News from New York State Writers Institute

For more information contact: Suzanne Lance, 518-442-5620

James Lasdun to Offer Poetry Workshop for NYS Writers Institute

Poet, and fiction writer James Lasdun named Writer-in-Residence at Writers Institute for spring 2008

ALBANY, NY (02/07/2008; 0947)(readMedia)-- Intermediate/Advanced Poetry Writing Workshop Offered by James Lasdun

Poet, fiction writer, and screenwriter James Lasdun has been named Writer-in-Residence for the spring 2008 term for the New York State Writers Institute. As Writer-in-Residence, Lasdun will conduct an intermediate/advanced poetry writing workshop during the spring 2008 semester. This workshop will give students who have some writing experience opportunities to develop and revise poems. Course work will include close reading of selected texts, as well as discussion of students’ writing.

The workshop is scheduled for ten Thursday nights (March 20, 27, April 3, 10, 17, 24, May 1, 8, 15, 22) from 6 to 9 p.m. In addition, individual student conferences will be scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. The class will take place on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. This non-credit workshop is offered free of charge and will be limited to twelve writers. To be considered, submit manuscripts to the Writers Institute according to the guidelines listed below:

Guidelines for Intermediate/Advanced Poetry Workshop

1. All manuscripts must be typewritten.

2. All submissions must include a separate cover sheet with name, home address, work and home telephone numbers, and e-mail address.

3. Submit three to five pages of poems, one poem per page, or individual poems up to five pages in length. Include a brief statement (50–100 words) describing your interest in poetry and what you hope to learn by participating in this workshop. To insure a blind selection process, do not put your name on any of these pages.

4. Manuscripts delivered in person will be accepted up until 1:00 p.m. on Monday, February 25, 2008. Mailed manuscripts must be postmarked no later than Wednesday, February 20, 2008. No faxes or e-mails.

5. Notification of acceptance will be by Wednesday, March 12, 2008. Please do not call regarding the status of your manuscript. We regret that neither Mr. Lasdun nor the Institute can comment on manuscripts by writers not selected.

6. Mail manuscripts to: Lasdun Poetry Workshop New York State Writers Institute SL 320 University at Albany, SUNY 1400 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12222

James Lasdun is a poet, fiction writer, travel author and screenwriter. Born and raised in England, Lasdun has received awards and critical praise for his work on both sides of the Atlantic. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anthony Hecht has said that Lasdun is “certainly among the most gifted, vivid, and deft poets now writing in English….” Among his many honors, Lasdun is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry, and the 1999 winner of the London Times Literary Supplement Poetry Competition.

Lasdun’s most recent collection of poetry, “Landscape with Chainsaw” (2001), was short-listed for the T. S. Eliot Prize of the Poetry Book Society, the United Kingdom’s most coveted poetry award, and was a finalist for the Forward Prize and the “Los Angeles Times” Book Award. The book was also named one of the “Times Literary Supplement’s” International Books of the Year. “Landscape with Chainsaw” explores the author’s boyhood experiences in England, his adopted American homeland, and the landscape of the Catskill region of New York State where he now resides. Former U. S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins praised the “exciting mix of diction and contrapuntal surprises that mark this intimate and artful collection of poems.” “The New Yorker” called the book, “An extraordinary deconstruction and reconstruction of landscapes, both natural and interior.”

Lasdun’s newest novel is “Seven Lies” (2005), a political thriller about a former East German who, by a series of blackly comic and dangerous maneuvers, invents a perfect life for himself in the United States; inevitably, that life begins to unravel. “Seven Lies” was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Lasdun’s other books include the novel, “The Horned Man” (2002), which was a “New York Times” Notable Book and an “Economist” Best Book of the Year; “The Siege and Other Stories” (1999), of which the title story provided the basis of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1998 film, “Besieged;” and “The Silver Age” (1985), a story collection that earned the Dylan Thomas Award. Lasdun’s recent short story, “An Anxious Man,” received the 2006 United Kingdom National Short Story Prize. He is also the author of the travel guides, “Walking and Eating in Provence” (forthcoming in 2008) and “Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria” (1997). A new collection of stories is forthcoming in 2009.

Lasdun has taught poetry and fiction workshops at a number of American universities, including the University at Albany, Princeton, NYU, and Columbia.

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