Friday, March 1, 2019
8 p.m. -- Conversation with WAMC’s Joe Donahue
Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, University at Albany, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany.

Susan Orlean, photo by Noah Fecks

Susan Orlean is the author of the current New York Times bestseller, The Library Book, a true crime investigation of the 1986 fire that destroyed the Los Angeles Public Library, and an account of the fire’s aftermath that illustrates the crucial role that libraries play in individual lives and communities.

The book is widely described by reviewers as “a love letter to libraries and books.” A staff writer at The New Yorker for a quarter century,

Orlean is the author of seven books, including The Orchid Thief (1998), an international bestseller that became the hit film, Adaptation (2002), starring Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep (who portrays Orlean).

Her other books include Saturday Night (1990), The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People (2001), My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere (2004), Animalish (2011), Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend (2011) and The Floral Ghost (2016).

Previous guests in The Creative Life Series have included fiction writer Joyce Carol Oates, sculptor and public installation artist Jean Shin, documentary film writer Esmeralda Santiago, tap dancer-choreographer Savion Glover, jazz violinist Regina Carter, painter David Salle, author Lois Lowry, choreographer Garth Fagan and sculptor and public installation artist Jean Shin.

Major support for The Creative Life is provided by The University at Albany Foundation and The John D. Picotte Family Foundation. Additional support is provided from the UAlbany Alumni Association, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost and University Auxiliary Services.

Susan Orlean Answers a Random Bunch of Questions

Susan Orlean Shows How to Find Subjects for Creative Non-Fiction