Fiction writers Amy Hempel and Margot Livesey
Amy Hempel is an influential stylist and one of the defining makers of contemporary Minimalist fiction. Writing in LA Weekly, bestselling author Chuck Palahniuk wrote, "When you study Minimalism,....the first story you read is Amy Hempel's The Harvest. After that you're ruined...every other book you ever read will suck." Hempel's newest book is The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (2006). In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said, "this volume is an awesome thing indeed, and pleasure lovers of the short story will not want to deny themselves." Other collections by Hempel include The Dog of the Marriage (2005), Tumble Home (1997), At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom (1990), and Reasons to Live (1985). She is the coeditor of the anthology, Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs (1995). Hempel is a past winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Pushcart Prize, and the Silver Medal of the Commonwealth Club of California.
Margot Livesey, prize-winning author born and raised in the Scottish Highlands, is beloved by readers and critics for her quirky, intelligent, tender, and ruthless explorations of the human heart. Her most recent novel is Banishing Verona (2004), the tautly plotted story of an interrupted love affair between Verona, a radio show host, and Zeke, a younger man who earns his living as a carpenter and painter. The Elle reviewer said, "One of Livesey's greatest gifts is a quiet, lyrical authority that makes it easy for her readers to follow her anywhere, and believe in the journey every step of the way." Livesey's previous novel, Eva Moves the Furniture (2002), was a New York Times Notable Book and an Atlantic Monthly Best Book of the year. Other novels include The Missing World (2000), Criminals (1996), and Homework (1990).

Ron Rosenbaum has been described by New Yorker editor David Remnick as "one of the most original journalist and writers of our time." His newest book, The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups (Sept. 2006) focuses on the controversies surrounding Shakespeare's work and the man himself. Rosenbaum is also the author of the bestseller Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil (1998). His essays have appeared in Harper's, Esquire, The New Republic, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, and New York Times Magazine. His work has also been collected in three volumes including The Secret Parts of Fortune: Three Decades of Intense Investigations and Edgy Enthusiasms (2000), Travels with Dr. Death and Other Unusual Investigations (1991), and Manhattan Passions: True Tales of Power, Wealth, and Excess (1987).

William Kennedy's Albany South End Walking Tour & Discussion
Albany's bard, novelist William Kennedy, and local historian and State Assemblyman John McEneny will discuss the historic districts, people, and events that figure so prominently in Kennedy's work. A walking tour guide of Albany's South End will be available for participants to follow immediately after the discussion. Kennedy's fiction, steeped in Albany's long history, has helped establish the city as a capital of the literary imagination. Kennedy is also the author of the acclaimed nonfiction book, O Albany! (1983), which is based in part on a series of Pulitzer Prize-nominated articles about the city that Kennedy wrote for the Times Union. The text of the walking tour guide O Albany's South End: A Walking Tour, which was first published in 1984, is partly excerpted from the text of O Albany!
State Assemblyman John McEneny has represented New York's 104^th Assembly District, which includes the City of Albany, for the past 13 years. He is a former Albany County Historian, former chair of the Albany Historic Sites Commission, and became the first full-time director of the Urban Cultural Parks Program under then-governor Mario Cuomo. McEneny wrote and narrated WMHT Public Television's Tercentennial Documentary on Albany and authored Albany, Capital City on the Hudson (1998), the definitive text on the city's four centuries of history.

Ann Jones, journalist and authority on women and violence, is the author of Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan (2006), a trenchant report about day-to-day life in a ruined, war-shattered city. As a volunteer aide worker in post-Taliban schools, prisons, and neighborhoods, Jones tells of her work with outcast and battered women, including war widows, runaway child brides, prostitutes, abandoned wives and rape victims. She also presents the terrible discrepancies between U.S. promises of democracy, prosperity, and peace, and the brutal realities on the ground. An authority on women as victim and perpetrators of violence, Jones is the bestselling author of Women Who Kill (2004) and Looking for Lovedu: A Woman's Journey Through Africa (2001).

