Star-studded literary lineup
Prizewinning newcomers such as memoirist Margo Jefferson and novelist Garth Greenwell will join a cast of distinguished veterans for the 30th anniversary season of Skidmore College’s New York State Summer Writers Institute. The monthlong celebration of writing and writers includes 22 nights of readings and discussions, free and open to the public, from July 4 through 29.
First-time visitor Margo Jefferson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former staff writer for
the New York Times, is the winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for her autobiography
Negroland. In her memoir, Jefferson explores her experience growing up in an upper-middle class
black family in Chicago and relates that experience to other aspects of American life.
Jefferson appears with MacArthur Fellowship-winning novelist Joanna Scott on Friday,
July 8 at 8 p.m. in Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall.
Watch the livestream:
Novelist Garth Greenwell’s first novel, What Belongs to You, has been
greeted with ecstatic reviews in such publications as the New Yorker, Times Book Review, New Republic and London Review. Though Greenwell was a student at the summer writers institute for several years,
this year marks his first visit to the program as a featured writer. Greenwell will
appear with poet Peg Boyers on Tuesday July 19 at 8 p.m.
Other headliners returning to campus this year include Joyce Carol Oates, William Kennedy, Robert Pinsky, Mary Gordon, Jamaica Kincaid, Russell Banks, Louise Gluck, Rick Moody, Claire Messud and Mary Gaitskill. The 2016 season will conclude on Friday, July 29 with a reading by two Pulitzer Prize winners: Novelist Paul Harding (Tinkers) and poet Carl Dennis (Practical Gods).
For a schedule and full list of visiting writers, visit the Summer Writers Institute’s webpage here or the Skidmore Campus Events Calendar.
