News from New York State Writers Institute

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

NYS Writers Institute Announces Fall 2007 Schedule of Events

ALBANY, NY (08/16/2007; 1029)(readMedia)-- WRITERS INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES FALL 2007 VISITING WRITERS SERIES SCHEDULE

The New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany announces its Fall 2007 schedule of visiting writers. Events take place on the UAlbany uptown and downtown campuses and are free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted).

September 5 (Wednesday): Poet Geoffrey Young and visual artist James Siena

Reading and Discussion — 7:00 p.m., University Art Museum, Fine Arts Building, Uptown Campus

Geoffrey Young, poet, and James Siena, visual artist, will discuss the interplay between word and image in their collaborative publication “Pockets of Wheat” (1996, 2007), featuring poems by Young and free-hand, black-and-white abstractions by Siena. Young is publisher of The Figures Press in Great Barrington, MA—one of the oldest small presses in the country. Siena’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Cosponsored by the University Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibit “James Siena: Big Fat Ink: Drawings, 1996-2007,” July 12 – September 30, 2007.

September 18 (Tuesday): Best-selling novelist Jane Hamilton

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

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

Novelist Jane Hamilton is the author most recently of “When Madeline Was Young” (2006). She received the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Award for “The Book of Ruth” (1988). “The Book of Ruth” and her novel “A Map of the World” (1994) were both Oprah Book Club selections.

September 25 (Tuesday): Award-winning Hispanic American author Judith Ortiz Cofer

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Judith Ortiz Cofer, award-winning poet, essayist, and novelist, explores the experience of being Puerto Rican and living in the United States. Her first novel, “The Line of the Sun” (1989), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Her essay collection, “Silent Dancing” (1990), was listed by the New York Public Library as an Outstanding Book of the Year. She is also the author of “Woman in Front of the Sun” (2000), which recounts how she became a writer, and a second novel, “The Meaning of Consuelo” (2003).

September 27 (Thursday): Best-selling fiction writer Kim Edwards

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

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

Kim Edwards is the author of the runaway bestseller “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” (2005), a novel that explores the consequences of a troubling family secret. She is also the author of a short story collection, “The Secrets of a Fire King” (1997), a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, which is being re-released in 2007.

October 5 (Friday): Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

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

Richard Russo, Gloversville-raised novelist and screenwriter, explores a clash of cultures in his newest novel “Bridge of Sighs” (2007). Russo is the author of the novels “Empire Falls” (2001), which received the Pulitzer Prize, “Nobody’s Fool” (1993), which was adapted for the screen starring Paul Newman, “The Risk Pool” (1988) and “Mohawk” (1986). Cosponsored by the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center

October 11 (Thursday): China scholar and author Jonathan Spence and Chinese poet and memoirist Kang Zhengguo

Seminar/Reading by Kang Zhengguo — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Reading/Talk by Jonathan Spence — 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

Jonathan Spence is one of the world’s leading authorities on Chinese civilization. His newest book is “Return to Dragon Mountain” (2007), a translation and distillation of the writings of Zhang Dai (1597-1689), a chronicler, historian, and epicure of the Ming era. Spence’s other books include “Treason by the Book” (2001), “The Chan’s Great Continent” (1998), and “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” (1981), winner of the “Los Angeles Times” Book Award.

Kang Zhengguo is the author of the highly-praised and often comical memoir about life during the Cultural Revolution, “Confessions: An Innocent Life in Communist China” (2007). A poet and scholar of classical Chinese literature, Kang is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese at Yale University. Sponsored in association with the University at Albany’s “China Semester.”

October 16 (Tuesday): Nigerian-born fiction writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

Fiction writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie earned widespread international acclaim for her first novel, “Purple Hibiscus” (2003), a middle class Nigerian coming-of-age story that received the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Her second novel, “Half of a Yellow Sun” (2006), follows the fates of three individuals during Nigeria’s bloody Biafran civil war.

October 17 (Wednesday): Chinese American playwright Elizabeth Wong

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus

Elizabeth Wong, award-winning Chinese American playwright, fuses comedy and social commentary in plays that explore Asian American themes. Her plays include “Letters to a Student Revolutionary” (1991), based on her personal correspondence with a Chinese woman during the years before the Tianenman Square Massacre; “The Amazing Adventures of the Marvelous Monkey King” (2007), winner of the Mississippi Theatre Festival; and “China Doll” (1995), about silent film start Anna May Wong. Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s “China Semester.” The UAlbany Theatre Department will present Elizabeth Wong’s play “Letters to a Student Revolutionary” on October 19 – 27. For ticket information call 518-442-3997

October 18 (Thursday): African American poet Nathaniel Mackey

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Nathaniel Mackey is a poet and novelist whose work encompasses many cultures and traditions and contains a musicality derived from jazz. His poetry collection “Splay Anthem” (2006) received the National Book Award. His previous collections include “Whatsaid Serif” (1998), “School of Udhra” (1993), and “Eroding Witness” (1985).

