FREE: New York State Summer Writers Institute @ Skidmore College

The annual month-long New York State Summer Writers Institute returns to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs for another jam-packed July full of free readings by some of today’s finest novelists, memoirists, poets, short story writers and more.

All of the readings are free and open to the public, and held at 8pm in Skidmore’s Davis Auditorium in Palamountain Hall.

Receptions will be held immediately following the readings in The Spa, in the basement of Skidmore’s Case Center.

Here’s the complete schedule of readings for the 2016 season:

Today (July 5): Essayist Phillip Lopate (“Portrait Inside My Head,” “The Art of the Personal Essay”) and poet Campbell McGrath (“XX: Poems for the 20th Century”)

Wednesday (July 6): Novelists Howard Norman (“The Bird Artist,” “The Museum Guard”) and Francine Prose (“Lovers at the Chameleon Club,” “Peggy Guggenheim”)

Thursday (July 7): Novelist-memoirist Paul Auster (“The New York Trilogy,” “The Brooklyn Follies”) and novelist Siri Hustvedt (“What I Loved,” “Shaking Woman,” “The Blazing World”)

Friday (July 8): Memoirist Margo Jefferson (National Book Award for “Negroland”) and novelist Joanna Scott (“Everybody Loves Somebody,” “Arrogance,” “Various Antidotes”)

Saturday (July 9): Comedy Night with Phillip Lopate, Elizabeth Benedict and Mary Gaitskill

Monday (July 11): Novelist Mary Gaitskill (“The Mare,” “Don’t Cry,” “Veronica”) and poet Carolyn Forche (“The Angel of History,” “Blue Hour,” “The Country Between Us”)

Tuesday, July 12: Poet Frank Bidart (National Book Critics Circle Award for “Metaphysical Dog”) and novelist Mary Gordon (“The Shadow Man,” “Final Payments,” “The Stories of MG”)

Wednesday, July 13: Memoirist-poet Nick Flynn (“Another Bullshit Night in Suck City,” “The Ticking Is The Bomb”) and novelist Victoria Redel (“Loverboy,” “Make Me Do Things”)

Thursday, July 14: Poet Louise Gluck (Pulitzer Prize, “The Wild Iris,” “Meadowlands”) and novelist Claire Messud (“The Woman Upstairs,” “Emperor’s Children”)

Friday, July 15: Novelist-memoirist Joyce Carol Oates (National Book Award; “I Am No One You Know,” “We Were the Mulvaneys,” “Blonde”)

Monday, July 18: Short story writer Amy Hempel (“The Dog of the Marriage,” “Reasons to Live”) and novelist Adam Braver (“Misfit,” “Divine Sarah,” “November 22, 1963”)

Tuesday, July 19: Novelist Garth Greenwell (“What Belongs to You”) and poet Peg Boyers (“To Forget Venice,” “Hard Bread,” “Honey with Tobacco”)

Wednesday, July 20: Novelists Rick Moody (“Hotels of North America,” “The Ice Storm,” “Purple America”) and Kathryn Davis (“Duplex,” “The Thin Place,” “Versailles”)

Thursday, July 21: Novelist Russell Banks (“Cloudsplitter,” “Rule of the Bone,” “The Sweet Hereafter”) and poet Chase Twichell (“Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been”)

Friday, July 22: Poet Robert Pinsky (former Poet-Laureate of the United States; author “Gulf Music,” “The Figured Wheel,” “The Want Bone,” “At the Foundling Hospital”)

Saturday, July 23: Comedy Night with Robert Pinsky, Binnie Kirshenbaum (“Hester in the Ruins,” “A Disturbance in One Place”) and Steve Stern (“The Frozen Rabbi,” “The Book of Mischief”)

Monday, July 25: Novelists William Kennedy (Pulitzer Prize-winning “Ironweed,” “Roscoe”) and Cristina Garcia (“Dreaming in Cuban”)

Tuesday, July 26: Novelists Joseph O’ Neill (“Netherland,” “The Dog”) and Rivka Galchen (“Atmospheric Disturbances,” “Little Labors”)

Wednesday, July 27: Presidential Election Panel featuring writers Jim Miller (“The Passion of Michel Foucault,” “Democracy Is in the Streets”), Katha Pollitt (National Magazine Award for “Subject to Debate,” columnist for The Nation magazine) and Tom Healy (“What the Right Hand Knows,” “Animal Spirits”)

Thursday, July 28: Novelist-memoirist Jamaica Kincaid (“Mister Potter,” “See Now Then”) and poet Henri Cole (“Pierce the Skin,” “Nothing to Declare”)

Friday, July 29: Two Pulitzer-Prize winners: Novelist Paul Harding (“Tinkers,” “Enon”) and poet Carl Dennis (“Unknown Friends,” “Practical Gods”)

