Tom Junod, award-winning journalist
September 10 (Thursday)
Seminar on magazine journalism — 4:15 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library

Tom Junod, UAlbany graduate and a writer-at-large for Esquire, is the author of some of the most celebrated pieces in American magazine writing. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award a record 11 times, winning twice. Many of his articles are widely republished and frequently assigned in college journalism classes. He has also written for Atlantic Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and GQ.

Note: On Friday, September 11th, Tom Junod will appear at the Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum, Albany, at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss his article “The Falling Man,” a 2003 meditation on AP photographer Richard Drew’s iconic image of a 9/11 victim plunging to his death. For additional information on Junod’s presentation call (518) 442-3083.

Cosponsored by the University at Albany and New York State Museum

Photo: Jessamine Chan

Conjunctions, a literary magazine based at Bard College, has been called “One of our most distinctive and valuable literary magazines….innovative, daring, indispensable, and beautiful” (PEN American Center). Three major writers involved with the magazine will read from their own work.

Bradford Morrow, founding editor of Conjunctions, novelist, essayist, and poet
Morrow’s latest novel is The Forgers (2014), a literary thriller about books, murder, and forgery, and a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Mystery/Thriller for 2014. Joyce Carol Oates called it, “brilliantly written…. lethally enthralling.” Other novels by Morrow include The Diviner’s Tale (2011), and The Almanac Branch (1991), a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist. For his work at Conjunctions, Morrow received the PEN/Magid Award for Magazine Editing.

Ann Lauterbach, poet, essayist, and contributing editor of Conjunctions
Celebrated for poetry of ravishing intensity, Lauterbach is a past winner of a MacArthur Fellowship. Her recent collections include Under the Sign (2013), and Or to Begin Again (2009), a National Book Award finalist. Novelist Don DeLillo has said “Ann Lauterbach’s poetry is quantum-packed inside its own reality, releasing beams of light and time that bend across the world of human beauty.”

Peter Straub, horror writer, poet, and contributing editor of Conjunctions
One of America’s preeminent authors of horror fiction, Peter Straub received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005. Five of his books have also won the Bram Stoker Award, including A Dark Matter (2010), 5 Stories (2007), In the Night Room (2004), Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003), Mr. X (1999), and The Throat (1993). Other bestselling novels include Ghost Story (1979) and Julia (1975), as well as two coauthored with Stephen King: Black House (2001) and The Talisman (1984).

Directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (United States, 2012, 90 minutes, color)
Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and winner of the Editing Award, DETROPIA is a visually stunning exploration of the disintegration of Detroit. The New Yorker’s David Denby called it “the most moving documentary I’ve seen in years….an ardent love letter to past vitality….a beautiful film.”

Rachel Grady and collaborator Heidi Ewing shared a 2007 Best Documentary Oscar nomination for JESUS CAMP, about children attending an evangelical Christian summer program. Other films by Grady and Ewing include 12TH & DELAWARE (2010), winner of a prestigious Peabody Award, and THE BOYS OF BARAKA (2005), winner of the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival, and an NAACP Image Award.

Cosponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series

Photo: Sigrid Estrada

Photo: Samson Yee

Directed by Sean Dunne (United States, 2013, 78 minutes, color)
OXYANA is a harrowing profile of Oceana, West Virginia—a once-thriving coal town that has become the “capital” of the Oxycontin drug abuse epidemic. Featuring candid interviews with members of the shattered community, the film won two major awards at the Tribeca Film Festival:  Best New Documentary Director, and Best Documentary Feature–Special Jury Mention.

Sean Dunne, a native of Peekskill, is known for films that focus on socially marginalized individuals, and for his ability to get his subjects to “open up” and share their stories. A former writer and producer for The History Channel, Dunne received an Emmy nomination for his short film, THE ARCHIVE.

Cosponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series

American Shakespeare Center performance of Julius Caesar
October 20 (Tuesday)
Performance — 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center

Photo: William Rexer

Jason Reynolds, YA novelist, writes smart, engaging books for “teenage boys who don’t like to read.” He received the American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for When I Was the Greatest (2014), which Booklist called “urban fiction with heart, a meditation on the meaning of family, the power of friendship, and the value of loyalty.” His new novels include The Boy in the Black Suit (2015), about a teenager coping with his mother’s death, and All American Boys (2015, with Brendan Kiely), the story of two teens—one black, one white—and the repercussions of a single violent act.

Cosponsored by Albany High School, The Center for Law and Justice, The African American Cultural Center of the Capital Region, and UAlbany’s Department of Literacy Teaching & Learning, Friends of the New York State Library

Photo: Orianna Riley