October 25 (Thursday): Novelist and UAlbany Writer-in-Residence Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

Reading — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

India-born Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya is the author of the first novel “The Gabriel Club” (1998), a philosophical thriller about an underground collective of artists and intellectuals in Communist Hungary in the 1970s. He is currently working on two novels: “Homeland,” set in interwar Germany; and “The Desert of Love,” the story of a couple’s sudden disappearance from a market square in Morocco.

November 1 (Thursday): Award-winning fiction writer Andrea Barrett

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Novelist and short story writer Andrea Barrett won the National Book Award for “Ship Fever: Stories” (1992). Her newest novel is “The Air We Breathe” (2007), the story of an isolated Adirondack community of tuberculosis patients as they experience the outbreak of World War I. Barrett is also the author of the novels “The Voyage of the Narwhal” (1998), and “The Forms of Water” (1993).

November 8 (Thursday): Award-winning war correspondent and author Chris Hedges

Reading/Talk — 8:00 p.m., Ballroom, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent, is the bestselling author of “War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” (2002), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and “What Every Person Should Know About War” (2003). Hedges shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize as part of the “New York Times” reportorial team on global terrorism. His latest book is “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” (2007). Hedges will be one of the keynote speakers at “The Ecologies of War” conference sponsored by the UAlbany English Department. For additional information on the conference go to: http://albany.edu/chats/iccc/ecologies_of_war.html.

November 13 (Tuesday): A Celebration of Chinese Poetry from Classical to Contemporary

Classical Chinese Poetry with Da Chen — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Contemporary Chinese American Poetry — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Da Chen, author of the best-selling memoir “Colors of the Mountain” (1999), bamboo flute player, and brush calligrapher, will present the work of masters of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) in words, symbols, and music in an afternoon seminar. In the evening, three Chinese American women poets from the Asian American Writers Workshop will read from their work. Cosponsored by the Asian American Writers Workshop

November 15 (Thursday): Nonfiction author and “true crime” writer Joe McGinniss

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Campus Center 375, Uptown Campus

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Bernard D. Arbit Lecture Center 25, Academic Podium, Uptown Campus

Joe McGinniss is best-known for his popular classics of the “true crime” genre, including “Cruel Doubt” (1991), “Blind Faith” (1988), and “Fatal Vision” (1983). His latest “true crime” book is “Never Enough” (2007), which details the murders of Robert and Andrew Kissel. McGinniss is also the author of the nonfiction bestseller “The Selling of the President, 1968.”

November 27 (Tuesday): Poet and fiction writer Victoria Redel

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Science Library 340, Uptown Campus

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Victoria Redel is a poet, short story writer, and novelist whose work often deals with women’s issues and the experience of Jewish immigrants. Her first novel, “Loverboy” (2001), about a mother’s obsessive love for her son, was made into a movie in 2005, directed by Kevin Bacon and starring Kyra Sedgwick and Matt Dillon. Her most recent novel is “The Border of Truth” (2007), which follows the daughter of a Holocaust survivor as she uncovers the secrets of her family’s history.

November 29 (Thursday): Fiction writer and screenwriter Tom Perrotta

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Campus Center 375, Uptown Campus

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Campus Center 375, Uptown Campus

Tom Perrotta writes biting satires about suburban life and adolescent experience. His newest novel is “The Abstinence Teacher” (2007), a foray into the world of sex education and the American culture wars. Perrotta’s previous novels include “Little Children” (2004), a “New York Times” and NPR Best Book of 2005, “Joe College” (2000), and “Election” (1998), which was adapted for film starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. Cosponsored by the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center.

November 30 (Friday): Fiction writer and screenwriter Tom Perrotta

Seminar on screenwriting — 4:15 p.m., Science Library 340, Uptown Campus

Film screening of “Little Children” and commentary — 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Tom Perrotta coscripted the screenplay for “Little Children” which received a “Best Screenplay” Oscar nomination. Based on his novel, “Little Children” follows the course of an adulterous affair between a stay-at-home mom and a stay-at-home dad who meet on the playground of an affluent American town. Perrotta will provide film commentary and answer questions immediately following the screening.

December 5 (Wednesday): Award-winning novelist, playwright, and essayist Darryl Pinckney

Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Science Library 340, Uptown Campus

Reading — 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

Darryl Pinckney’s semi-autobiographical satirical novel about growing up Black and bourgeois in the 1960s, “High Cotton” (1992), received the “Los Angeles Times” Book Prize for fiction. His essay collections include “Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature” (2002), and “Sold and Gone: African American Literature and U. S. Society” (2001). He is a past recipient of the Whiting Writers Award and the Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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

WRITERS INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES FALL 2007 CLASSIC FILM SERIES SCHEDULE

Albany, NY — The New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany announces its Fall 2007 Classic Film Series schedule. All screenings (unless otherwise noted) take place on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. in Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, on the University at Albany downtown campus and are free and open to the public.

