Pulitzer Prize-Winning American Novelist; Advocate for Science; Former Creative Writing Professor at Stanford & University of Illinois
Richard Powers Biography
Richard Powers has received numerous honors including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Historical Fiction. He has been a professor of creative writing at Stanford University and the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.
He enrolled at the University of Illinois as a physics major but was inspired to change fields after taking an honors literature seminar- which led to him earning an M.A. in English. After graduating, he worked in Boston as a technical writer and computer programmer while continuing to read voraciously. Soon after he had given up his job to focus on writing and three years later, in 1985, he published "Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance." It was praised by critics, but what most excited Powers was that at the age of 32 his indecision was over,
Since then he has published a book every two to five years: "Prisoner's Dilemma" (1988), "The Gold Bug Variations" (stories, 1991), "Operation Wandering Soul" (1993), "Galatea 2.2" (1995), "Gain" (1998), "Plowing the Dark" (2000), "The Time of Our Singing" (2003), "The Echo Maker" (2006), "Generosity" (2009), "Orfeo" (2014), "The Overstory" (2018), and "Bewilderment" (2021).
His books share what Powers refers to as "a restlessness in theme", covering a multitude of areas but usually, if not always, exploring the effects of modern science and technology that, in Powers's words give an "an aerial view" - portraying humanity as just one small element in a complex universe.
Awards from 2019 - 2025:
• Barry Lopez Award, 2024 • East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award, 2024 • Openbook Prize for work in translation, Taiwan, 2023 • F. Scott Fitzgerald Award, 2022 • Oprah Book Club, 2021 • Booker Prize Finalist, 2021, 2018 • National Book Award Longlist, 2021, 2014 • Best Books/Best novels of 2021: Barnes and Noble, Boston Globe, Audible, The Independent, KCRW Bookworm, Toronto Globe and Mail, RTE News, PopMatters, Sydney Morning Herald, Maine Edge, Christian Science Monitor, The Daily Mail, Winnipeg Free Press, The Telegraph, Lire, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (and STL Today), Garden and Gun, Duluth News Tribune, Goodreads Top 20, Le Libre, Oprah Daily, The National, Minnesota Public Radio, Global Circulate, Library Journal, Newsweek, WAMC, Benzine Magazine, The Arts Fuse, Patch, Omroep Flevoland, Nederlandse Dagblad, Amazon.com, • Kobo Best eBooks, 2021 • Indigo Top Ten Books of the Year, 2021 • Hudson Booksellers Book of the Year, 2021 • New York Times Notable Book, 2021, 2018, 2009, 2006, 2003, 2000, 1998, 1995, 1991 • Aspen Literary Words Prize Longlist, 2021 • Book.com.tw Best Book of 2021 (Taiwan) • Amazon Book of the Month Pick, 2021, 2018 • Heather’s Pick, Indigo, Canada, 2021 • Andrew Carnegie Medal Longlist, 2021, 2018, 2014 • Indie Next List, 2021, 2018 • Apple Books 20 Best Books of 2021 • NPR Best Books/Staff Picks, 2021 • New York Times Book Review 25 Best Books of the Last 125 Years, 2021 • William Dean Howells Medal, 2020 • Premio Gregor von Rezzori (Italy), 2020 • Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award • Pulitzer Prize, 2019 • Le Prix des Libraires Payot, 2019 (Switzerland) • Waterstones Paperbacks of the Year, 2019 • Keiji Literary Award, 2019 • PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, 2019 • PBS/New York Times “Now Read This” Selection, 2019 • Indies Choice Book Award, Adult Fiction finalist, 2019 • Winner, Wissensbücher des Jahres, 2019 • Lithub 20 Best Novels of the Decade, 2019 • PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, 2019 • Le Prix des Librairies du Québec Finalist, 2019 • Dayton Literary Peace Prize Fiction Runner-up, 2019 • Chautauqua Prize Finalist, 2019
Numerous other awards 1985-2018
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Richard Powers Videos
Richard Powers — Playground - with John Williams
Watch author Richard Powers' book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington D.C.
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Richard Powers is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics. The estimated speaking fee range to book Richard Powers for your event is available upon request. Richard Powers generally travels from Toronto, Canada and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Lois Lowry, Meg Lowman, Rick Ridgeway, Jamie Margolin and Bob Kopp. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Richard Powers for an upcoming live or virtual event.
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