UAlbany Awards William Kennedy the Medallion of the University

An older man in a tan suit coat and yellow tie leans into a dark wood lectern and speaks into a microphone

William Kennedy speaks at the New York State Writers Institute's 40th-anniversary celebration in January 2023. Kennedy founded the Institute with his 1983 McArthur Foundation Fellowship. (Photo by Brian Busher)

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 4, 2023) — The University at Albany has awarded Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Kennedy the Medallion of the University, UAlbany’s highest honor for distinguished service.

Kennedy — an Albany native who founded the New York State Writers Institute at UAlbany in 1983 and whose work chronicled the hard lives of the city’s poor, often at the hands of its political machine — was selected for his leadership in making Albany a destination for decades of literary and creative giants.

“There is no one who better captures the indomitable spirit of Albany than William Kennedy. His legacy as a writer and storyteller, as an educator, and as the founding director of the New York State Writers Institute is timeless. He is a part of the very fabric of the University at Albany and emblematic of everything that makes us great. I am so proud to present William Kennedy with our highest honor, the Medallion of the University at Albany,” UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez will present Kennedy the Medallion today during the annual Spring University Address in the Campus Center West Auditorium, with a reception to follow.

Putting Albany on the Literary Map

An older man in a tan suit coat and yellow shirt with a striped tied poses for a photo with a blond woman in a blue collared shirt and dark coat. — Kennedy with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand after a NYSWI reading of Gillibrand's children's book in 2018. (Photo by Brian Busher)

A movie adaptation of Ironweed starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, much of which was filmed in Albany, was released in 1987 and earned both actors Academy Award nominations.

In the decades since Gov. Mario M. Cuomo signed the legislation formalizing the Writers Institute's cultural charge in 1984, the Institute has been a beacon for some of world’s most culturally significant and commercially successful poets and authors, attracting literary and creative icons including Toni Morrison, John Irving, Margaret Atwood, Spike Lee and John Updike.

Kennedy also is the recipient of the Regents Medal of Excellence from the State University of New York and a New York State Governor’s Arts Award. His 2002 novel Roscoe was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. His non-fiction book O Albany! is still considered a must-read for those interested in the personalities and politics that shaped the city. In 1993, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 2002 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also taught journalism and creative writing at UAlbany, becoming a full professor in the English Department in 1983 and later an honorary inductee of SUNY's Distinguished Academy.

Before Kennedy, the most recent recipient of the Medallion was state Sen. Neil D. Breslin in April 2023.

First awarded in 1978 to J. Vanderbilt Staub, chair of the University Council, the Medallion has since been bestowed more than two dozen times to leaders in business, education and government. Past recipients include former New York State Comptroller and SUNY Board of Trustees Chair H. Carl McCall, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, state Sen. Hugh T. Farley ’58, journalist Steve Kroft, former U.N. Under Secretary General Catherine Bertini ’71.