INSTITUTE NAMES MAILER STATE AUTHOR.(Local)

Byline: Winifred Yu Staff writer

Norman Mailer has been honored as the state author by the New York State Writers Institute. Audre Lorde has been named state poet for 1991-93.

The awards, known as the state Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for fiction writers and the state Walt Whitman Citation of Merit for poets, were announced at a news conference Wednesday.

Neither writer was present. Lorde is currently in Germany, and Mailer is on tour for his new novel, "Harlot's Ghost."

"The award is to celebrate New York state writers and poets," said Tom Smith, associate director of the institute and member of the poet advisory committee. "We look …