Telling the Truth 2026

Telling the Truth in a Post-Truth World

The NYS Writers Institute's annual conversation and audience Q&A about politics in America and the prospects for an enduring democracy

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Join us for a conversation about politics in America and the prospects for an enduring democracy. Panelists will include: Jonathan Alter, Devlin Barrett and an additional panelist to be announced.

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Jonathan Alter is an influential columnist, bestselling author, presidential historian and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. His newest book is American Reckoning: Inside Trump's Trial―and My Own (2024), a vivid and deeply personal eyewitness account of the historic first criminal trial of a U.S. president and a cri de coeur for American democracy.

The Washington Monthly said, “Alter’s fine, indispensable book offers an understanding of the presidency worthy of Robert Caro and a legal account of a celebrity trial that would have enthralled Dominick Dunne. It is a must-read.” Alter is the author of three New York Times bestsellers about American presidents and covered the Trump felony trial for NYTimes Opinion, The Washington Monthly and Old Goats, his Substack newsletter.

Devlin Barrett, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who grew up in Troy, is the author of The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice (2026), a book that “pulls back the curtain on President Trump’s Justice Department and the way he has used it as a tool to settle political scores” (PBS NewsHour). His 2020 book, October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election, examined the 2016 Presidential election. The Washington Post said it, "delivers an exquisitely sourced indictment of Comey and the bureau he once led."

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Barrett is a staff reporter for the New York Times where he covers the Justice Department and FBI. He previously worked for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and the New York Post. He has been part of four Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting teams, winning for Public Service, National Reporting, Investigative Reporting and Breaking News Reporting.

This event is FREE and open to the public.

Cosponsored by the the Journalism Program of the University at Albany Department of Communication.