FEATURED AUTHORS
All events Saturday, September 17, 2022. (Masks are strongly recommended indoors.)
List of Authors: Ronald M. Berger | Robert Boyers | Douglas Brinkley | Jennifer Marie Brissett | Susan Choi | Sarah Cohen | Julie Schwietert Collazo | Rosayra Pablo Cruz | Leslie Fenwick | Eugene Garber | Lynne Garafola | Ellyn Gaydos | Keith Gessen | Rob Hart | Susan Hartman | Britt Hawthorne | Jessica Hernandez | Julia May Jonas | Gary Josephson | Sylvie Kantorovitz | William Kennedy | Vallery Lomas | H. Carl McCall | Ben McGrath | Melinda Wenner Moyer | David Pietrusza | Robert Pinsky | Francine Prose | Peter Quinn | Jason L. Riley | Jim Shepard | Tim Spofford | Barbara Sutton | Haile Thomas | Garry Trudeau
RONALD M. BERGER
UAlbany Faculty & Emeritus Faculty Event
3:45 to 4:30 p.m. Assembly Hall
Ronald M. Berger taught History, specializing in English history, including early modern Britain, and Gender Studies at the University at Albany from 1996 to 2012. His first novel, The Gorge (2020) is a thriller set in the Adirondack Mountains, and specifically in and around the Hudson River Gorge, a 12-mile canyon featuring steep cliffs, numerous rapids, and waterfalls. The Gorge is informed and inspired by Ron’s own experiences as a licensed whitewater rafting guide on the Hudson River from 1992 to 1997. Berger received his Ph.D. in British history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Ron is also a veteran of the NYS Writers Institute's free Community Writers Workshops, where he studied with major authors James Lasdun and Lydia Davis.
ROBERT BOYERS
In-conversation with Robert Pinsky 10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
In-conversation with Francine Prose 2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.,
Campus Center Assembly Hall
Robert Boyers, director of the New York State Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore College, where he is an English professor, is the author of The Tyranny of Virtue: Identity, The Academy, and the Hunt for Political Heresies (paperback, Nov. 2021), a provocative essay collection about the decline of civility and academic freedom promoted by excesses of political correctness. Jamaica Kincaid said, “The life of the academy should remain sacred, and this book makes a splendid case for it.” He is also founder and editor of the Salmagundi literary quarterly.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY
Tribute to Hunter S. Thompson, 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.,
Campus Center West Auditorium
Douglas Brinkley, literary executor of Hunter S. Thompson’s estate, edited two books of his letters: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman 1955-67 (1997), and Fear and Loathing in America (2000). A prolific author of American history books, Brinkley is the official Presidential Historian on CNN, a professor of history at Rice University, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. His recent books include American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race (2020), and the forthcoming Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening (Nov. 2022).
JENNIFER MARIE BRISSETT
Apocalyptic Fiction Panel,
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Jennifer Marie Brissett, a British–Jamaican American writer, once owned an indie bookstore in Brooklyn. She is the author of Elysium (2014), the story of two people struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic city, and winner of the Philip K. Dick Special Citation Award. Her new book is Destroyer of Light (2021), an Afro-Futuristic tale about the remnants of humankind who have been resettled on another planet after the alien conquest of Earth. It was named a Kirkus Reviews 2021 Best of the Year Book, and one of Book Riot’s 20 Must Read Space Fantasy Books for 2021.
SUSAN CHOI
In-conversation with Julia May Jonas,
1:45 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., Campus Center Assembly Hall
Susan Choi's latest novel, Trust Exercise, won the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction. The story of two students who fall in love at a fiercely competitive high school for the arts, the novel was named a best book of 2019 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and New York magazine, among other publications. Her second novel, American Woman, about a Japanese-American radical on the run from the FBI, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. A former fact-checker for The New Yorker, she co-edited the anthology, Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker, with editor David Remnick.
SARAH R. COHEN
UAlbany Faculty & Emeritus Faculty Event
3:45 to 4:30 p.m. Assembly Hall
Sarah R. Cohen, Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History, received her Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University in 1988. Her 2021 book, Enlightened Animals in Eighteenth-Century Art: Sensation, Matter, and Knowledge, probes the question: How do our senses help us to understand the world? This question, which preoccupied Enlightenment thinkers, also emerged as a key theme in depictions of animals in eighteenth-century art. This book examines the ways in which painters such as Chardin, as well as sculptors, porcelain modelers, and other decorative designers, portrayed animals as sensing subjects who physically confirmed the value of material experience.
