Edward P. Jones won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Known World (2003), a current national bestseller. Set in the American South before the Civil War, the novel tells the morally complex tale of a free Black farming family that owns Black slaves. Hailed by critics as a new American classic, the novel also received the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Jones is also the winner of a 2004 MacArthur "Genius Grant." His previous book, Lost in the City (1992), is a collection of stories about African-American men and women living and working in the nation's capital. The collection received the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a National Book Award finalist. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Essence, and Ploughshares, among other publications.

Shannon Lanier and Jane Feldman are co-authors of the young adult book, Jefferson's Children: The Story of One American Family (2000), a pictorial history of President Thomas Jefferson's family told through the words of his descendants-many of them Black, and many White. In October 1998, the Associated Press published news of DNA evidence linking the descendants of Sally Hemings, Jefferson's slave and mistress, to the Jefferson line. Ten days later, the Oprah Winfrey Show hosted a family reunion of Jefferson's Black descendants. Shannon Lanier, a young family member, and Jane Feldman, a professional photographer, met at the reunion and developed a book idea soon after. Together, they roamed the country collecting historical materials, and interviewing and photographing members of both sides of Jefferson's biracial family. More than a genealogical history, the book is an affectionate portrait of an America both united and divided by blood and race. Cosponsored by History Dept & the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center.

Pete Dexter, winner of the National Book Award for Paris Trout (1988), is the author of violent, comic novels, typically set in blighted cities and backwater Southern towns. A master of plot twists, colorful details and pitch-perfect dialogue, Dexter's work shows a fondness for blue collar rogues and two-bit criminals. A reporter and columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News for twelve years, Dexter was attacked in a Philadelphia bar in 1982 by readers angered at his coverage of a drug-related murder. The attack left him with a broken back and hip. During his recovery he began to write fiction. Dexter's newest novel is Train (2003), a noir thriller set in 1953 Los Angeles. Other acclaimed novels include The Paperboy (1995), Brotherly Love (1993), Deadwood (1986), and God's Pocket (1984). His screenplays include The Devil and Daniel Webster (2001), Michael (1996), Mulholland Falls (1996), Wild Bill (1995), Rush (1991), and the TV movie, Paris Trout (1991).

Pam Houston is the author of Cowboys Are My Weakness (1992), a brilliant, humorous collection of short stories that has achieved cult status in the world of contemporary fiction. Houston's stories typically feature women who embark on dangerous outdoor adventures in order to earn the love of tough, uncommunicative men. Houston admits a strong kinship with her protagonists. She has, according to a New York Times profile, "hauled wild-sheep carcasses on her back across the Alaskan mountains, camped in snow caves and defied a river that just a day before had killed a woman-all for the love of various men." Critics have praised Houston's fiction for exploring realms of experience previously claimed exclusively by male writers. Houston's long-awaited first novel is Sight Hound (2005), the tale of the love between a woman and her Irish wolfhound. Houston's other books include the story collection, Waltzing the Cat (1998), winner of the Willa Cather Award, and the essay collection, A Little More About Me (1999).

Kevin Young is a poet who finds meaning and inspiration in African-American music and oral traditions, and in the bittersweet history of Black America. While still in his early twenties, Young was a National Poetry Series winner for Most Way Home (1995), a collection of meditations on racism, slavery, poverty, and the nature of "home." Other collections include To Repel Ghosts: Five Sides in B Minor (2001), a finalist for the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets, and Jelly Roll: A Blues (2003), a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. His newest collection is Black Maria (2005), a playful examination in verse of the language of American detective movies. Young is also the editor of Blues Poems (2003), a volume in the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets series, and Giant Steps: The New Generation of African-American Writers (2000).

Shelley Jackson, author, illustrator, and children's book writer, is one of the pioneers of the hypertext novel, a multi-dimensional literary product of the electronic age. Jackson's celebrated hypertext novel is Patchwork Girl by Mary/Shelley & Herself (1995), an abundantly illustrated, Frankenstein-inspired tale published on CD-ROM. The novel presents a new monster- assembled from female body parts by Mary Shelley herself- who falls in love with the author, stalking her from Europe to America. Other hypertext works-in-progress include My Body and The Doll Project. Jackson is the author of a paper-and-print short story collection, The Melancholy of Anatomy (2002), which features surreal tales about body parts and human illnesses, including the Pushcart Prize-winning story, "Egg." In 2001, the Village Voice Literary Supplement named Jackson one of seven up-and-coming authors to watch in its annual "Writers on the Verge" issue. Cosponsored by the UArt Museum's Art & Culture Talks, Inst for Research on Women (IROW), and Ctr for Humanities, Arts, and TechnoSciences (CHATS), in conjunction with the University Libraries' semester-long series "Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature."

