SUNY Adirondack Writers Project Spring 2012 event schedule announced

QUEENSBURY – Poets, nonfiction writers and a documentary filmmaker will highlight the SUNY Adirondack Writers Project Spring 2012 schedule of events.

The schedule includes:

• Poet David Budbill will speak on Thurs., Feb. 23, at 6:30 p.m. in the Visual Arts Gallery, Dearlove Hall;

• SUNY Plattsburgh professor and poetry translator Alexis Levitin will speak Wed., March 7, at 12:30 p.m. in the Visual Arts Gallery;

• Documentary filmmaker David deVries will speak on Wed., March 21, at 12:40 p.m. in the Scoville Learning Center auditorium;

• Nonfiction writer Elizabeth Samet will speak on Mon., April 2, at 12:40 p.m. in the Scoville Learning Center auditorium;

• Nonfiction writer John Francis will speak on Mon., April 30, at 12:40 p.m. in the Scoville Learning Center auditorium.

Admission for all of these events is free and the public is invited.

Budbill is the author of Happy Life, While We’ve Still Got Feet, and Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse (Copper Canyon Press). He appears in conjunction with the Visual Arts Gallery’s opening reception for the Lois Eby exhibit Improvised!

David Budbill.

The New York Times has called Budbill “a no-nonsense free-range sage who celebrates tomatoes in September, the whistle of a woodcock and sweet black tea and ancient Chinese poems. He watches the seasons, the years and his own thoughts pass, embracing it all.”

Levitin has published 20 books of translations, including eleven collections of poems by Portugal’s foremost living poet, Eugenio de Andrade. His work has been included in 25 anthologies and 200 literary journals.

Alexis Levitin.

Daniel Jaffe has called Levitin “one of the most respected – if not the most respected – English-language translator of Portuguese and Brazilian literature, as well as literature from Ecuador.”

David deVries.

deVries has produced, directed, and written television documentaries in twenty-six countries for American and international networks.

Samet is the author of A Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point (Picador Press), an account of her 10 years as a civilian teacher of literature at the Military Academy.

Elizabeth Samet.

Her book was called “thoughtful, attentive (and) stereotype-breaking” by Robert Pinsky of the New York Times, who also says Samet “…offers a significant perspective on the crucial social and political force of honor: a principle of behavior at the intersection of duty and imagination.”

Her appearance is cosponsored by The Military Club of SUNY Adirondack.

The opinions expressed by Samet are her own; they do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.

Francis is the author of the National Geographic Books Planetwalker and The Ragged Edge of Silence.

John Francis.

National Geographic has called Planetwalker “…an amazing human-interest story with a vital message…(and)…an engaging coming-of-age pilgrimage.”

The Writers Project provides SUNY Adirondack students and residents of Warren, Washington and Saratoga counties with exposure to nationally renowned writers, provides up-and-coming writers with a venue for reading, and supports fledgling writers with workshops and writers’ retreats.

The Writers Project is made possible with assistance from the Faculty Student Association of ACC, the SUNY Adirondack English Division, the SUNY Adirondack Foundation, and SUNY Adirondack with initial funding and support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information on these programs, please contact J. Courtney Reid at 743.2200, extension 2213 or via email at reidjc@sunyacc.edu.

For more information on the Writers Project authors and events, visit www.sunyacc.edu/writersproject.

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