The 2025 NYS Summer Writers Institute schedule of events

"An auditorium filled with writers and readers brings to everyone present the feeling that writing can matter — that thoughtful people can come together night after night to be challenged, to learn from one another, and to celebrate what is good."

-- Robert Boyers, founder and co-director NYS Summer Writers Institute

Four weeks of readings and special events coming to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs starting Monday, June 23

Since its inception in 1987, the NYS Summer Writers Institute has attracted award-winning writers and enthusiastic audiences to its summer home at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs.

The 38th annual summer season of readings, book signings, film screenings, meet and greets, and conversation kicks off on Monday, June 23, with Elizabeth Benedict and Binnie Kirshenbaum. This season's schedule also welcomes back literary giants such as Joyce Carol Oates (for the 38th year!), Jamaica Kincaid, Robert Pinsky, Amy Hempel, Phillip Lopate, and Claire Messud. Audiences can also look forward to popular discussions with New York Times columnist John McWhorter, New Yorker writer Vinson Cunningham, and Atlantic staff writer Thomas Chatterton Williams.

Co-founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Kennedy and Skidmore professor and Salmagundi literary journal editor Robert Boyers, the NYS Summer Writers Institute is now co-directed by Boyers and author Adam Braver and has become a cherished tradition in Saratoga Springs.

We recently talked with Bob Boyers and asked him a few questions.

Now in its 38th year, what keeps audiences coming back to Saratoga Springs each summer?

Peg Boyers, Seamus Heaney, and Bob Boyers at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. (undated photo)

Bob Boyers: When Bill Kennedy first approached Skidmore with the idea of starting a summer writers program, we thought this would be a good thing, and that it would probably last for a few years at most.

Now that we’re still going strong, we can’t help feeling somewhat amazed that we’ve managed on a shoestring budget to bring to Saratoga Springs many of the best writers in the world over several decades, and that they continue to return to us year after year.

What makes it special?

Bob: The word ‘community’ is often used promiscuously, with little justification, but ours really is a community of writers and friends. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than presiding over a program that combines new faces and veteran faces, brilliant students from all over the country, and challenging, often controversial writers.

Garth Greenwell, who won this year’s PEN/Faulkner Award, first came to us as a 19-year-old poetry student. Cristina Garcia, whose Dreaming in Cuban was championed by Russell Banks, was also a student here in the early 1990s. There’s nothing more gratifying than watching their journeys and knowing the Institute was part of it.

Q: What’s the best thing that book lovers will find when they attend one of your events?

Joyce Carol Oates and the late Russell Banks at Skidmore a few years ago. (Photo credit: Henri Cole)

Bob: Book lovers in and around Saratoga Springs will of course find that many of their favorite writers are scheduled to read from their works in progress and to answer questions about their work. But just as exciting is the opportunity to discover new voices — writers who may become your next favorites.

The public events aren’t limited to readings. The calendar includes panel discussions, author interviews, film nights, and book signings.

The spirit at our public events is infectious. An auditorium filled with writers and readers brings to everyone present the feeling that writing can matter — that thoughtful people can come together night after night to be challenged, to learn from one another, and to celebrate what is good.

Public Events Schedule 2025

Unless otherwise noted, all events are held on the Skidmore College campus -- 815 N Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 -- and are are free and open to the public. Tickets are required for Caffè Lena events.

Week 1

8 p.m. Monday, June 23

Elizabeth Benedict (fiction) and Binnie Kirshenbaum (fiction)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Tuesday, June 24

Garth Greenwell (fiction) and Megan Fernandes (poetry)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Wednesday, June 25

Honor Moore (non-fiction) and Hannah Assadi (fiction)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Thursday, June 26

Phillip Lopate (non-fiction) and Rosanna Warren (poetry)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Friday, June 27

Queer Poetry: Reading and conversation with Tom Healy, Mark Doty and Alex Dimitrov

Tang Museum

3 p.m. Sunday, June 29

Student Reading

Davis Auditorium

Week 2

8 p.m. Monday, June 30

Claire Messud (fiction) and Sandra Lim (poetry)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Tuesday, July 1

Jerald Walker (non-fiction) and Campbell McGrath (poetry)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 2

Film Screening: Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bad Education” (“Maleducación”)

Followed by 8:30 p.m. Panel/Conversation with Jim Miller (author of the new book The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar), Phillip Lopate and Robert Boyers

Davis Auditorium

(Film also available on Amazon Prime and other platforms)

8 p.m. Thursday, July 3

Vinson Cunningham (fiction) and April Bernard (poetry)

Reading, Caffè Lena – Tickets required

8 p.m. Friday, July 4

Jim Shepard (fiction) and Chase Twichell (poetry)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

Week 3

8 p.m. Monday, July 7

Novelist Mary Gaitskill: A Conversation with Robert Boyers

Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Tuesday, July 8

Amy Hempel (fiction) and Peg Boyers (poetry)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Wednesday, July 9

Poetry & Jazz: Robert Pinsky, Todd Coolman, and others

Caffè Lena – Tickets required

8 p.m. Thursday, July 10

Francine Prose (fiction) and Ishion Hutchinson (poetry)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Friday, July 11

Rick Moody (fiction) and Adam Braver (fiction)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

3 p.m. Sunday, July 13

Student Reading

Davis Auditorium

Week 4

8 p.m. Monday, July 14

Thomas Chatterton Williams (memoir) and Steve Stern (fiction)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Tuesday, July 15

New York Times columnist John McWhorter: A Conversation on Politics, Language and the Culture Wars with Robert Boyers

Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Wednesday, July 16

Jamaica Kincaid (fiction) and Susan Minot (fiction)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Thursday, July 17

Joyce Carol Oates (fiction) and Henri Cole (poetry)

Reading, Davis Auditorium

8 p.m. Friday, July 18

Reading and Panel on Memoir: Why Write About Yourself? with Laura Kipnis, Melora Wolff, and Robert Boyers

Davis Auditorium