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The Writers Institute
The Writers Institute episodes
- Susan Choi (with Grace Paley, Raymond Carver, Jamaica Kincaid, and William Kennedy)
Writers direct years of effort to language’s possibilities, so when you listen to a podcast devoted to writers speaking (which is this one) you can expect an appropriate range of possibility. You might hear something unforgettable—something that changes how you think, or reinforces a hunch you had, or confuses you in the most liberating way. On The Writers Institute, we seek those moments in the New York State Writers Institute’s overbrimming audio archives, guided by writers in 2022 who join that archival exploration. In this series premiere, Susan Choi—author of novels including Trust Exercise and My Education—listens with host Adam Colman to literary giants Grace Paley and Raymond Carver. Along the way, she talks about writers in the world, off the page.
“One thing I really like about writers,” Choi says, is that “writers are really curious about other people . . . I’m constantly amazed by how often I meet people who have no curiosity at all, about anything. It’s really disturbing to me, actually.”
On this episode:
Susan Choi (in conversation with Adam Colman). Books: Trust Exercise and My Education.
Raymond Carver (from the archives). Books: Cathedral and Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
Grace Paley (from the archives). Books: Enormous Changes at the Last Minute and Later the Same Day.
Jamaica Kincaid (from the archives). Books: Lucy and A Small Place.
William Kennedy (in conversation with Adam Colman). Books: Ironweed and The Ink Truck.
Find out more about the New York State Writers Institute at https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
54 min - Trailer
Welcome to the Writers Institute, the new series from Lit Hub and the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany. Hear writer/producer Adam Colman's adventures through the overbrimming audio archives of the Institute, one of the leading organizers of literary events in the US. Listening in with Adam will be writers including Susan Choi, Jonathan Franzen, Amelia Gray, Saeed Jones, and Jonathan Lethem, and you'll also hear from William Kennedy, the novelist and founder of the Writers Institute.
For more on the Institute, visit https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
4 min
About The Writers Institute
From the publisher's feed
Books are written in solitude, but writers do some of their finest work with crowds—in public talks, interviews, and events. The best moments from those strange, dramatic interactions often go missing, however: either they’re never recorded, or nobody will ever find the recordings.
Fortunately, the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has been methodically recording thousands of writers’ events since 1983, when it was founded by the novelist William Kennedy. Now, the writer and radio producer Adam Colman is digging into those audio archives, listening to recordings from the likes of Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, and Samuel Delany. On The Writers Institute, you’ll hear them, too, along with writers who joined Adam in listening to the archival recordings. They include Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Jonathan Lethem, Saeed Jones, and Amelia Gray. Tune in to hear what happens when intensely solitary work finds its way into the public realm and the wider world.