Three Ways of Looking at "The Moor"
Russell Banks' brief short story "The Moor" is the tender, affecting tale of a chance encounter between a middle-aged man and the 80-year-old woman who had been his lover three decades earlier, when he was 19 and she 49. The Writers Institute will present a unique opportunity to experience the story in three different formats--the printed text, a stage adaptation, and a 2005 screen adaptation by Caerthan Banks, the author's daughter. Russell and Caerthan Banks will provide commentary and answer questions. The author of ten novels and five short story collections, Russell Banks currently serves as New York State Author (2004-6). Winner of numerous awards for his work, Banks is a leading voice of working class experience in modern letters. Director, screenwriter, and actress Caerthan Banks was featured in Atom Egoyan's adaptation of the Russell Banks novel, The Sweet Hereafter (1997), winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes. Her stage production of Bruce Graham's Minor Demons was an L.A. Times Critics' Choice.

Charles Mann, award-winning science journalist and nonfiction writer, is the author of the New York Times bestseller, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (2005) An earthshaking revision of pre-Columbian American history, 1491 presents recent archaeological evidence that Native American civilization was far more populous and scientifically advanced than previously assumed. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist known for work that explores the intersections of science and commerce, Mann is a correspondent for Science, The Atlantic Monthly, and Wired. His articles appear in The Best American Science Writing (2003) and The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2003). Earlier books include @ Large: The Strange Case of the Internet's Biggest Invasion (1998), Noah's Choice: The Future of Endangered Species (1995), The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine, and 100 Years of Rampant Competition (1991), and The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics (1986).

Nahid Rachlin is the most published Iranian author in the U.S. with four novels, a short story collection, and her new memoir, Persian Girls (Oct 2006). Author Patty Dann praised the memoir for "shedding light on an intimate world that is at the center of the world's stage. With a deft hand, she writes of a life so honestly that it has all the facets of a great novel." Born in Iran in 1944, Rachlin came to the U.S. to attend college in 1962 and stayed. Her fiction is based on her personal experiences and reveals the hidden Iran, the family dramas of ordinary Iranians as well as the politics underlying daily life. Rachin's work includes the novels, Jumping Over Fire (2006), The Heart's Desire (1995), Married to a Stranger (1983), Foreigner (1978), and the story collection Veils (1992).

Gregory Rabassa's well-loved translations of Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa, Clarice Lispector, and Jorge Amade have brought about nothing less than a revolution in the literary sensibilities of English readers in the U.S., Europe, and the former British Commonwealth. Novelist García Márquez has called the Yonkers-born translator, "The Best Latin American writer in the English language." The New York Times has called him the "anonymous super hero" of contemporary literature. Rabassa's new memoir is If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents (2005). Rabassa received the National Book Award for his translation of Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch (1966), and the American PEN translation prize for The Autumn of the Patriarch (1976). His renowned translation of One Hundred Years of Solitude was a National Book Award finalist. Recent translations by Rabassa include Jorge Franco's Rosario Tijeras (2004) and Jesús Zárate's Jail (2003).

John Berendt, journalist and editor, is the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story (1994), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and had a remarkable and unprecedented four-year run on the New York Times bestseller list. The nonfiction book--part witty travelog and part suspenseful true crime story--is an engaging portrait of Savannah, Georgia, which contrasts the city's eccentric characters with the gentility of the south. With his newest book The City of Falling Angels (2005), he uncovers the mysteries, intrigue, and traditions of Venice, Italy, beyond the usual tourist destinations. Berendt was an associate producer for the David Frost Show and the Dick Cavett Show. He was also a past editor of New York Magazine (1977-79) and a columnist for Esquire (1982-1994).

Christine Vachon, leading independent film producer, is a driving force of the "indie" revolution that has transformed American cinema during the past fifteen years. She is also responsible, more than anyone else in the business, for bringing gay and lesbian-themed films to mass market audiences. Vachon has received innumerable awards for a large body of work that includes Mrs. Harris (2005), A Dirty Shame (2004), Far From Heaven (2002), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Happiness (1998), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Postcards from America (1995), Go Fish (1994), and Swoon (1992, winner Berlin Film Festival's Caligari Award). Her latest film is the Truman Capote story, Infamous (2006), starring Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock and Gwynyth Paltrow. Vachon is also the author of two books, Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond (2006), and Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies That Matter (1998).

