NYS Summer Writers Institute opens 23rd year at Skidmore

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -– For 23 years, the New York State Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore College has provided credit and non-credit courses in fiction, non-fiction prose, and poetry writing with a distinguished faculty of acclaimed writers, under the direction of Robert Boyers, professor of English at Skidmore.

Scheduled this year from June 29 to July 24, the Summer Writers Institute also offers a rich schedule of free readings and discussions by participating and guest writers. Boyers noted that the list of participants for this summer features three recent poet laureates of the United States (Robert Pinsky, Louise Glück, and Charles Simic), Pulitzer Prize-winners Richard Howard and Carl Dennis, MacArthur Foundation “genius” award-winner Campbell McGrath, and Lamont Poetry Prize-winner Carolyn Forché.

In addition, the following participating novelists have won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in fiction: Marilynne Robinson (Gilead), William Kennedy (Ironweed), Joyce Carol Oates (them), and Andrea Barrett (Ship Fever). Mary Gordon and Amy Hempel are winners of the REA Award for lifetime achievement in the short story.

Notable non-fiction writers include Katha Pollitt (columnist, The Nation), Philip Lopate (On Susan Sontag), Wayne Koestenbaum (The Queen’s Throat), Honor Moore (The Bishop’s Daughter), and Lawrence Weschler (The New Yorker magazine).

A schedule of writers institute events follows. All begin at 8 p.m. in Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall (except where noted). Admission to all events is free.

Poet Richard Howard, traditionally first in the schedule, will again open the season. He and novelist Binnie Kirschenbaum will read Monday, June 29.

• June 30: Fiction reading by Elizabeth Benedict (novelist, Almost) and Margot Livesey (Eva Moves the Furniture)

• July 1: Fiction and poetry reading by Mary Gordon (novelist, Pearl) and Frank Bidart (poet, Desire)

• July 2: Poetry, fiction, and non-fiction reading by Katha Pollitt and Howard Norman (novelist, The Bird Artist)

• July 3: Non-fiction and poetry reading by Phillip Lopate (author, Waterfront) and April Bernard (poet, Romanticism)

• July 6: Poetry and fiction reading by Robert Pinsky and novelist/short-story writer Jim Shepard (Like You’d Understand, Anyway)

• July 7: Poetry and fiction reading by Carolyn Forché (The Angel of History) and Marilynne Robinson (Gilead, Home, Housekeeping)

• July 8: Fiction and poetry reading by Victoria Redel (The Border of Truth) and Campbell McGrath (American Noise)

• July 9: Poetry and fiction reading by Louise Glück and Caryl Phillips (The Distant Shore and The Nature of Blood)

• July 10: Fiction reading by Joyce Carol Oates (them, We Were The Mulvaneys) Gannett Auditorium

• July 13: Fiction and poetry reading by Amy Hempel (The Dog of the Marriage) and Honor Moore (Red Shoes, The Bishop’s Daughter)

• July 14: Fiction reading by Jane Anne Phillips (Termite & Lark, Fast Lanes) and Danzy Senna (Caucasia)

• July 15: Fiction and poetry reading by Rick Moody (Demonology) and Henri Cole (Middle Earth)

• July 16: Poetry and fiction reading by Carl Dennis (Practical Gods) and Francine Prose (A Changed Man)

• July 17: Fiction and poetry reading by William Kennedy (Ironweed, Roscoe) and Peg Boyers (Honey with Tobacco, Hard Bread)

• July 20: Fiction reading by Mary Gaitskill (Veronica) and Alix Ohlin (The Missing Person)

• July 21: Fiction and poetry reading by Russell Banks (The Darling) and Chase Twichell (Dog Language)

• July 22: “Telling the Truth, Telling Lies: A Conversation on the Ethics and Aesthetics of Non-Fiction,” featuring Lawrence Weschler (Calamities of Exile, Vermeer in Bosnia) and James Miller (Democracy Is in the Streets)

• July 23: Fiction and poetry reading by Andrea Barrett (Ship Fever) and Charles Simic

• July 24: Fiction and poetry reading by Nicholas Delbanco (What Remains) and Wayne Koestenbaum (The Queen’s Throat)

The New York State Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore is sponsored in part by the New York State Writers Institute, University at Albany, State University of New York; under the auspices Skidmore’s Office of the Dean of Special Programs.