All Over Albany

NYS Writers Institute visiting writers fall 2018

The fall lineup for the NYS Writers Institute visiting writers series is out. And it is again full of high-profile authors, actors, artists, and other creators talking talking about all sorts of topics.

The visiting writers series is in addition to the Albany Book Festival September 28-29 at UAlbany, which has its own stacked lineup of authors.

Here's a scan of the upcoming visiting writers schedule, which starts off the first week of September...

All blurbage via NYSWI. Events are free unless otherwise noted. The institute also has free film screenings and occasional other events during the season -- see its website.

September 5: Bibbe Hansen, performance artist, musician, actress
Andy Warhol cast Bibbe Hansen (with Edie Sedgwick) in a film just one day after she was released from a prison for youth in New York City. A Creative Life Series conversation with Joe Donahue.
7 pm, University Art Museum

September 6: Elizabeth Acevedo, poet and bestselling young adult author, with The Poet X
Acevedo's young adult novel, The Poet X (2018) tells the story of an Afro-Latina teenager growing up in New York City. Bestselling YA author Jason Reynolds called it, "an incredibly potent debut."
4:15 pm craft talk at the Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center; 7:30 pm presentation, Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center

September 13: John Leland, New York Times journalist and author of Happiness is a Choice You Make
John Leland's new book, Happiness Is a Choice You Make, challenges accepted notions about aging, contentment and quality of life.
4:15 pm craft talk, Alumni House Conference Room, University at Albany Uptown Campus

September 21: Conversation with Sean Penn, actor, author of Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff
Sean Penn, two-time Academy Award winner, the first for Mystic River (2003) and the second for his portrayal of UAlbany alum Harvey Milk in Milk (2008), comes to Albany to discuss his new novel, the tale of an "odd job man" who kills off the weak and the sick as part of a secret contract with the government. Salman Rushdie called it "great fun to read."
7:30 pm, Page Hall

October 1: Helen Rothberg, author of The Perfect Mix and business consultant
Author, business consultant and behavioral scientist.
4:15 pm craft talk, Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center; 7 pm "Science on Tap" conversation, Albany Pump Station, 19 Quackenbush Square, Albany

October 4: Tara Westover, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Educated
Westover is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, Educated, about her experiences as the daughter of an "anti-education" survivalist family that devoted its time and energy to preparing for the End of Days in the mountains of Idaho.
4:15 pm craft talk at Standish Room in the Science Library; 7:30 pm presentation at Page Hall

October 9: Justine Bateman, Family Ties actress, director, and author of Fame: The Hijacking of Reality
The Family Ties actor will discuss her first book, Fame: The Hijacking of Reality (2018), an "insider's" analysis of America's culture of celebrity and its profound impact on personal and national life.
4:15 pm craft talk, Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center; 7:30 pm presentation, Campus Center Ballroom

October 10: "Muslim Women in 21st Century America" with Mona Haydar and Ibtihaj Muhammad
Mona Haydar is a rapper, activist and writer. Ibtihaj Muhammad, Olympic fencer, is the first hijab-wearing Muslim to compete for the United States and the first female Muslim-American athlete to earn an Olympic medal.
4:14 pm craft talk, Recital Hall; 7 pm conversation, Recital Hall

October 12: Evan Narcisse, cultural critic and Black Panther Marvel comic book author
Evan Narcisse is the coauthor with Ta-Nehisi Coates of Rise of the Black Panther, a bestselling series that presents the backstory of the most popular black character in comic book history.
7:30 pm screenings, conversation, Page Hall

October 16: David Gersten, writer and architect
David Gersten is an influential artist, architect, writer, educator, TED speaker, motivational thinker, former Dean of Architecture at Cooper Union, and originator of the concept of "spatial literacy"-- an understanding of the profound impact of our surroundings on personal and collective experiences.
4:15 pm conversation, Standish Room, Science Library; 7 pm conversation/Q&A, Recital Hall

October 18: Amy Wallen, novelist and memoirist of When We Were Ghouls
Amy Wallen grew up in Nigeria, Bolivia, Peru and elsewhere, the daughter of a blue-collar Southern father employed as an exploratory driller by the oil industry. Her memoir, When We Were Ghouls (2018), is an attempt to recover the elusive memories of her unusual childhood.
4:15 pm craft talk, Standish Room, Science Library

October 19: Virginia Eubanks, UAlbany professor, author of Automating Inequality
Bestselling author Naomi Klein praised Virginia Eubanks' new book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor, "This book is downright scary -- but with its striking research and moving, indelible portraits of life in the 'digital poorhouse,' you will emerge smarter and more empowered to demand justice."
7 pm conversation, University Club of Albany, 141 Washington Ave., Albany