Leonard Slade, Jr is the author of twelve books of poetry. His most recent collection is Jazz After Dinner (2006), poems of celebration and endurance that express the human need to be connected to both the present and the past. Slade's other poetry volumes include For the Love of Freedom (2000), Lilacs in Spring (1998), Pure Light (1996), I Fly Like a bird (1992), and Another Black Voice: A Different Drummer (1988). Maya Angelou has praised his work saying, "I have read [Slade's] poems, and I am the better for it, the wiser for it, and the happier for it." Professor and Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at UAlbany, he is also the Director of the Doctor of Arts in Humanistic Studies Program, and Director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program.

Da Chen is a bestselling author, bamboo flute player, and brush calligrapher. The grandchild of a disgraced landowner, Da came of age in rural China during Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, a time when he and his family were subjected to daily persecutions by party officials, neighbors, schoolmates, and teachers as members of a despised social class. He recounts his experiences with unexpected humor in Colors of the Mountain (1999), a New York Times bestselling memoir that was the object of a bidding war among five top New York publishing houses. Da's newest book and first novel for adult readers is Brothers (2006), a family saga about brothers caught on opposing sides of the political earthquakes that have transformed China in recent decades. Earlier books include the young adult novel, Wandering Warrior (2003), which was optioned for a feature film by Warner Brothers; Sounds of the River (2002), a memoir that recounts Da's hard-won academic successes in both China and the U.S.; and China's Son (2001), an adaptation of Colors of the Mountain for young readers.

James Kiepper, historian and biographer, is the author of Styles Bridges: Yankee Senator (2001), the biography of the former governor of New Hampshire (1935-37) and U.S. Senator (1937-61). Bridges was one of the most powerful men in government during his term as Senator, being entrusted by President Roosevelt with the task of camouflaging the funding for the development of the atomic bomb during World War II. Kiepper was a professor at UAlbany for 35 years in addition to serving as special assistant to Michigan Governor George Romney and to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller in his national Republican campaign for the presidency in 1968. He is the authority on the history of the New Hampshire presidential primary.

Claire Messud, fiction author, has been called a writer "of near-miraculous perfection" (the New York Times Book Review) with "literary intelligence far surpassing most other writers of her generation" (San Francisco Chronicle). Her latest novel is The Emperor's Children (2006), about the ups and downs of ambitious thirty-somethings in contemporary New York City. Messaud's previous novels include The Hunters: Two Short Novels (2001), The Last Life (1999), winner of the encore Award of the Society of Authors, and When the World Was Steady (1994), a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. The winner of a 2002 Guggenheim fellowship, Messud has published fiction, articles, and reviews in Granta, Zoetrope, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Garry Wills, major cultural historian, bestselling author, and intellectual, is known for his portraits of American presidents at critical junctures in history, and for his searching studies of the history of the Catholic Church. His latest books are What Paul Meant (2006), a fresh examination of the Apostle's mission; What Jesus Meant (2006), a new interpretation of the message of the Gospels; and Bush's Fringe Government (2006), about the political ascendancy of the Republican right. Other books of note include Henry Adams and the Making of America (2005), St Augustine's Conversion (2004), Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power (2003), James Madison (2002), and Why I Am a Catholic (2002). Earlier books include John Wayne's America (1997), Lincoln at Gettysburg (1992), winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment (1982), Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (1978), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Nixon Agonistes (1970). His numerous honors include the 1998 National Medal for the Humanities. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, and appears frequently on the NewsHour with Jim Lehreer.

"Documenting New York's African American History"
The rich and little known history of African Americans in New York State, from the colonial period to the present, will be the focus of an academic conference, "Researching New York 2006: Perspectives on Empire State History." As part of the conference, the public is invited to attend a film screening and discussion entitled ""Documenting New York's African American History." The event will feature selected films and videos, both documentaries and fictional works, that illustrate the challenges and possibilities of translating African American historical expereince onto the screen. The film program will be followed by a panel discussion. See the full schedule at: nystatehistory.org/researchny/highlights2006.html.

