Literary Legends 2016
On Saturday, October 22, 2016 the Albany Public Library’s Arbor Hill/West Hill branch celebrated two local authors, Marion Roach-Smith and Leonard A. Slade Jr., at the second annual Literary Legends Gala.
Marion Roach-Smith is a contemporary non-fiction writer based in Rensselaer County. Her first book, Another Name for Madness, is a memoir that describes with her mother’s experience with Alzheimer’s and the family problems that arose because of it. She is also the co-author of Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers with Michael Baden, MD as well as The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair (2005), a non-fiction piece about the history and oddities of red heads and their reactions from society. Her most recent book, The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life, published in 2011, is, in her words, “an impertinent, utterly useful book on how to write memoir, and see your life for what it really is.” She works with writers across the globe helping them write their memoirs. She is also an NPR commentator and teacher.
Dr. Leonard A. Slade, Jr. is a professor of Africana Studies and an adjunct professor of English at the University at Albany. Slade is the past director of both the Doctor of Arts in Humanistic Studies Program and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program. He is also a prolific author who has published 23 books, including 18 books of poetry. They are as follows: Another Black Voice: A Different Drummer (1988), The Beauty of Blackness (1989), I Fly Like a Bird (1992), The Whipping Song (1993), Vintage (1995), Fire Burning (1995), Pure Light (1996), Neglecting the Flowers (1997), Lilacs in Spring (1998), Elisabeth and Other Poems (1999), For the Love of Freedom (2000), Jazz After Dinner (2006), Triumph (2010), Sweet Solitude (State University of New York Press, 2010), The Season (2011), Chasing the Wind (2012), and God Put a Rainbow in the Sky (2014). Sweet Solitude was a bestseller at the State University of New York Press. Six of his books were published by McGraw-Hill Publishing Companies and two by the State University of New York Press. Nobody Knows is his eighteenth book of poetry.