JULIE SCHWIETERT COLLAZO
Immigration Panel,
2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Julie Schwietert Collazo is a bilingual writer, editor, and immigration reform activist who works to reunite families that have been separated during the immigration process. She is the co-author with Rosayra Pablo Cruz of The Book of Rosy: A Mother's Story of Separation at the Border (2020), and author of the Newcomer's Handbook for Moving to and Living in New York City (2015). Her work has been published by the BBC, DISCOVER, Latina, National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Scientific American, and TIME magazine. She is co-founder and director of Immigrant Families Together.
ROSAYRA PABLO CRUZ
Immigration Panel,
2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
In The Book of Rosy: A Mother's Story of Separation at the Border (2020), co-written by Julie Schwietert Collazo, Rosayra Pablo Cruz tells the gripping story of her escape from Guatemala in 2018 with two of her children after her husband was murdered. Following a brutal journey that left them dehydrated, exhausted, and nearly starved, Rosy and her two little boys arrived at the Arizona border. Almost immediately they were forcibly separated by government officials under the Department of Homeland Security’s new “zero tolerance” policy. Named one of the “Best Books of Summer 2020” by People, TIME and Parade, it has been described as a “disturbing and unforgettable memoir” by Publishers Weekly.
LESLIE FENWICK
In-conversation with Tim Spofford,
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m., Campus Center West Boardroom
Leslie Fenwick, PhD is author of the new book, Jim Crow’s Pink Slip (2022), which exposes the decades-long repercussions of a too-little-known result of resistance to the Brown v. Board of Education decision: the systematic dismissal of Black educators from formerly segregated Black public schools, and the ongoing trauma and upheaval experienced by their families. NPR’s Michel Martin called it, “a very riveting and disturbing story.” A former Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and former dean of Howard University's School of Education, Fenwick is noted for her expertise in leadership, ethics, public policy, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workforce.
EUGENE GARBER
UAlbany Faculty & Emeritus Faculty Event
3:45 to 4:30 p.m. Assembly Hall
Eugene Garber’s most recent novel, Maison Cristina (2021), takes place in a small facility for the mentally ill operated by nuns. The plot revolves around an aging literary man and a young woman sunken by mysterious wounds into a state of catatonia. A Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of English at the UAlbany, he began teaching at UAlbany in 1977 and was acting associate director of the NYS Writers Institute from 1994-95. He has written seven previous works of fiction including The Eroica Trilogy based on a hypermedia webwork, EROICA, created with eight other artists. https://eugenekgarber.com
LYNN GARAFOLA
In-conversation on La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern,
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., Campus Center West Boardroom
Lynn Garafola, American dance historian, is the author of La Nijinska (2022), the first biography of twentieth-century ballet's premier female choreographer. Overshadowed in life and legend by her brother Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska had a far longer and more productive career. The book sheds new light on the modern history of ballet and reveals the sexism pervasive in the upper echelons of the early and mid-twentieth-century ballet world, barriers that women choreographers still confront. Dance International called it, "Finally the biography [Bronislava Nijinska] deserves." In conversation with Norton Owen, the Director of Preservation at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
ELLYN GAYDOS
Food Panel,
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Assembly Hall
Ellyn Gaydos is the author of Pig Years (2022), her memoir of a farmer’s life in Upstate New York and Vermont. She shares her precarious world, conjuring with simplicity the lifeblood of the farm: its livestock and stark full moons, the sharp cold days lives near to the land where joy and tragedy are frequent bedfellows. Her debut book was praised by Anthony Doerr, best-selling author of All the Light We Cannot See, as a “startling testimony to the glories and sorrows of raising and harvesting plants and animals.” Gaydos received an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Columbia University and lives in New Lebanon, New York.
KEITH GESSEN
Parenting Panel,
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Keith Gessen is
the author of a parenting memoir, Raising Raffi: The First Five Years (2022), a “Most Anticipated Book of 2022” (LitHub, The Millions) that examines the profound, overwhelming, and often maddening experience of being a dad. Dwight Garner of the New York Times called it, “A wise, mild and enviably lucid book about a chaotic scene,” and Daniel Engber of the Atlantic said, “Memoirs of fatherhood are rarely so honest or so blunt.” Gessen is also a founding editor of n+1 and a contributor to The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and the London Review of Books.
