News from New York State Writers Institute

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

NYS Writers Institute Sponsors Chinese Poetry Festival and Appearance by "True Crime" Author Joe McGinniss

Events Week of November 12 - 16, 2007

ALBANY, NY (10/31/2007; 0906)(readMedia)-- Chinese Poetry Festival to Celebrate Tang Dynasty Poets and Contemporary Chinese American Poets, November 13, 2007

A Festival of Chinese Poetry will be held at the University at Albany on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 in conjunction with the University’s “China Semester.” At 4:15 p.m. in the Assembly Hall, Campus Center, on the UAlbany uptown campus, bestselling author, bamboo flute player, and brush calligrapher Da Chen will discuss the influences and sensibilities of ancient poetry of the Tang Dynasty in words, symbols, and music. At 8:00 p.m. in the same location, two contemporary Chinese American women poets, Leslie Chang and Lisa Chen, will read from their work and discuss the Chinese American cultural experience. The events are sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute and Kundiman, an organization dedicated to nurturing Asian American poets, and are free and open to the public.

The Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) is commonly recognized as the Golden Age of Chinese Poetry. The emperors of the Tang Dynasty were, with few exceptions, great lovers and patrons of poetry, and many were poets themselves. The Empress Wu Chao (684-704 AD), known as the “Woman Emperor,” elevated poetry to an instrument of power and unprecedented prestige by making it a required subject for the famous imperial exams taken by members of China’s central bureaucracy. This meant, in effect, that all officials and scholars during the period were required to be poets.

Hudson Valley writer Da Chen is the author of “Colors of the Mountain” (1999), a “New York Times” bestselling memoir of his family’s persecution during China’s Cultural Revolution. “Newsweek” called it, “A dazzling debut…. ‘Colors of the Mountain’ is a completely engrossing coming-of-age that’s surprisingly free of cynicism or bitterness. His stories are made all the more poignant by the wonder and vulnerability in the voice of their child narrator.” Da’s newest book and first novel for adult readers is “Brothers” (2006), a family saga about half-brothers caught on opposing sides of the political earthquakes that have transformed China in recent decades. The novel was named a “Best Book of 2006” by the “Washington Post,” “San Francisco Chronicle,” “Miami Herald,” “Salt Lake Tribune,” and “Publishers Weekly.”

Leslie Chang’s poems have appeared in “Agni Review,” “Literary Imagination,” “The Iowa Review,” “Crab Orchard Review,” “The Nation,” and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Grolier Poetry Prize, The Academy of American Poets’ Bennett Poetry Prize, and a scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In 2006 she was a resident at the Millay Colony for the Arts. She received B.A. and M.F.A. degrees from Harvard College and Columbia University.

Lisa Chen, an Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate, is the author of the debut poetry collection “Mouth” (2007).

Kundiman is an organization dedicated to providing a nurturing space for Asian American poets. Based in New York City Kundiman sponsors a regular reading series and a week-long retreat for Asian American poets.

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

Joe McGinniss, Master of the “True Crime” Genre, to Read From His New Book, “Never Enough,” an Investigation of the Recent Kissel Family Murders, November 15, 2007

Joe McGinniss, author of the popular “true crime” classics, “Fatal Vision” (1983) and “Blind Faith” (1988), will discuss his new book, “Never Enough” (2007), an investigation of the recent Kissel banking family murders in Hong Kong and Greenwich, CT, on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. in the Bernard D. Arbit Lecture Center 25, Academic Podium, on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. Earlier that same day at 4:15 p.m. the author will present an informal seminar in Campus Center 375 on the uptown campus. The events are sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute, and are free and open to the public.

Joe McGinniss is best-known for his popular classics of the “true crime” genre, including “Fatal Vision” (1983), “Blind Faith” (1988), and “Cruel Doubt” (1991). His newest “true crime” book, “Never Enough” (2007), offers a tale of greed and murder featuring the wealthy Kissel family of Hong Kong and Greenwich, CT. In 2003, investment banker Robert Kissel’s wife was convicted of bludgeoning him to death after lacing his milkshake with sedatives in a Hong Kong luxury apartment. Robert’s brother Andrew, a Connecticut real estate tycoon, received custody of the couple’s three children. Three years later, Andrew was found tied up and stabbed to death in his Greenwich mansion. The book endeavors to present a compelling solution to the latter murder, which remains officially unsolved.

In writing “Never Enough,” his first “true crime” book in 16 years, McGinniss enjoyed privileged access to numerous Kissel relatives and acquaintances. “Washington Post Book World” editor Marie Arana ranked it among the most anticipated books of the fall 2007 season.

“Fatal Vision,” the author’s first true crime book, presents an intimate account of the trials and appeals of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, a man eventually convicted of brutally slaying his pregnant wife and two young daughters. In writing the book, McGinniss commenced a four-year friendship with MacDonald early on in the course of his legal battles, not knowing whether he was innocent or guilty, though ultimately being persuaded of the latter. In a 1983 “New York Times” review, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt said that “‘Fatal Vision’ smells of integrity, and that’s one of the many things about it that make it irresistible to read, even if its vision of the human soul is somewhat bleak and frightening.”

A former reporter and columnist for the “Philadelphia Inquirer,” McGinniss also wrote the major nonfiction bestseller, “The Selling of the President, 1968”(1969), a pioneering study of the role of marketing in Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign. The book was on the “New York Times” bestseller list for seven months, and was ranked #1 for four months. The book earned McGinniss, at the age of 27, the distinction of having written the second biggest-selling nonfiction book by an under-30 author (after Anne Frank).

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

“Borderline” to be Screened on November 16, 2007

“Borderline” (United Kingdom, 1930, 63 minutes, b/w, DVD, silent with new jazz score, directed by Kenneth MacPherson) will be shown on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. in Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, on the University at Albany’s downtown campus. Sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute, the screening is free and open to the public.

This fascinating silent work by early film theorist Kenneth MacPherson features African American actor Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda in a tangled tale of interracial adultery and violence. MacPherson uses experimental camera techniques and narrative styles to explore the “borderlines” of racial and sexual identity. Silent filmmaker G. W. Pabst called “Borderline,” “the only real avant-garde film.” “Borderline” also features Hilda Doolittle (H. D.), the influential American poet, in her only movie role.

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

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Author Joe McGinniss