October 22: Melanie Wallace, senior series producer for NOVA
Melanie Wallace is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, the senior series producer of NOVA, the most-watched and longest-running prime time science series on American television. Now in its 45th year, NOVA features an extraordinary diversity of topics, from the latest breakthroughs in technology to the deepest mysteries of the natural world.
4:15 pm conversation, Standish Room; 7 pm Q&A and film clips, Recital Hall

October 23: Sujatha Gidla, NYC subway conductor and memoirist of Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India
The Economist review praised Sujatha Gidla's memoir Ants Among Elephants: "It is quite possibly the most striking work of nonfiction set in India since Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, and heralds the arrival of a formidable new writer."
4:15 pm craft talk, Standish Room; 7:30 pm conversation, Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum

October 25: Stephen Lang, author and playwright of His Dark Land
Stephen Lang, award-winning stage, television, and film actor, writer, and producer will receive the 2018 Empire State Archives and History Award from the NYS Archives Partnership Trust. Lang will discuss his career as an actor and history enthusiast with nationally prominent Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer. Visit www.nysarchivestrust.org or call (518) 486-9349 for ticket information.
7 pm ceremony, conversation at Chancellors Hall, NYS Education building, 89 Washington Ave, Albany

October 30: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, UAlbany alumnus, author of Friday Black
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, 2013 University at Albany graduate with a degree
in English, recently published his first short story collection, Friday Black, a satirical look at what it's like to be young and black in America.
4:15 pm craft talk; 7:30 pm conversation, Recital Hall

November 1: Jean Shin, sculptor and public installation artist
Jean Shin is a leading visual artist who transforms vast collections of everyday and discarded objects into monumental art installations that represent elegant expressions of identity and community.
7 pm Creative Life Series conversation with Joe Donahue, Recital Hall

November 2: Eugene Lim, WCI Film Festival and Lecture Series
Eugene Lim, science fiction and experimental fiction author, who will also introduce one of his favorite films, Save the Green Planet!. the tale of a troubled young man who believes he must save the world from an alien invasion.
7 pm Reading and Q&A, Film screening at 8 pm, The Linda, 339 Central Ave, Albany

November 6: Ntozake Shange, playwright and poet, Wild Beauty, New and Selected Poems of Ntozake Shange
Ntozake Shange is a cultural icon, leading feminist and central figure of the Black Arts
Movement. Her 1976 play, "for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf," is widely regarded as a landmark of African American theatre. It received the Obie Award for Best Play, as well as a Tony for Best Featured Actress and a Tony nomination for Best Play.
4:15 pm craft talk, Standish Room; 7:30 pm conversation, Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center

November 8: Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican
Esmeralda Santiago is widely celebrated as a founding mother of Nuyorican literature. An American classic, her 1993 memoir, When I Was Puerto Rican, was named one of the "Best Memoirs of a Generation" by Oprah's Book Club.
4:15 pm craft talk, Multi-Purpose Room; 7 pm Creative Life Series conversation with Joe Donahue, Campus Center Ballroom

November 13: Alexander Heffner, host of The Open Mind on PBS
Author and host of The Open Mind on PBS
4:15 pm craft talk, Multi-Purpose Room; Community readings of America's founding documents, Q&A starting at 7 pm, Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum

November 16: Screening and panel discussion of "More Than Words: The Photography of Newsman Bob Paley."
In this new documentary, writer/director Mary Paley presents the startling and beautiful images of her father, the late Bob Paley, a photographer for the Albany Knickerbocker News from 1947 to 1974 who earned national renown as a stringer for the Time-Life stable of magazines. ?
7 pm start, Page Hall

November 29: Alvaro Enrigue and Valeria Luiselli, "the first couple of Mexican fiction" and authors of Sudden Death (Enrigue) and Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions (Luiselli)
Valeria Luiselli is the author of Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions, based on her experience working as an interpreter for child migrants in the United States. Alvaro Enrigue's newest novel is Sudden Death, about a 16th century tennis match and battle of ideas between the Italian artist Caravaggio and Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo.
4:15 pm, Enrigue talk, Standish Room; 7:30 pm Luiselli talk, Touhey Forum, School of Education, College of Saint Rose, 1009 Madison Ave, Albany

December 3: Aly Raisman, Olympian, advocate and author of Fierce: How Competing for Myself Changed Everything
Aly Raisman, Olympic gymnast who captained the US team to victory in 2012 and 2016, is also an influential advocate of positive body image, a hero of the #metoo movement, and an outspoken critic of the prevailing culture in American gymnastics organizations.
7:30 pm, SEFCU Arena, Uptown Campus. A ticketed event. More information to follow.

December 7: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, author of Bold & Brace: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand returns to the New York State Writers Institute with her very first children's book, Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote. With illustrations by award-winning artist Maira Kalman, the book features profiles of inspiring figures in the 70-year fight for women's suffrage.
7:30 pm conversation, Page Hall
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Earlier: Here's how the NYS Writers Institute gets all those great authors to visit