Mary Gordon, one of America's most admired prose writers, is the author of several bestselling novels, as well as short stories, memoirs, essays, and criticism. Known for her investigations of Catholic family life, Catholic spirituality, thwarted love, moral struggle, personal sacrifice, female identity, and family pain, Gordon is praised for her deep insights, lyrical writing, and what Los Angeles Times critic Ellen Akins called, "her delicate rendering of the drama of consciousness." Gordon's latest novel is Pearl (2005), the story of a strong-willed, middle-aged, single mother named Maria who sets out to save her only daughter, Pearl, from killing herself in a self-imposed hunger strike to protest America's foreign policy. Gordon's other novels include Spending: A Utopian Divertimento (1998), The Other Side (1989), Men and Angels (1985), The Company of Women (1981), and Final Payments (1978). Other recent books include the biography, Joan of Arc (2000), the essay collection, Seeing Through Places: Reflections on Geography and Identity (2000), and the bestselling memoir of her secretive, tormented father, The Shadow Man (1996).

Leaves of Grass: Words by Walt Whitman, Music by Fred Hersch/The Fred Hersch Ensemble with vocalists Kurt Elling & Kate McGarry
Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the publication of Walt Whitman's poem Leaves of Grass, Hersch has enlisted the six-time Grammy nominated Kurt Elling for this powerful composition that combines elements of chamber music, jazz, and spoken word. The Washington Post wrote, "Hersch's Leaves of Grass is an eloquently orchestrated celebration of Walt Whitman's poetry, vision, and above all else, humanity."

Readings for Hunter - Gonzo Journalist
First there will be audio excerpts of Hunter S. Thompson's visit to the NYS Writers Institute on November 4, 1998. This will be followed by readings of excerpts from Thompson's works by guest speaker William Kennedy, along with Kevin Lanahan (freelance writer) and Journalism faculty members William Rainbolt and Thomas Bass. Moderated by Donald Faulkner. Cosponsored with the UAlbany Journalism Program.

Maxine Kumin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, is renowned for her meditations on farm life, the love between parents and children, and the rural New England landscape. Critics often compare her in terms of style, content, and stature to fellow New Englanders Robert Frost and Henry David Thoreau. Kumin received the Pulitzer Prize for her 1972 collection, Up Country. Other collections include The Long Marriage (2001), Nurture (1989), The Long Approach (1985), and Halfway (1961). Her most recent poetry collection is Jack and Other New Poems (2005), which features reflections on death, the body, beloved animals, and the nature of memory. She is also the author of more than twenty children's books, four of which she wrote with her friend, the late poet Anne Sexton. Kumin's many honors include the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Excellence in Literature, and the Levison Award of Poetry magazine. In 1981, Kumin was named Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress.

One Ring Zero is a literary ethno-pop music band that has come to be known as the "house band" of McSweeney's, the quarterly magazine and publishing concern founded by bestselling author Dave Eggers. The band's latest project is As Smart As We Are (2004), a music CD and accompanying song book, both of which feature new lyrics contributed by a variety of notable authors, including Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Dave Eggers, A. M. Homes, Denis Johnson, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody and Darin Strauss, among others. The Village Voice calls the work, "a beautiful shebang of literary and aural mischief." The five-man band features Michael Hearst, Joshua Camp, and friends on a variety of non-standard instruments, including the claviola, theremin, toy piano, melodica, metallophone, Jones-O-Phone, megamouth, bread machine, power drill, and an amplified box of kitty litter. Recipients of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the band has been featured on several NPR programs, including "Fresh Air," "This American Life," and "The Next Big Thing." Cosponsored by UArt Museum's Art & Culture Talks.

An Adirondack Voice: Jeanne Robert Foster
Born in poverty in the Adirondacks in 1879, Foster in her poetry chronicled the people and customs, the farms and lumber shanties, of the North Country of her youth. Her talent, character, and beauty gained her the friendship, trust, and admiration of writers and artists as various as Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford, George Russell, and John and William Butler Yeats.
Dr. Kate H. Winter and folksinger Dan Berggren will present a program based on Foster's Adirondack Portraits. Copies of Foster's Adirondack Portraits will be available for purchase. Cosponsored by the New York State Library and the Friends of the New York State Library.