ROB HART
Apocalyptic Fiction Panel,
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Rob Hart is the author of The Warehouse (2019), a terrifying near-future novel about an online retailer that takes over the American economy with its sprawling facilities, giant warehouses, and delivery drones. Translated into more than 20 languages, the book was optioned for film by Ron Howard. Hart’s new novel is The Paradox Hotel (2022), which explores the chaos caused by the commercialization of time travel. NPR said the novel, “Smashes together some of the best elements of science fiction and crime to deliver a story in which time is broken.”
SUSAN HARTMAN
Immigration Panel,
2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Journalist Susan Hartman is the author of an acclaimed new book that examines the revitalization and startling transformation of Utica, NY, by a recent influx of immigrants: City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town (2022). “Where there had been abandoned factories and buildings, there was new light, there were new stores,” says Hartman. The Los Angeles Times said, "Susan Hartman illuminates the humanity of these outsiders while demonstrating the crucial role immigrants play in the economy—and the soul—of the nation." Her stories and profiles have appeared in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and Newsday.
BRITT HAWTHORNE
Parenting Panel,
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Britt Hawthorne, educator, activist and biracial mom, is the author of Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide, a guidebook featuring stories, practical activities, helpful tips, questionnaires, and tools for nurturing an antiracist perspective. The book presents a variety of ways that children and parents can combat stereotypes, build inclusive communities, resist media influences, and participate in society as brave agents of change. Library Journal called it, “A must-read that covers an essential topic well and is jam-packed with ideas to implement.”
JESSICA HERNANDEZ
Winner of the Bruce Piasecki and Andrea Masters Annual Award on Business and Society Writing
Award ceremony, 12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m., Campus Center Boardroom
Jessica Hernandez, Ph.D., is the second recipient of a new award that honors young authors (ages 18-35) who offer solutions to urgent problems facing American society and the world. An Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate, she is the author of Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science (2022). In the book, she breaks down why Western conservationism isn’t working, and offers more effective Indigenous models informed by case studies and backed by science. Raised in South Central Los Angeles, she became the first alum from her high school to receive and complete a doctoral degree. Her forthcoming second book is Growing Papaya Trees: Nurturing Indigenous Roots of Climate Displacement & Justice.
JULIA MAY JONAS
In-conversation with Susan Choi,
1:45 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., Campus Center Assembly Hall
Julia May Jonas, playwright and fiction writer, is the author of Vladimir: A Novel, a provocative, razor-sharp, and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students. The New York Times reviewer called it, “Delightful…a witty dance with the ghost of Vladimir Nabokov, and a razor-edged commentary on academia at our current fraught moment.” The Boston Globe reviewer said, “Vladimir goes into such outrageous territory that my jaw literally dropped at moments while I was reading it.”
GARY JOSEPHSON MD
In-conversation on Ordinary to Extraordinary,
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., Campus Center West Boardroom
Gary Josephson, MD, MBA, and University at Albany alum, is the author of Ordinary to Extraordinary: Seven Principles for Life Success (2022), a concise guide for early career seekers— and their parents. At UAlbany, Dr. Josephson majored in biology and minored in English and psychology. A pediatric ear, nose, throat, head and neck surgeon, he is the chief medical officer at a nationally recognized not-for-profit pediatric healthcare organization and holds academic rank of professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and the University of South Florida College of Medicine.
SYLVIE KANTOROVITZ
Children’s Author Presentation,
12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m., Multi-Purpose Room
Sylvie Kantorovitz, author and illustrator, was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and grew up in France. She studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Art Students League in New York. Her latest book is Sylvie (2021), a middle-grade graphic-memoir about her young years in France. Sylvie has been called “enchanting and witty” (School Library Journal), “comforting, warm, calm, and deeply satisfying” (Kirkus), “a delightful graphic-novel memoir of artistic coming-of-age for children ages 8-14.” (Wall Street Journal). Kantorovitz has illustrated many books, including the 1998 bestseller, Wheels on the Bus, based on the song by Raffi, the international superstar of children’s music.
https://sylviekantorovitz.com/
WILLIAM KENNEDY
Tribute to Hunter S. Thompson,
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
William Kennedy's friendship of nearly five decades with the late Hunter Thompson began when Kennedy was running a new English-language newspaper in Puerto Rico in the late 1950s and Thompson applied for a job as sports editor. By turns humorous and playfully insulting, their correspondence is a highlight of Thompson’s collected volume of letters, The Proud Highway (1997), edited by Douglas Brinkley. A Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Kennedy is the founder and executive director of the New York State Writers Institute. His novels include Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes; Roscoe; The Flaming Corsage; Very Old Bones; Quinn’s Book; Ironweed; Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game; Legs; and The Ink Truck.
