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Albany Book Festival
Calling all book lovers! The NYS Writers Institute at the University at Albany is excited to host the 7th Annual Albany Book Festival featuring a distinguished lineup of award-winning, bestselling, and regional authors and poets, including a Nobel Prize laureate.
The event, free and open to the public, will take place on Saturday, September 21, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the University at Albany’s Uptown Campus, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12222.
In addition to special events, panel discussions, and book signings with more than 30 featured authors, there will be activities for children in the morning and a local author marketplace and book signings throughout the day. The Albany Book Festival will also feature open mic readings for UAlbany students, the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, and young local writers published in Skribblers magazine.
“We are proud to present the 7th annual Albany Book Festival, a community-wide celebration that brings together acclaimed authors and enthusiastic readers in a celebration of literature,” said Paul Grondahl, Opalka Endowed Director of the New York State Writers Institute.
This year’s panels include:
• “Girls Coming of Age” with National Book Award finalist Lisa Ko, Aisha Abdel Gawad, author of author of Between Two Moons (2024), and Emily Layden, moderated by Elisa Albert.
• “Lincoln and American Immigration” with Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, author of the new book, Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration (2024)
• “The Latino Spirit,” A conversation with Luis A. Miranda, author of the new memoir Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America (2024), with UAlbany President Havidan Rodriguez
• “Reverberations of the Unabomber,” A conversation with David Kaczynski, the younger brother of domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski and author of Every Last Tie: The Story of the Unabomber and His Family
• “Time Travel and Multiverses” with Emmy Award–winning writer Marc Guggenheim and Peng Shepherd, author of The Cartographers (2022) and All This and More (2024)
• “Planet on Fire” with Sunil Amtrith, author of The Burning Earth (Sept. 2024), and William Bryant Logan, author of the 1995 classic Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth
• “Rethinking God” with Sarah McCammon (The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church) and Shalom Auslander, author of the new memoir Feh (2024)
• “Queer Childhood” with Mike DeSocio, author of author of Morally Straight: How the Fight for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Changed the Boy Scouts―and America (2024), and James Frankie Thomas, author of Idlewild (2023)
• “Thrillers” with Armando Lucas Correa, author of The Silence in Her Eyes (2024), and Jahmal Mayfield, author of Smoke Kings (2024). Moderated by novelist Elizabeth Brundage
• “Discovering New Narratives” with Joachim Frank, who received the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, author of the new novel, Ierapetra, or His Sister's Keeper (2024).
• ”Recipes for Cultural Renewal” with Marisel Salazar, Taffy Elrod and Alliah Agostini. Moderated by Susie Davidson Powell, Dining Critic for the Albany Times Union.
• “Voices and Views from the Expanding Security State” with Ed Schwarzschild and Danny Goodwin, co-authors of Job/Security: A Composite Portrait of the Expanding American Security Industry (Aug. 2024)
• “Beavers, The Rodent that Built Albany” with Leila Philip, author of Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America. Moderated by Maeve McEneny, Director of Community Engagement, Discover Albany.
• “Kamala, Beyonce, and Black Female Power” with Tanisha C. Ford, author of Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement (2023), and Martha S. Jones, author of Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (2020)
• “Heartbreak on the Southern Border” with Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez, author of the new memoir memoir, My Side of the River (2024), and Ruben Reyes Jr., author of There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven (Aug. 2024).
• “Children's Author Spotlight” with Alliah L. Agostini on her new book Great Idea Malia!
A full list of authors and events is available at our website. Free parking and free admission.
Event Links
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2633999-0
