Foreword thinking:
Online marketplace, recorded talks on tap
Writers Institute opts to hold virtual version of its popular Albany Book Festival.
Sure, you won’t be able to shake your favorite author’s hand. You won’t be able to have them sign a book after their talk – at least immediately. No selfies. But think of it this way: you can watch from your most comfortable chair in your pajamas and you can buy as many books as you want from that chair. Some may even come signed.
Like everything else, the Albany Book Festival is going virtual – and the lineup is pretty impressive.
The New York State Writers Institute announced last month that it would use technology to keep an annual tradition alive. The third
Albany Book Festival will take place virtually from Sept. 10-24—or anytime you want, really.
“Once you sort of pause it’s hard to restart. So we wanted to do something,” said Paul Grondahl, director of the Writers Institute. “We think it’s offering something to students, faculty and staff and to the wider community. It’s also saying something about Albany. We feel it’s a place that deserves to have a quality book festival and a film festival like most important or major cities in America do.”
Due the pandemic, the institute back in spring canceled the Albany Film Festival, the other large community event the institute puts on for free, in addition to its visiting writers series at the University at Albany.
While not ideal, Grondahl said an online festival has its advantages: Attendees don’t have to choose between concurrent events and can watch all of the presentations. And everything will be recorded. In the past, there wasn’t enough staff and equipment to record the many events happening simultaneously.
“It also favors people with mobility issues, some people who don’t have transportation, low income people who might not have the ability to get to a physical space on campus,” Grondahl said.
Grondahl said the organization will post one talk each day from a writer on their Youtube channel. The exception will be Sister Helen Prejean, who will close out the festival. Since these are pre-recorded (to avoid live glitches), you can tune in whenever and wherever you happen to be. There will also be an interactive Zoom workshop component available after signing up on the festival’s website. An online marketplace will feature local authors with books available from the Book House in Albany.
The lineup includes Edwidge Danticat, whose “Everything Inside” is getting raves; Harold Holzer, who explores a timely topic in “The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless
Battle Between The White House and the Media”; Noam Chomsky, whose latest is “Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power”; and Colum Mcann, whose new novel is “Apeirogon.”
“This is what my mother would have called a ‘yay/ boo,’” said Albany writer
David Levine, the author of “The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years: A Mostly Chronological and Occasionally Personal History.” “Yay, we have all these great writers to listen to online. Boo, we have to listen to them online. As usual, Paul Grondahl and company have an amazing collection of talent, and it’s a shame that, like everything else these days, we all have to stay home and stare at a screen instead of gathering in public to enjoy it.”
Still, Levine plans to take it all in: “Yes, I plan on watching as many of these as I can. I am especially interested in Gish Jen and Jane Leavy talkin’ baseball and writing.”
Since March 13, Grondahl said the institute’s been posting something each day and credited the staff and especially assistant director Mark Koplik for securing noteworthy writers since the coronavirus shut things down. The institute’s reach has also increased, with more international traffic during the pandemic.
The Youtube channel has featured past speakers and writers from the local community, like Levine, Judith Fetterley and the institute’s founder and executive director, William Kennedy.
The two previous Albany Book Festivals drew scores of bibliophiles to the uptown campus for presentations and book signings by the likes of Joyce Carol Oates, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Albany native Gregory Maguire.
“I attended last year and loved the Albany Book Festival. It was my version of celebrity sighting: Dani
Shapiro, Michael Maren, Joyce Carol Oates and so many more,” said Diane Cameron, local author of “Never Leave Your Dead: A True Story of War Trauma, Murder, and Madness.”
“I was struck speechless when seeing the people whose words I have loved. Looking forward to this year.”
Grondahl said he’s talking with authors about possibly making signed bookplates available to those who buy books via the festival’s site.
“There’s nothing like talking to a writer, get your book signed, you know, taking that selfie with the famous writer you always wanted to meet. And the sort of communal aspect of asking questions and back and forth and discussion,” Grondahl said. “So we’re doing our best.”