VALLERY LOMAS
Food Panel,
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Assembly Hall
Vallery Lomas is an attorney turned food personality. She transitioned from hobby baker and blogger to full-time foodie after winning Season 3 of ABC's “Great American Baking Show.” Her debut cookbook Life Is What You Bake It: Recipes, Stories, and Inspiration to Bake Your Way to the Top was published September 2021, “an inspiring collection that combines life lessons, family lore, and behind-the-scenes peeks at the reality show world” (Publishers Weekly). Author of the hit blog, “Foodie in New York,” she is a regular contributor to Food Network Kitchen and has appeared on CNN, Fox, ABC, and NBC. Her writing and recipes have appeared in the New York Times, Food & Wine, and on the cover of Better Homes & Gardens.
H. CARL McCALL
In-conversation with Paul Grondahl on Truly Blessed and Highly Favored,
11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
H. Carl McCall's new memoir, Truly Blessed and Highly Favored (2022), written with Paul Grondahl, traces the remarkable career of a revered figure in New York State politics and the first Black official elected to statewide office. Growing up in Roxbury, Mass., one of six children reared by a single mother, he experiences the difficulties of poverty, the heartache of an absent father, and incidents of racism, but these challenges are juxtaposed with the triumphs of attaining an Ivy League degree, becoming a popular preacher, and attaining success at the highest levels of business and politics. Charlayne Hunter-Gault called the book, “A great road map for any and all times.” In 2020, McCall was awarded the Governor's Medal of Public Service, and the landmark SUNY administration headquarters in downtown Albany was renamed the H. Carl McCall SUNY Building.
BEN McGRATH
In-conversation with Paul Grondahl on Riverman: An American Odyssey,
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m., Campus Center West Boardroom
Ben McGrath is the author of Riverman: An American Odyssey (2022), the true story of Dick Conant, a former UAlbany student and American folk hero who, over the course of more than 20 years, canoed solo thousands of miles of American rivers — and then disappeared near the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 2014. Conant received a scholarship to attend the University at Albany where he majored in art, played varsity soccer, and graduated in 1976. The New York Times reviewer said, “This quietly profound book belongs on the shelf next to Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.” A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, Ben McGrath has contributed more than 200 stories to “Talk of the Town.”
MELINDA WENNER MOYER
Parenting Panel,
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Melinda Wenner Moyer is a journalist who covers parenting, science and medicine. She writes the Well newsletter for The New York Times and is a contributing editor at Scientific American. In a starred review, Publisher's Weekly described her book, How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes: Science-Based Strategies for Better Parenting--from Tots to Teens (2021), as "a winning guide for parents who wish to build a ‘better, fairer, stronger world.’" She is a faculty member at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
DAVID PIETRUSZA
NY History Panel,
12:45 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., Campus Center Assembly Hall
David Pietrusza has been called "the undisputed champion of chronicling American Presidential campaigns.” His most recent book is Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal (Sept. 2022), which Library Journal called, “a lively story that is rife with strong personalities and blood stirring incidents.” His many books include studies of the 1920, 1932, 1948, and 1960 presidential elections. His recent memoir, Too Long Ago: A Childhood Memory. A Vanished World (2020), tells the story of a tight-knit Polish community, transplanted from tiny, impoverished villages to Amsterdam, NY— a hardscrabble, hardworking, hard-drinking upstate New York mill town.
ROBERT PINSKY
In-conversation on Jersey Breaks,
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., Campus Center Assembly Hall
Robert Pinsky, poet and public champion of the art and importance of poetry, served two terms as U.S. Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress. (1997-2000). The New York Times said, “No other living American poet — no other living American, probably — has done so much to put poetry before the public eye.” His new memoir is Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet (October 2022), which traces his unlikely journey as a C student from the run-down resort town of Long Branch, NJ, in the late 1940s to becoming one of the nation’s best-known poets. Russell Shorto called the book, “a lyrical coming-of-age story centered around lyricism itself.”
FRANCINE PROSE
In-conversation on The Vixen,
2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Campus Center Assembly Hall
Francine Prose, author of 21 works of fiction, is receiving wide acclaim for her new novel, The Vixen (2021), the story of a young employee at a New York publishing house during the Red Scare of the 1950s who is tasked with editing a trashy bodice-ripper about Cold War spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. The project leads to unexpected discoveries of secrets and bizarre plots among his coworkers, friends and acquaintances. The Vixen was named one of the Best Books of 2021 by NPR, The Washington Post, and Financial Times. A two-time president of American PEN, Prose was a National Book Award finalist for her novel, Blue Angel (2000), a satire about sexual harassment on college campuses.
