A message from Writers Institute director Paul Grondahl:
We are excited to host the 5th annual Albany Book Festival at the University at Albany on Saturday, September 17.
Special guests include:
“Doonesbury” cartoonist and author Garry Trudeau,
former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, National Book Award-winning novelist Susan Choi (Trust Exercise),
and novelist/short story writer Francine Prose.
a tribute to the late Hunter S. Thompson, online workshops, panel discussions and more.
We'll announce more guests and related events in the coming weeks.
Our celebration of literacy, great writing, amazing books and enlightening conversations between authors and readers has been an ever-growing success story. It gets better each year and we’re thrilled with the quality, diversity, and dynamism of the writers we will be bringing this fall.
Our intention when we first conceived of this event was to correct a grave omission:
Why did the capital city of New York State, with its grand literary tradition, not have a book festival?
We have drawn thousands of attendees, dozens of acclaimed writers, scores of booksellers and publishers, and hundreds of local writers selling their books. We have put Albany on the book festival map. We can now proudly add Albany alongside the list of well-established book festivals such as those in Brooklyn, Boston, Miami, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
Let’s continue to grow our event. We need everyone who writes, edits, publishes, reads, buys, sells and loves looks to come together to make a statement. Let’s make No. 5 the biggest and best Albany Book Festival yet. See you on September 17.
Stay tuned for updates on special guest authors and events coming to the Albany Book Festival.
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