Fall Events Sneak Preview 2014

John Lahr, longtime drama critic for the New Yorker, and author of the biography, Notes on a Cowardly Lion, about his father, actor-comedian Bert Lahr, will discuss his new biography Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, on October 1st. Reviewers are already using the terms “masterpiece,” “brilliant,” “splendid beyond words,” and “unsurpassable” to describe the book.

Both the current New York State Author and New York State Poet will return to the Institute on separate dates. State Author Alison Lurie will visit on September 18. Best known for her novels, including the Pulitzer – winning Foreign Affairs, Lurie will read from and discuss her new nonfiction book, The Language of Houses. A sequel to The Language of Clothes, her meditation on clothing as an expression of history, social status and individual psychology, The Language of Houses is an exploration of the expressive power of everyday architecture.

State Poet Marie Howe will join in conversation with two other poets on October 21st. They will read from their work and discuss the importance and future of poetry in today’s society.  Howe recently partnered with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and the Poetry Society of America on “Poetry in Motion Springfest,” a National Poetry Month celebration featuring poetry and music inside Grand Central Terminal.

Susan Pinker, developmental psychologist and bestselling science writer will tell us why we need to put down our cell phones and walk away from our tablets and computers when she discusses her new book The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter, on November 18th.  Pinker is the author of the international bestseller, The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women and the Real Gender Gap.

Novelist Joseph O’Neill, whose novel Netherland won the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award, will visit the Institute on December 2 to read from his new novel, The Dog, which was recently longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014. It is the story of a luckless middle-aged man who flees New York City after a traumatic breakup with his long-term girlfriend to take a job as the household manager of a rich and capricious family in Dubai. A starred review in Publishers Weekly praised the book for “Pitch-perfect prose . . .” and said, “Clever, witty, and profoundly insightful, this is a beautifully crafted narrative about a man undone by a soulless society.”

Celebrate Halloween with us as we screen Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA on October 31st.

Check the website at the end of August for the entire fall 2014 lineup. Hope to see you at some events!

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