Why Melville Matters Now Symposium
A celebration of Herman Melville, who lived in the Capital Region and attended Albany Academy, exploring the enduring relevance of his life, work, and influences from the perspectives of the humanities, arts, the sciences, and new technologies. The symposium will include a series of papers and panel discussions, artistic performances and installations, archival and gallery exhibits, a self-guided tour of Melville's Albany connections, and a 24-hour marathon reading of Moby Dick.

"The Loss of Nameless Things" - Film about Oakley Hall, followed by a reading from his memoir Jarry and Me
Thirty years ago, under mysterious circumstances, Oakley Hall either fell or was pushed off a bridge, sustaining severe traumatic brain injury. After wandering the country like a modern day Odysseus, Oakley settles back home in Callifornia and begins the painful process of rehabilitating and rebuilding himself, and his triumphant return into the theatre world, with the love and support of family and friends. In "The Loss of Nameless Things," his family and the actors who followed him into the upstate New York wilderness to build the Lexington Conservatory Theatre (LCT) share their recollections of Hall, his genius and the terrible accident. Cosponsored by Albany Center Galleries and Friends of the Albany Public Library.

Yvette Christiansë, poet and fiction writer, was born in South Africa, and emigrated with her parents via Swaziland to Australia at the age of eighteen. Unconfessed (2006), her first novel, tells the epic story of Sila van den Kaap, a slave of 19th century South Africa. Inspired by actual court records, the novel follows Sila's struggle for survival as she is passed from master to master, farm to farm, and ultimately, from prison to prison. In a starred review Kirkus Reviews said "Christiansë captures not only the breadth and complexity of Sila, a heroine for the ages, but also the moral crisis and political turmoil of 19th-century South Africa. . . . A gorgeous devastating song of freedom that will inevitably be compared to Toni Morrison's Beloved." Christiansë is also the author of Castaway (1999), a unique work of poetry that consists of fictional documents from the island of St. Helena, where Napoleon was banished, and where Christiansë's grandmother lived. Employing multiple personae, the book explores the history of the island, and its legacy as a place of exile and enslavement.

Linda Pastan is the author of fifteen poetry collections including her most recent Queen of a Rainy Country (Oct 2006). One of the main themes for Pastan, who postponed her writing career to marry and raise a family, is the complexities, passion, and dangers of ordinary domestic life, which has prompted reviewers to compare her work to that of Emily Dickinson. The Hudson Review call Pastan, ". . .a poet of a hundred small delights, celebrations, responses, satisfactions, pleasures." Her work includes the collections Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems (1998) and PM/AM (1983), both nominated for the National Book Award, The Imperfect Paradise (1988), nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The Five Stages of Grief (1978), which received the DeCastagnola Award.
Gerald Stern, major American poet, received the National Book Award for This Time: New and Selected Poems (1998), and the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award of the Academy of American Poets (2005) for "proven mastery in the art of poetry." Stern has been called a "post-nuclear Walt Whitman" for work that shares the spoken rhythms, extended lines, open forms, love of nature, defense of humanities, and sheer exuberance of the "bard of Democracy." Stern's newest collection is Everything is Burning (2005). In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said, "Forceful lines, brief lyric units and a sense of urgency make this 15th book from the much-honored Stern...his most powerful new verse for a long while." Earlier collections include American Sonnets (2002), Last Blue (2000), Odd Mercy (1995), Bread Without Sugar (1992), The Red Coal (1981), winner of the Melville Caine Award of the Poetry Society of America, and Lucky Life (1977), a finalist for the National Bopok Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of a book of essays, What I Can't Bear Losing: Notes from a Life (2004).

Dale Peterson, author of the important new biography, Jane Goodall, The Woman Who Redefined Man, shows clearly and convincingly how truly remarkable Goodall's accomplishments were and how unlikely it is that anyone else could have duplicated them. Peterson details not only how Jane Goodall revolutionized the study of primates, our closest relatives, but how she helped set radically new standards and a new intellectual style in the study of animal behavior. And he reveals the very private quest that led to another sharp turn in her life, from scientist to activist. Dale Peterson is also the author of The Deluge and the Ark and coauthor, with Richard Wrangham, of Demonic Males. Cosponsored with the Science Library.