State Writers and State Poets to Launch Adirondack Book Festival
SARANAC LAKE – New York State writer Ayad Akhtar and New York State poet Willie Perdomo will kick off
Adirondack Writing Center 2022 Kickass Writers Festival
Read their production at the Pendragon Theatre on Saranac Lake on Friday, August 19 at 7pm.
The event is free to the public and is a collaboration between the Adirondack Writing Center and the Writers Institute of New York State in Albany.
Registration is required.
“We are delighted to be partnering with the Adirondack Writing Center to bring state poet Willie Perdomo and state writer Ayad Akhtar to Saranac Lake. This was their honor last September at the Writers Guild’s fourth annual Albany Book Festival. This is the first public appearance since a high honor,” said Paul Grondahl, director of the New York State Writers Guild.
“No other literary organization in the country has the right to appoint a national writer and national poet every two years,” Grondahl said. “We love the character and we’re delighted that Willie and Ayad are bringing their different voices to the North Country. I have no doubts that these two talented writers will deliver a great performance.”
The event marks the first free public reading in Adirondack Park by state writers and state poets since longtime Keene resident Russell Banks was named state writer in 2004.
“We wanted to highlight this connection between generations of New York writers,” said ACW director Nathalie Thill, “so we were delighted to have Russell Banks introduce Akhtar at the event and Chase Twichell to introduce Willie Perdomo, offering them both With a welcome introduction to the North Country. We couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the first annual Kickass Writers Festival.”
Ayad Akhtar’s Hometown Elegy Ayad Akhtar is a well-known novelist and playwright whose work explores the immigrant experience, American Muslim identity, and the world of high finance. His 2013 play Dishonored won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
He is the author of “Elegy for Homeland,” which Dwight Garner of The New York Times called “a beautiful novel about an American son and his immigrant father, echoing The Great Gatsby,” The Wisdom of the Story Tells the Possibilities and Limits of American Life.”
Ayad Akhtar currently chairs PEN America, one of the leading defenders of free speech at home and abroad.
Willie Perdomo’s smoking cutie
Willie Perdomo is an award-winning poet and children’s book author who examines and celebrates the Latino and Afro-Latino experiences in New York. His collection of poetry includes a finalist for the American Poetry Association’s Norma Farber First Book Award. Smoking Lovely (2004, revised 2021), PEN/Open Book Award Winner; Shorty Bon Bon (2014), National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and Essential Picks for The Crazy Bunch (2019), Documenting The weekend life of a group of friends in East Harlem in the 1990s.
Perdomo is also co-editor of a recent anthology, Latínext (2020), a celebration of the work of emerging Latin poets representing various nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities and writing styles.
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