Francine Prose, author of twelve inventive, comic novels, is one of America's sharpest cultural satirists. Blue Angel (2000), a humorous novel about sexual politics and academic life, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Other works include Guided Tours of Hell: Novellas (1997), Hunters & Gatherers (1995), Primitive People (1992), Bigfoot Dreams (1986), and Household Saints (1981), which was the basis for a 1993 movie starring Tracey Ullman. Her newest book is A Changed Man (2005), a novel about neo-Nazis and Holocaust survivors. Prose recently penned her first young adult novel, After (2003), the story of a high school transformed into an Orwellian "re-education camp" after a Columbine-style shooting. She is also the author of the nonfiction book, The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired (2002), which features profiles of Yoko Ono, Samuel Johnson's companion Hester Thrale, Salvador Dali's wife Gala, and Lewis Carroll's young friend Alice Liddell.

Cynthia Ozick is widely regarded as one of America's fiction masters, as well as one of its finest essayists. She is a four-time winner of the O. Henry First Prize Award for short fiction. Her 1997 novel, The Puttermesser Papers, was a finalist for the National Book Award and was named one of the top ten books of 1997 by both the New York Times Book Review and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Ozick's newest novel is Heir to the Glimmering World (2004), the story of an eccentric family of German-Jewish refugees set in the Bronx. Other critically acclaimed books of fiction include The Shawl (1989), The Messiah of Stockholm (1987), Cannibal Galaxy (1983), Levitation: Five Fictions (1982), Bloodshed and Three Novellas (1976), The Pagan Rabbi, and Other Stories (1971), and Trust (1966, reissued in 2004 with a new afterword by the author). In 2000 she received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism for the book of essays, Quarrel and Quandary.

William Vollmann's newest collection of short stories, Europe Central (2005), concerns a variety of individuals living in Russia and Germany during WWII. One of the boldest and most original writers of his generation, Vollmann is renowned for both fiction and nonfiction about the victims and perpetrators of global violence, as well as prostitutes, addicts, and street people. His fiction books include The Atlas (1996), Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes (volumes 1-3 and 6, 1990-2001), a series of novels about the collision between Native Americans and White America, The Rainbow Stories (1989), and You Bright and Risen Angels (1987). His nonfiction books include Rising Up and Rising Down (2003), a seven-volume treatise on violence that was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and An Afghanistan Picture Show (1992), about his travels with anti-Soviet Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan. In 1999, the New Yorker named Vollmann �one of the twenty best writers in America under forty.�

Camille Paglia, cultural critic, is the author of the surprise bestseller, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990), a lively, 700-page academic study of pagan sexual symbols in Western Art that provoked widespread debate and received national media attention. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the book instantly established Paglia as a controversial and sought-after commentator, while her view of sexuality as a chaotic and subversive force made her a lightning rod for criticism from both the Right and the Left. Other books by Paglia include Sex in N.Y. City: An Illustrated History (2002, with Alison Maddex), The Birds (1998), a book-length personal appreciation of Hitchcock's classic horror film, Vamps & Tramps: New Essays (1994), and Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays (1992). Paglia's newest book is Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems (2005).

Angie Cruz, young novelist, received national attention and critical praise for her first novel, "Soledad" (2001), a bittersweet portrait of life in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. With humor and a touch of fantasy, Cruz�s work explores the immigrant experience of Dominican-Americans in New York City--their dreams, daily frustrations, and complex personal baggage. Her newest novel is "Let It Rain Coffee" (2005), the story of a family haunted by its Dominican past, while its members struggle to make ends meet in contemporary Manhattan. Cruz is a cofounder of WILL: Women in Literature and Letters, a collective devoted to social change through artistic expression.
Pablo Medina, Cuban-born American writer, is renowned for his lyrical prose, black humor, and insights into the paradoxes of exile. His most recent novel is "The Cigar Roller" (2005), the story of a Cuban �migr� living in Florida, a master cigar roller, who must atone for the transgressions of a riotous life after being paralyzed by a massive stroke. Medina�s previous books include the novels "The Return of Felix Nogara" (2000) and "The Marks of Birth" (1994), the poetry collections "The Floating Island" (1999) and "Arching into the Afterlife" (1991), and the essay collection, "Exiled Memories: A Cuban Childhood" (1990). The recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Readers� Digest Fund, Medina is the chairperson of the Writing Concentration at the New School University in New York City.
Sponsored in conjunction with the Pan-Caribbean Association�s �Carib Week�

