is a celebration of autobiography that will feature memoir writers from the local community, sharing the stage with James Hart, author of the powerful new memoir Lucky Jim (2017). Hart's book recounts his violent childhood in Troy, New York, his marriage to pop singer superstar Carly Simon, his coming to terms with his own Gay sexuality, his triumphs over pills and alcohol, and his activism in the LGBTQ and addiction recovery communities.

The evening event at 7 p.m. in the New York State Museum will be hosted by celebrated memoir coach Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life (2011). Prior to Hart's reading, several community writers will take the stage to read short passages from their autobiographies.

William Kennedy said of Hart's new memoir, "Jim writes with candor and clarity, drenching it? as he always did with a story- with woe and wit and wonderful revelation."

Hart's ex-wife Carly Simon said, "Jim weaves his tale between the various seemingly opposing strands of his life...Then there was our magical chance meeting and marriage and life on Martha's Vineyard; his own struggles as a writer and a harrowing relapse into active alcoholism, and exploration of long-hidden parts of himself. Recovery comes with loss. Time gives and takes away. And Jim's words chronicle with rare lyricism and wit the feelings that these events evoke."

The book features a foreword by the author's friend, Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, who said, "Jim Hart has written a remarkable and brave memoir- and he has done the most difficult work of all: used the experience of writing it to come to understand himself. In the process, the reader is the beneficiary of a beautifully wrought story of a life lived in revelation."

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

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