Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis, UAlbany Professor and the 2013 winner of the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction, will be speaking at the Albany Public Library on Saturday, December 7.

10 words to cut from your writing

As Mark Twain famously wrote, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." His point? Strong writing is lean writing.

When you want to make your writing more powerful, cut out words you don't need—such as the 10 included in this post.

Empire State Book Festival and NYS Writers Hall of Fame Gala

The 2nd Annual Empire State Book Festival and Gala is scheduled for April 1-2nd in Albany. The two-day event kicks off with the Empire State Book Festival Gala and NYS Writers Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Friday, April 1st at 6 p.m. in the State Room in Albany. This year’s inductees include poet John Ashbery and author Paula Fox as well as past literary greats Willa Cather, Julia DeBurgos, Ralph Ellison, Lorraine Hansberry, Madeleine L’Engle, Herman Melville, and Dorothy Parker. Tickets are $60. Deadline is Monday, March 28th.

On Saturday, April 2nd at 10 a.m. the 2nd Annual Empire State Book Festival begins with first keynote author Ann Martin, writer of the popular series – The Baby-sitters Club and at 3:45 p.m. the Festival closes with our second keynote singer/author Rosanne Cash, plus 30 workshops, panel discussions and story-telling from a host of writers, poets, illustrators and more.

The event is free and open to the public. For more info visit www.empirestatebookfestival.org and click on Events to download invitation to Gala.