New York State Writers Institute

The New York State Writers Institute and UAlbany will be hosting the fifth annual Albany Book Festival at the college’s Uptown Campus, in the campus center on Saturday, September 17. The event will host more than 100 authors and poets, including Pulitzer-Prize-winning “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau and National Book Award winner Susan Choi, among others.

Designer Debbie Millman and author Roxane Gay visited the University at Albany for a conversation with WAMC’s Joe Donahue as part of The Creative Life: A Conversation Series on Tuesday, November 2, 2021 at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the University at Albany’s Uptown Campus.

Sonia Manzano, the actor and author who played Maria for nearly five decades on "Sesame Street" will be the guest in this spring’s edition of The Creative Life: A Conversation Series at UAlbany, appearing at the Performing Arts Center at 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. She will be in conversation with WAMC's Joe Donahue. That evening, also at UAlbany, Manzano will perform as part of a Selected Shorts live event which will feature Manzano along with Patricia Kalember, and Bhavesh Patel.

Selected Shorts is getting a new host. The public radio and podcast series, created by Symphony Space, has tapped author Meg Wolitzer to become the first permanent host of the show since the death of Symphony Space founder Isaiah Sheffer in 2012. After a decade of writers and artists serving as the host of events in the series, those duties will fall to Wolitzer, whose own stories have been performed in the series. She has written bestsellers including “The Wife,” “The Interestings” and “The Female Persuasion.”Selected Shorts will be at UAlbany on April 30 featuring actors Sonia Manzano, Patricia Kalember, and Bhavesh Patel. The event is presented in collaboration with the UAlbany Performing Arts Center with support from the University at Albany Foundation, University Auxiliary Services, and the Office of Intercultural Student Engagement.Selected Shorts will be at 7:30 p.m. Prior to that, at 4 p.m. WAMC's Joe Donahue will be in conversation with Sonia Manzano (Sesame Street) for the Creative Life Conversation Series.

The 2nd Annual Albany Film Festival -- featuring a number of "bookish" events, and events that emphasize writing – will be presented by the NYS Writers Institute on Saturday at the University at Albany. The Albany Film Festival is a very story-focused festival, with conversations about filmmakers as storytellers, book-to-film, writing vs. visual storytelling, screenwriting, criticism, and film history and biography. The emphasis is more on conversation and Q&A with guests than on screenings of full films. NYS Writers Institute Director Paul Grondahl is here to preview the festival and explore the intersection of writing and cinema.

The new historical documentary, “Searching for Timbuctoo,” will have its Albany premiere on November 12th at 7:00p.m. on the Downtown Campus of the University at Albany. The screening is hosted by the New York State Writers Institute, is free and open to the public.

The 4th annual Albany Book Festival is taking place this Saturday, presented by the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany. Readers, writers, editors, publishers and booksellers once again will meet in celebration of literature.For a full preview, we welcome Writers Institute Director, Paul Grondahl.

The New York State Writers Institute launches its first Albany Film Festival this weekend. WAMC’s Jesse King spoke with Institute Director Paul…

The NYS Writers Institute’s 3rd Annual Albany Book Festival will be held September 10th through the 24th with all events taking place online, free, and…

Weeks before the city became the site of sometimes violent protests between demonstrators and police, the Center For Law And Justice in Albany released a…