Samuel Freedman, notable journalist and bestselling nonfiction writer, is the author of Who She Was: A Son's Search for His Mother's Life (2005). The book is an evocation of the vanished Jewish immigrant Bronx of the 1930s and '40s, and a complex portrait of the author's mother who died almost thirty years ago at the age of fifty. Freedman received the National Jewish Book Award for Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry (2000), an examination of conflict and divisiveness within the community. The Inheritance: How Three Families and America Moved from Roosevelt to Reagan and Beyond (1996), an intimate study of American political trends, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His 1993 book, Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church, received the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. Freedman's 1990 examination of life at a troubled New York City high school, Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, Her Students, and Their High School, was a finalist for the National Book Award. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Freedman is a professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism. Cosponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences and the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center.

Kazuo Ishiguro, Japanese-born novelist, is one of the foremost British writers of his generation. Born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954, he has been a resident of Great Britain since 1960. His work often explores themes of memory and its impact on perceptions of success and failure. He is the author of six highly acclaimed novels including When We Were Orphans (2001), a finalist for Britain's Booker Prize, The Unconsoled (1995), Remains of the Day (1989), which won the Booker Prize, and An Artist of the Floating World (1986), which received the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. Remains of the Day, an international bestseller, was adapted into a feature film by Merchant Ivory Productions in 1993, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Ishiguro's most recent novel is Never Let Me Go (2005), a mystery, love story, and critique of society's attitudes toward those considered vulnerable and different.

Ben Jones is the author of the first novel, The Rope Eater (2004), an Arctic adventure tale set during the period of the American Civil War. The book combines bleak realism with fable in a way that frequently brings to mind the works of Melville, Conrad, and Poe. The book was named one of the Top Ten First Novels of 2004 by the American Library Association/Booklist. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Ben Jones is a former editor for the Adventure Library and currently serves as Director of Admissions at Bennington College.
Lucia Nevai�s new first novel is Seriously (2004), the comic story of Tamara Johanssen, a woman who escapes a troubled past to seek serenity in a small Upstate New York hamlet, where she opens an art gallery. In short order, Tamara becomes entangled in the lives of various smalltown eccentrics. In a New York Times review, Mark Kamine said, �Nevai delivers pleasures both large and small in sly, lively prose�. Nevai�s voice has wisdom and charm, and with Seriously she announces a large talent.� Born and raised in Iowa, and a resident of the Capital District, Nevai has published short fiction in the New Yorker, Zoetrope, the Iowa Review, New England Review, and other periodicals. She is the author of two collections of stories, Star Game (1987), which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, and Normal (1997).

Hollis Seamon, short story writer and novelist, is the author of the story collection Body Work (2000) and her first novel Flesh (2004). The stories in Body Work deal with women, their relationships, and the female body. A Publishers Weekly review praised the book saying, "With precise prose alternately chatty and subtly resonant, Seamon delves into female adolescence, body issues, sexuality, relationships between mothers and daughters, and other themes, often keenly revealing the magical, uncanny, and symbolic meanings of everyday life." Her new novel Flesh combines comedy, mystery, and Gothic thrills as a graduate student investigates a death on campus. Seamon's work has appeared in numerous literary journals and has been noted in Best American Essays and The O. Henry Award: Prize Stories. She received a doctorate in English from the UAlbany and currently teaches writing and literature at the College of St. Rose.
Tobias Seamon, poet and essayist, is the author of the debut novel The Magician's Study: A Guided Tour of the Life, Times, and Memorabilia of Robert 'The Great' Rouncival (2004). This inventive and humorous novel reveals the amazing life and complex personality of Jazz Age magician Robert "The Great" Rouncival by describing the memorabilia in the conjurer's study. Booklist praised the book as an "ingenious first novel . . . Seamon's stylistic inventiveness and skill with memorable characterizations are nothing short of breathtaking. Rouncival and his colorful entourage herald the arrival of a major new talent." Metroland called The Magician's Study "a wonderful book and terrific read." Nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize in 2002 and a finalist for the 2003 Erskine J. Poetry Prize, Seamon's work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals. A long-time resident of the Capital District, he is a contributing writer for the Web-based magazine The Morning News and co-edits Whalelane, an online journal of the arts.