ADDITIONAL UPCOMING FREE EVENTS FOR 2016
*VARIOUS DATES
RIVERLINK CONCERTS @ Riverlink Park, Amsterdam, various days from June 18-August 27
FREEDOM PARK CONCERT SERIES @ Freedom Park, Scotia, various days from June 22-August 27
KIDS DAY @ Empire State Plaza, Albany, July 9
SCHENECTADY COUNTY SUMMERNIGHT @ State & Jay streets, Schenectady, Friday, July 15
ART ON LARK @ Lark Street, Albany, July 16 UPDATE: postponed from June 5, this is the new date…
BLACK ARTS & CULTURAL FESTIVAL @ Empire State Plaza, Albany, August 6
NYS FOOD FESTIVAL @ Empire State Plaza, Albany, August 10
JAZZ AT THE LAKE @ Shepard Park, Lake George, September 17 & 18
*MONDAYS
TOWN OF ROTTERDAM SUMMER CONCERT SERIES @ the Rotterdam Senior Citizens Center lawn, Rotterdam, 7pm Mondays from June 6-August 29
*TUESDAYS
MUSIC IN THE PARK @ Schodack Town Park, Schodack, 6pm Tuesdays from June 7-July 5
CLARK ART SUMMER CONCERTS @ Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 6pm Tuesdays from July 5-26
COOK PARK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES @ Frank A. Leak Amphitheater for the Arts in Cook Park, Colonie, 6:30pm Tuesdays from June 14-August 30
SUMMER CONCERTS IN THE PARK @ Brunswick Community Center lawn, Troy, 6:30pm Tuesdays from June 28-August 30
SARATOGA SUMMER CONCERT SERIES @ Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, 7pm Tuesdays from August 9-30
ALTAMONT FREE LIBRARY’S SUMMER CONCERT SERIES @ Orsini Park, Altamont, 7pm Tuesdays from July 5-August 9
STONY CREEK MUSIC IN THE PARK @ Stony Creek Town Park, Stony Creek, 7pm Tuesdays from July 5-August 30
*WEDNESDAYS
MADE IN THE SHADE OF THE EGG @ Empire State Plaza, Albany, 12noon Wednesdays from June 1-August 31
CAPITAL CONCERT SERIES @ Empire State Plaza, Albany, 5pm Wednesdays from June 15-July 20
ROCKIN’ ON THE RIVER @ Riverfront Park, Troy, 5pm Wednesdays from June 15-August 3
RENSSELAER FAMILY CONCERT SERIES @ the North End Firehouse, Rensselaer, 6pm Wednesdays from June 22-August 10
SUMMER MUSIC SERIES @ East Greenbush Community Library, East Greenbush, 7pm Wednesdays from June 20-July 20
LAKE GEORGE ARTS PROJECT’S WEDNESDAY NIGHT SUMMER CONCERT SERIES @ Shepard Park, Lake George, 7:30pm Wednesdays from July 6-August 31
*THURSDAYS
JAZZ ON JAY @ Jay Street, Schenectady, 12noon Thursdays from June 2-September 1
ALIVE AT FIVE @ Tricentennial Park, Albany, 5pm Thursdays from June 9-August 4
MUSIC IN THE PARK @ Wiswall Park, Ballston Spa, 6pm Thursdays from June 23-August 25
SUMMER’S EVE CONCERT SERIES @ the Schaghticoke Town Hall Gazebo, Melrose, 6:30pm Thursdays from June 30-August 25
MUSIC IN THE PARK @ Dutchman’s Landing, Catskill, 7pm Thursdays from June 23-September 1
NISKAYUNA TOWN HALL CONCERTS @ Niskyauna Town Hall Gazebo, Niskayuna, 7pm Thursdays from June 2-July 28
JAMMIN’ AT GPAC @ Guilderland Performing Arts Center at Tawasentha Park, Guilderland, 7:30pm Thursdays from June 23-August 11
*FRIDAYS
FRIDAYS AT THE LAKE @ Shepard Park, Lake George, 4pm Fridays from June 24-September 2
ROCK THE BLOCK @ Canal Square, Cohoes, 6pm Thursdays from July 8-August 26
UPBEAT ON THE ROOF @ Skidmore College’s Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, 7pm Fridays from July 1-August 26
ATHENS SUMMER CONCERT SERIES @ Riverfront Park, Athens, 7pm Fridays from June 17-August 26
MUSIC AT SUNSET CONCERT SERIES @ Greenport Town Park, Hudson, 7pm Fridays from May 27-August 26
*SUNDAYS
MUSIC HAVEN @ Central Park, Schenectady, 7pm Sundays from July 10-August 14
SARATOGA SUMMER CONCERT SERIES @ Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, 7pm Sundays from July 3-24