Writers Institute Launches Telling the Truth 2020

Renowned American actor John Lithgow is among the featured authors.

ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 10, 2020) – The New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany presents Telling the Truth 2020 from Wednesday through Nov. 18, a weeklong series of in-depth conversations with prominent authors, journalists, political observers, social critics, former public officials and thought leaders examining the toxic divisions of America’s political landscape.

“It’s our hope that Telling the Truth 2020 will be a force for good and will provide a public service by bringing together experts with a wide range of perspectives,” said Paul Grondahl, director of the NYS Writers Institute. “We want these events to be conversations of healing, of finding common ground and of listening respectfully to viewpoints different than our own. We hope this weeklong symposium will build bridges of empathy rather than erecting more walls of fear and hatred.”

Topics discussed during Telling the Truth 2020 include the troubling rise of tribalism, the deep divide and mistrust across the political spectrum, the manipulation of social media and the hijacking of truth through ongoing assaults both internally and from foreign sources who seek to erode the bedrock principles of a free and open democratic society.

Events will be available online and on the Writers Institute’s YouTube channel. ​Videos will premiere at 11 a.m. and can be viewed any time following their launch. Many of the conversations were recorded before Election Day.

Telling the Truth 2020 is the Writers Institute’s third major event of the fall season, following the Albany Book Festival in September and the Time for Reckoning Symposium in October. It is also the third time the Institute has turned its attention to issues of truth-telling, journalism and ethics. A three-day Telling the Truth in a Post-Truth World event was held in 2017 and Telling the Truth: A Symposium on the Craft of Nonfiction took place in 1991.

Schedule of events:

Wednesday, Nov. 11

Elif Shafak, author of How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division, is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and essayist who is celebrated throughout the world for her advocacy of free speech, the safety of journalists and the rights of women, the LGBT community and minorities.

Thursday, Nov. 12

Amy Chua, author of Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations (2018), a book that has helped to frame and define the current conversation about the nature of identity politics.

Friday, Nov. 13

Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, Minyon Moore, co-authors with Donna Brazile of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics. The book is a group memoir of four female political strategists and organizers who are among the most influential African Americans in the U.S. political sphere.

Saturday, Nov. 14

Casey B. Mulligan and Joe Grogan. Mulligan served as the chief economist of President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers and more recently authored You’re Hired!: Untold Successes and Failures of a Populist President (September, 2020). Grogan served as director of the United States Domestic Policy Council and assistant to President Donald Trump.

Sunday, Nov. 15

Allison Schrager, financial economist and expert on risk, author of An Economist Walks into a Brothel (2019)

Michael Strain, economist and Bloomberg Opinion columnist, the author of the 2020 book, The American Dream is Not Dead (But Populism Could Kill It).

Monday, Nov. 16

John Lithgow, renowned American actor, and the author of two bestselling collections of satirical poetry, Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse (2019), and Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age (Sept. 2020).

Tuesday, Nov. 17

David Hopkins is the author of Red Fighting Blue: How Geography and Electoral Rules Polarize American Politics (2017). The book explains how and why the American electoral map has become deeply and persistently divided into red states and blue states, and explores the important consequences of this trend for candidate strategy, party competition, political polarization, and the functioning of American government.

Wednesday, Nov. 18

Event to be announced at a later date.

Telling the Truth 2020 is presented in partnership with the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy and WAMC Northeast Public Radio. For more information, contact Paul Grondahl or Michael Huber.

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