PETER QUINN
NY History Panel,
12:45 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., Campus Center Assembly Hall
Peter Quinn is an Irish-American novelist, political historian, and former chief speechwriter for Governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo. His new memoir, Cross Bronx: A Writing Life (2022), recounts his odyssey from the Irish Catholic precincts of the Bronx to the arena of big-league politics and corporate hardball. His previous books include The Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York, which won the 1995 American Book Award; the nonfiction collection, Looking for Jimmy: A Search for Irish America (2007); and the Fintan Dunne Trilogy of mystery novels set in mid-century New York.
JASON L. RILEY
Immigration Panel,
2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Jason L. Riley, Wall Street Journal columnist and conservative commentator, is author of Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders (2008). The book presents an eye-opening argument, from a conservative perspective, for why immigration improves the lives of Americans and is important for the future of the country. His other books include Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed (2014), Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell (2021), and The Black Boom (2022). A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, he is a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, where he authors the “Upward Mobility” column.
JIM SHEPARD
Apocalyptic Fiction Panel,
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Jim Shepard is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. His new novel, Phase Six (2021), imagines the next pandemic as it progresses from an isolated settlement in Greenland, creating panic, economic collapse and political unrest across the globe. Writing in the New York Times, Dwight Garner said, “Shepard nails the scientific details, but also the cultural ones…. I devoured the first 100 pages before I knew what was happening. If I’d been in a bookstore, I’d have sat on the floor.” Shepard is the author of 12 previous books, including Like You'd Understand, Anyway: Stories (2007), a finalist for the National Book Award. “Reading Jim Shepard,” says author Michael Chabon, “is like encountering our national literature in microcosm.”
TIM SPOFFORD
In-conversation with Dr. Leslie Fenwick,
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m., Campus Center West Boardroom
Tim Spofford is the author of What the Children Told Us: The Untold Story of the Famous "Doll Test" and the Black Psychologists Who Changed the World (August 2022). The book presents the intellectual and emotional partnership between two Black scholars, Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark, who exposed the devastating impact of racial segregation on children. Publishers Weekly called it “an informative, deep dive… This detailed and sympathetic biography shines a well-deserved spotlight on two racial justice pioneers.” A UAlbany alum with a Doctor of Arts in English, Spofford covered educational policymaking and racial issues in education for the Albany Times Union.
BARBARA SUTTON
UAlbany Faculty & Emeritus Faculty Event
3:45 to 4:30 p.m. Assembly Hall
Barbara Sutton is a Professor in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany. Her 2021 book, Abortion and Democracy (co-edited with Nayla Luz Vacarezza) offers critical analyses of abortion politics in Latin America’s Southern Cone, with lessons and insights of wider significance. Drawing on the region’s recent history of military dictatorship and democratic transition, this edited volume explores how abortion rights demands fit with current democratic agendas. It has been called “the most comprehensive analysis to date of contemporary abortion politics in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.”
HAILE THOMAS
Food Panel,
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Assembly Hall
Haile Thomas, currently 21 years old, is a food writer and vegan lifestyle activist who became the youngest certified integrative health coach in the United States at the age of 18. She’s also the author of Living Lively: 80 Plant-Based Recipes to Activate Your Power and Feed Your Potential (2020). Shondaland.com said, “Thomas's body positive, social and economic justice-oriented ethos, rich writing, beautiful photography, and accessible recipes are perfect for anyone looking for an antidote to the typical vegan evangelism that often shames people for their food choices.” Founder of the nonprofit HAPPY (Healthy Active Positive Purposeful Youth), she has over 115K followers on Instagram.
GARRY TRUDEAU
Tribute to Hunter S. Thompson,
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is the creator of Doonesbury, one of the defining editorial comic strips of the past half century, and the first daily comic strip to win the Pulitzer Prize. One of Trudeau’s best-loved characters is “Uncle Duke,” an unauthorized caricature of Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, whose name is inspired by “Raoul Duke,” Thompson’s fictional surrogate for himself in the autobiographical novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971). Though Thompson initially hated the character, and said that he would set Trudeau on fire if the two ever met, he told an interviewer in 2003 that he had “made peace” with “Uncle Duke.” For many Thompson fans, the cartoon character remains one of the finest tributes to the great Gonzo journalist ever created. Born in New York City, Trudeau grew up in Saranac Lake, NY.