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The New York State Writer's Institute's 2026 spring season will begin in early May

The New York State Writer’s Institute’s spring season gets underway tomorrow and will stage events through early May, featuring major contemporary fiction writers and authors of No. 1 national best-selling novels, memoirists and historians, eminent journalists, fantasy writers, poets, podcasters, presidential candidates, and much more.

Guests include Adam Aleksic, Jelani Cobb, Allegra Goodman, David Guterson, David Nasaw, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Joe Manchin and Andrew Yang…to name a few.

Paul Grondahl is the Opalka Endowed Director of the NYS Writers Institute. He joins us this morning.

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Joe talks to people on the radio for a living. In addition to countless impressive human "gets" - he has talked to a lot of Muppets. Joe grew up in Philadelphia, has been on the area airwaves for more than 25 years and currently lives in Washington County, NY with his wife, Kelly, and their dog, Brady. And yes, he reads every single book.
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