September 28: “Spring in a Small Town” [Xiao Cheng Zhi Chun] (China, 1948, 85 minutes, b&w, DVD, directed by Mu Fei, in Mandarin with English subtitles) This celebrated work tells the delicately layered story of a woman torn between loyalty to her sick husband and the dashing doctor who was the lover of her youth. The film has been named “the best Chinese-language film of all time” by numerous critics and organizations.

October 4: “Keeping Mum” [NOTE SPECIAL THURSDAY NIGHT SCREENING, 7:30 P.M.] (United Kingdom, 2005, 103 minutes, color, 35 mm, directed by Niall Johnson) A criminally insane housekeeper, played by Maggie Smith, moves in with an English vicar’s family to put the family’s life in order. This black comedy was co-scripted by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo, who will be appearing at the Writers Institute on Friday, October 5th.

October 12: “Paulina” (Mexico/United States/Canada, 1998, 88 minutes, color, DVD, directed by Vicky Funari, in Spanish with English subtitles) A middle-aged woman returns to her home village in Mexico to confront the family who traded her away as a child slave for land rights. The moving and innovative documentary received the Grand Jury Prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival and Lifetime Television’s Vision Award.

October 19: “Pandora’s Box” [Der Büchse der Pandora] (Germany, 1928, 110 minutes, b/w, 35 mm, directed by G. W. Pabst, silent with live piano accompaniment by Mike Schiffer) Actress Louise Brooks became an icon of the Jazz Age after starring in this dark tale of a sexy vaudeville performer who ignites madness and desire, and brings ruin, everywhere she goes. Film critics regard “Pandora’s Box” as “one of European silent cinema’s crowning achievements” (Tom Dawson, BBC).

October 26: “Spirit of the Beehive” [El Espíritu de la Colmena] (Spain, 1973, 97 minutes, color, 35 mm, directed by Victor Erice, in Spanish with English subtitles) After watching James Whale’s 1931 horror feature “Frankenstein,” two small girls embark on a quest to find and befriend the monster. A new 2006 print will be shown.

November 2: “The Designated Mourner” (United Kingdom, 1997, 94 minutes, color, 35 mm, directed by David Hare) Wallace Shawn’s powerful, monologue-driven play about three characters trapped in a war-torn future dystopia is translated to the screen by David Hare, who also directed the original London stage production.

November 9: “Cleo From 5 to 7” [Cléo de 5 à 7] (France, 1961, 90 minutes, b&w and color, 35 mm, directed by Agnès Varda, in French with English subtitles) Awaiting the results of a biopsy for cancer, a pretty, pampered chanteuse spends two hours searching for meaning in the streets of Paris. A new print will be shown.

November 16: “Borderline” (United Kingdom, 1930, 63 minutes, b&w, DVD, directed by Kenneth MacPherson, silent with new jazz score) Early film theorist Kenneth MacPherson uses experimental camera techniques and narrative style to explore the “borderlines” of racial and sexual identity in this fascinating silent work which features African American actor Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda in a tangled tale of interracial adultery and violence.

November 30: “Little Children” [NOTE 7:00 P.M. START TIME] (United States, 2006, 130 minutes, color, 35 mm, directed by Todd Field) “Little Children” follows the course of an adulterous affair between a stay-at-home mom and a stay-at-home dad who meet on the playground of an affluent American town. The film earned cowriters Tom Perrotta and Todd Field a “Best Screenplay” Oscar nomination for the adaptation of Perrotta’s novel of the same name. Tom Perrotta will offer commentary and answer questions immediately following the screening. At 4:15 p.m. Perrotta will also hold an informal seminar on screenwriting in Science Library 340 on the UAlbany uptown campus.

December 7: “Bamako” [NOTE 7:00 P.M. START TIME] (Mali, 2006, 118 minutes, color, 35 mm, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, in Bambara and French with English subtitles) A poignant and provocative film, “Bamako” presents a group of ordinary Africans who convene an impromptu court of justice to try officials of the IMF and World Bank for crimes against Africa. Bret Benjamin, UAlbany English professor and author of “Invested Interests: Capital, Culture, and the World Bank” (2007), will offer commentary and answer questions immediately following the screening.

December 14: “The Awful Truth” (United States, 1937, 91 minutes, b/w, 35 mm, directed by Leo McCarey) Jerry, played by Cary Grant, and Lucy, played by Irene Dunne, divorce over mutual suspicions of infidelity and then try to ruin each other’s relationships with new love interests. “The Awful Truth” was nominated for six Academy Awards, and earned a “Best Director” Oscar for McCarey. It will be shown in a restored 70th Anniversary print.

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

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Attachments

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo

Best-selling novelist Jane Hamilton

China scholar Jonathan Spence