News from New York State Writers Institute

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

NYS Writers Institute Announces Fall Writing Workshops

Writing Workshops Offered by Fiction Writer Lydia Davis and Poet and FENCE Editor Rebecca Wolff

ALBANY, NY (09/05/2008; 1527)(readMedia)-- Mixed-genre or Hybrid Writing Workshop Offered by NYS Writers Institute

New York State Writers Institute Writer-in-Residence Rebecca Wolff will conduct a workshop in mixed-genre, or hybrid writing during the fall 2008 semester. Too often the real work of creative expression is stifled by over-concentration on definitions of form and style. Is it a prose poem or a very short story? A poem or an interview? A memoir or a novel-in-verse? Journalism or creative nonfiction or could we call it simple "prose"? In this workshop participants will view texts with generous eyes that see more similarity than difference.

The workshop is scheduled for eight Monday nights (October 20, 27, November 3, 17, 24, December 1, 8, 15) from 6 to 9 p.m. The class will take place on the University at Albany's uptown campus. The workshop is offered free of charge for non-credit, and will be limited to ten writers. Participants are encouraged to bring in projects that have already begun, as well as to develop new ideas within the context of the group. Writers interested in participating in the workshop should contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst for submission guidelines.

Rebecca Wolff is the author of three books of poems: "Manderley" (U. of Illinois Press, 2001), which was selected by Robert Pinsky for the National Poetry Series; "Figment" (W. W. Norton, 2004), which received the 2003 Barnard Women Poets Prize; and the forthcoming "The King" (Norton, 2009). Eavan Boland described Wolff's poetry as having "a vivacity and edge that give it immediate presence." "Publishers Weekly" praised "Figment" for work that "projects a vivid wit," and "scenes and fragments [that] are urban, knowing, always alert to irony . . ."

Wolff is the founding editor of "Fence", a biannual journal of poetry, fiction, and "other," which is published in partnership with the Writers Institute and the University at Albany. She also founded Fence Books, which publishes poetry, fiction, and critical texts and anthologies. Wolff received her MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop where she was assistant editor of the "Iowa Review". She lives in Athens, New York.

For additional information contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5624 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

Fiction Master Class Workshop Offered by NYS Writers Institute Writer-in-Residence Lydia Davis

New York State Writers Institute Distinguished Writer-in-Residence and MacArthur Fellow Lydia Davis will conduct a Fiction Master Class Workshop during the fall 2008 semester. The workshop is intended for advanced writers -writers who have at least one publication in a literary journal. It will be an intensive five-session workshop.

The Fiction Master Class Workshop is scheduled for Tuesday evenings (November 4, 11, 18, 25, December 2) from 6 to 9 p.m. Classes will be held on the University at Albany's uptown campus. The workshop is offered free of charge for no credit, and will be limited to ten writers. This workshop is not open to students who have taken it previously. Writers interested in participating in the workshop should contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst for submission guidelines.

Lydia Davis, acclaimed fiction writer and translator, is famous in literary circles for her extremely brief and brilliantly inventive short stories. In fall 2003 she received one of 25 MacArthur Foundation "Genius" awards. In granting the award the MacArthur Foundation praised Davis's work for showing "how language itself can entertain, how all that what one word says, and leaves unsaid, can hold a reader's interest. . . . Davis grants readers a glimpse of life's previously invisible details, revealing new sources of philosophical insights and beauty."

Davis's most recent collection, "Varieties of Disturbance" (May 2007), was featured on the front cover of the "Los Angeles Times Book Review" and garnered a starred review from "Publishers Weekly." Her "Samuel Johnson Is Indignant" (2001) was praised by "Elle" magazine for its "Highly intelligent, wildly entertaining stories, bound by visionary, philosophical, comic prose-part Gertrude Stein, part Simone Weil, and pure Lydia Davis."

Davis is also a celebrated translator of French literature into English. The French government named her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her fiction and her distinguished translations of works by Maurice Blanchot, Pierre Jean Jouve, Michel Butor and others.

Davis recently published a new translation (the first in more than 80 years) of Marcel Proust's masterpiece, "Swann's Way" (2003), the first volume of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time."

Davis's previous works include "Almost No Memory" (stories, 1997), chosen as one of the "25 Favorite Books of 1997" by the "Voice Literary Supplement" and one of the "100 Best Books of 1997" by the "Los Angeles Times"; "The End of the Story" (novel, 1995); "Break It Down" (stories, 1986), which was selected as a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; "Story and Other Stories" (1983); and "The Thirteenth Woman" (stories, 1976).

Davis is currently on leave from her position as Professor of English at the University at Albany.

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

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