The keynote speaker is award-winning author and journalist William Kennedy, known for his “Albany Cycle” of seven novels, one of which (Ironweed) received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1984 and in 1987 was made into the film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.
Ever since his days as a journalist for the Albany Times Union in the early 1960s, Kennedy has been greatly influenced by documents found in archives and has blended history and memory to create a vivid Albany of the imagination. His archival research is also reflected in his deeply personal (and, IMHO, sublimely titled) history of the city, O Albany! Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels.
Information about tickets will soon appear on the Archives Dinner Web site. Ticket requests can also be made to Hon. Kathleen A. Newkirk, Bethlehem Town Clerk, 445 Delaware Avenue, Delmar, NY 12054, 518-439-4955, extension 1183, or knewkirk[at]townofbethlehem.org.
I've even just started up my very first Kennedy book! I hadn't really heard of him before moving here, but being around SUNY Albany as much as we were last week, it seems like time to get cracking on his novels.
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