A year in photos: NYS Writers Institute in 2025
- NYS Writers Institute
- 23 hours ago
- 5 min read
As we close the book on 2025, we’re proud to share a few highlights from our 42nd year of bringing Pulitzer Prize winners, poets, debut novelists, young writers, journalists, playwrights, newsmakers, and thought leaders to our audiences.
Before diving into the photos, here’s a quick look at our year by the numbers:
71........... NYS Writers Institute events in 2025
1............. number of events that were not free and open to the public
17,800.... number of attendees at our events
6,965...... subscribers to our email newsletter list
57,727.... unique visitors to our www.nyswritersinstitute.org website
161......... countries where our website visitors live
10,131.... subscribers to our YouTube channel
41........... new videos posted to our YouTube channel
6,056...... Facebook followers
366,352.. views on our Facebook page
3,084...... Instagram followers
406,982.. views on Instagram
Our Visiting Writers Series kicked off in January with a Joe Donahue-moderated conversation with novelist Jay McInerney, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Bright Lights, Big City.
Lynn Nottage, the only woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice -- 2009 for Ruined and 2017 for Sweat -- joined us in March for a conversation hosted by Kathryn Walat, Associate Professor in the UAlbany Department of Music & Theatre. Watch video.
"If you're not worried [about politics], you're not paying attention." -- Max Boot.
Historian Max Boot and former NY Governor George Pataki joined us at Page Hall in March for a discussion on "The View from Center-Right." Watch video.
Karyn Parsons best known as Hilary Banks on NBC’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996), shared her inspiring journey from acting to publishing children’s books at The Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center in Albany. More.
We partnered with The Historic Albany Foundation for an Online Book Club celebrating the Erie Canal with a lively discussion of Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation by Peter L. Bernstein.
One of the major events of our Albany Film Festival was a conversation with Gregory Maguire, the beloved author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West -- the basis of the hit Broadway musical and the 2024 and 2025 movie blockbusters. Maguire is a proud University at Albany alum (Class of 1976). See video from his 2022 visit.
We ventured to New York City on a hot June day for a literary tour celebrating the centennial of The New Yorker and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
In August, Director Paul Grondahl pedaled the "Book Bike" from Grassroots Givers on Washington Avenue in Albany to the UAlbany campus, handing out free children’s books at "Back2School Night," hosted by the UAlbany men’s and women’s basketball teams. "Anything to get kids reading," Paul wrote on Instagram. Read the Times Union story.
We took another road trip in September, leading a group for a private tour of Steepletop, the historic home and bucolic grounds of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, in Austerlitz, Columbia County.
Early September brought Peter Wolf, former lead singer of The J. Geils Band, for a conversation with WAMC's Joe Donahue about his New York Times bestseller, Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses (2025). Watch video.
Our Tuesday and Thursday afternoon events proved popular with both the community and UAlbany students. A standing-room audience joined us for Amanda Litman, cofounder of the political organization, Run for Something, and author of When We're in Charge: The Next Generation’s Guide to Leadership (2025). Watch video.
On Friday, September 26, we introduced new State Author Min Jin Lee and new State Poet Kimiko Hahn at a ceremony at the University at Albany. In the photo: NYS Writers Institute Opalka Endowed Director Paul Grondahl, Lee, Hahn, UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez, and UAlbany Provost Carol Kim. More.
Thousands of book lovers attended our 8th Annual Albany Book Festival on Saturday, September 27, featuring discussions with more than 30 best-selling authors, a local author marketplace, open mic readings, and book signings.
At one of the Albany Book Festival featured events, UAlbany Professor Moriah Hampton, left, moderates a discussion on "Fairy Tales for Adults" with authors Luis Jaramillo and Julie Phillips.
Just two days after our book festival, we welcomed Ken Auletta, journalist and New Yorker columnist, for a luncheon at the Fort Orange Club and a conversation at Page Hall. His most recent book, Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence (2022)— was named a best book of the year by the New York Times, New Yorker, and Esquire. More.
Along with our springtime Albany Film Festival, we hosted 10 film screenings and discussions in 2025. In the photo above, NYS Writers Institute Assistant Director Mark Koplik shares the stage with 'Grammar Guru" Ellen Jovin and Brandt Johnson, director of "Rebel With A Clause." Watch the trailer.
Michael Luo, Executive Editor at The New Yorker and author of Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America, joined us in October for discussion of his landmark work.
In November, State Senator Patricia Fahy joined us for a marathon public reading of William Kennedy's 1975 novel Legs. More than 80 community members participated in the reading that began at noon on Wednesday, November 8, and ended at 12:19 a.m. the next day. Photos and a video of Kennedy reading from his novel.
Just days later, The New York Times published a feature story by Dan Barry about the event, opening with this vivid scene:
He walked into this Albany bar like he owned the joint, dressed to kill in a black overcoat with room enough for a Tommy gun. But all he was packing was his weapon of choice, a book.
The crowd met him at the door with a blast of cheers. There he is, they called out. There he is. William Kennedy. Bill.
Kennedy may be nearly 98 and using a walker, but don’t kid yourself. He knows where the bodies are buried — he still speaks to them — and he can drink you under the table. He is Albany’s ageless bard, and his appearance had just consecrated the rain-slickened night.
In November, we hosted our very first Literary Trivia Night at Across the Street Pub, located... across the street from the UAlbany campus.
Here's a tough question from the 'lightning round.' What is William Kennedy’s favorite red wine?
During 2025, we ventured off-campus to present a number of programs. On December 14, Paul Grondahl moderated a Sunday morning conversation with poet and novelist Victoria Redel, author of the new novel I Am You, described by Paul as an "engrossing, twisty, bloody, atmospheric story about art, class and gender."
And the answer to the Literary Trivia Night question:
Côtes du Rhône (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaruLyelFgk&t=2s)
What’s Next?
We'll announce our 43rd season of events in the next couple of weeks. More than 30 events coming to Albany. Join us for some literary conversation.