Thai Jones, journalist, is the author of the family memoir, A Radical Line: From the Labor Movement to the Weather Underground, One Family�s Century of Conscience (2004). The son of fugitive leaders of the Weather Underground, and the grandson of Communists, pacifists, and civil rights agitators, Jones digs deep into his family�s radical past to paint a vivid and intimate portrait of recent American history. On the run as a preschooler, Jones was four years old in 1981 when agents of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force stormed into his home and took his parents away in handcuffs. A graduate of Columbia University�s School of Journalism, Jones has worked as a reporter for New York Newsday, and is a resident of Albany.

Edward Schwarzschild is the author of Responsible Men (2005), his first novel, the poignant and funny story of Max Wolinsky, a small-time con artist from a family of hard-working salesmen. Max returns from Florida to his hometown of Philadelphia, seeking to redeem himself in the eyes of his family-his 13-year-old son Nathan, his father Caleb, and his stroke-impaired Uncle Abe. Schwarzschild teaches writing and literature at UAlbany, where he holds a joint appointment in the English Department and the New York State Writers Institute. A recent Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, Schwarzschild has published his work in StoryQuarterly, Virginia Quarterly Review, Moment, and the Yale Journal of Criticism.
Hannah Tinti is the author of Animal Crackers (2004), a debut collection of short stories that received glowing reviews. Animals become metaphors for what it means to be human in this strange, funny, and unnerving collection, which was a Barnes and Noble Discover pick. Kirkus Reviews proclaimed, �The clearly talented Tinti isn�t afraid to take risks,� and in a starred review Publishers Weekly called the book, �a striking debut collection.� Tinti participated in the New York State Writers Institute�s Master Writer Mentoring Program where she worked on the collection. Her work has appeared in numerous publications. She is currently the co-editor of One Story magazine.

Eric Bogosian is one of America's favorite monologuists, best-known for his fast-talking characterizations of hucksters, self-help gurus, addicts, and morally-flawed celebrities. Bogosian is also the author of two recent novels: Mall (2002), and his latest work Wasted Beauty (2005). Wasted Beauty is a sprawling portrait of New York City's drug and fashion worlds and of the desperation running just beneath the surface glamour. Bogosian's acclaimed solo performance pieces include Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2000); Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead (1994), winner of an Obie Award for playwriting; Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll (1988), which received an Obie special citation; Talk Radio (1987); and Drinking in America (1986), which received another Obie Award for playwriting and the Drama Desk Award for outstanding solo performance. As an actor, Bogosian has appeared in numerous films, including Deconstructing Harry (1997), A Bright Shining Lie (1998), and Wonderland (2003). Bogosian will read from his new novel Wasted Beauty.

Ruby Dee is an actress, writer and Civil Rights activist; a key member of the pioneering American Negro Theater; the first Black actress to appear in a major role at the American Shakespeare Festival; and an important presence on the American stage, screen, and television for sixty years. Her numerous awards include the National Board of Review's "Best Supporting Actress," for the film A Raisin in the Sun (1961); Obie and Drama Desk Awards in 1971 for Athol Fugard's Boseman and Lena; a 1974 Drama Desk Award for The Wedding Band; the NAACP Image Award for Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989); an Emmy Award for the TV film Decoration Day (1990); and the Presidential Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. Dee is also the author of With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together (1998), a memoir coauthored with husband Ossie Davis; My One Good Nerve: Rhythms, Rhymes, Reasons (1987); Glowchild, and Other Poems (1972); and two children's books based on African folktales, Two Ways to Count to Ten (1988), winner of the Literary Guild Award, and Tower to Heaven (1991). The Burian Lecture Series is cosponsored by the Dept of Theatre and is funded by the Jarka and Grayce Susan Burian Endowment.

Kermit L. Hall, 17th President of UAlbany, will read from his recently published book The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (Editor-in-Chief), winner of the Gavel Award from the American Bar Association and a main selection of the History Book Club. He is the author of four additional books on the American legal system, including "The Magic Mirror: Law in American History" (Oxford, 1989). This event marks the opening of two exhibits: Monographs Authored & Edited by President Hall and President Hall's "Ten Favorite Books" that shaped and influenced his life. Cosponsored by the Friends of the Libraries and the University Libraries. Reception immediately following.