New York State Writers Institute's video: Albany Book Festival 2022: Author Francine Prose in conversation with Robert Boyers

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. 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. The 5th Annual Albany Book Festival was held Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, at the University at Albany. More at https://www.albanybookfestival.com/