Yaddo Writers in Hall of Fame

Saratoga Springs, NY (March 11, 2010) — Three Yaddo authors — James Baldwin, Elizabeth Bishop, and Langston Hughes — are among the first 12 honorees selected by the New York Library Association for the inaugural class of the newly created New York State Writers Hall of Fame.

The induction ceremony will highlight the Empire State Book Festival Gala to be held Friday, April 9, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, New York. The gala will kick off the first Empire State Book Festival, scheduled the following day from 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at the same hotel. The festival, designed to bring together authors, illustrators, librarians, storytellers, publishers, and readers, is free and open to the public.

Until a permanent location can be secured, the New York State Writers Hall of Fame will be located at the Albany Public Library. Other writers in the first group of inductees are Robert Caro, Frederick Douglass, Mary Gordon, Zora Neale Hurston, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Issac B. Singer, Edith Wharton, E.B. White, and Walt Whitman.