Richard Powers

Richard Powers often explores the intersection between technology and the natural world. Here's our guide to his ever-expanding list of powerful novels ⤵️

https://thebookerprizes.pulse.ly/qzschc58hn

Percival Everett’s “James” Wins a Pulitzer

A year ago, Percival Everett published his 24th novel, "James," and it became a literary phenomenon. This week, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Revisit a conversation with the novelist just after the book was released.

https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/percival-everetts-james-wins-a-pulitzer?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tny&utm_social-type=owned

James, by Percival Everett

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJXVf8GyfEA/?igsh=bDU0bTVkcG91eW9v

Contemporary American Literary Critics

According to Scarlett…

https://chatgpt.com/share/681bde08-b63c-8007-9c09-62fe173a596a

Playground by Richard Powers review – an electrifyingly beautiful tale of tech and the ocean | Fiction | The Guardian

Richard Powers's 2018 Pulitzer-winning book The Overstory was one of the landmark novels of the past decade. Grounded in science and animist thought, it was a glorious ode to the wondrousness of trees. Bewilderment (2021) interleaved private loss and climate collapse to recount the grief-soaked journey of an astrobiologist and his neurodivergent son. Both these novels were set in the US. In Playground, his cerebral, Booker-longlisted new novel, Powers swivels part of his attention to French Polynesia, taking on neo-colonialism, artificial intelligence and oceanography...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/sep/29/playground-richard-powers-review-ai-ocean

Paris Review

Our Spring issue is here—featuring interviews with Margo Jefferson and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, prose by Marie NDiaye and Miriam Toews, poetry by Nasser Rabah and Abigail Dembo, art by Agosto Machado and Lady Shalamar, a cover by Anna Weyant, and more: https://ssl.drgnetwork.com/flex/TPR/251/

Coming to MTSU, Summer ‘25–

MALA (Master of Liberal Arts) 6050-Philosophy in Recent American Fiction

(For more info: phil.oliver@mtsu.edu)

We'll all read three novels* together, and each of us will additionally read and report on either a fourth novel or on a specific author's life and works.** 

"Philosophy" = searching for wisdom, clarity, enlightenment, meaning, perspective, purpose, reality, truth, understanding, ... especially with regard to the human impact on nature, the environment, other species, & other humans.

"Recent" = 21st century

*The three novels:

1. Richard Ford, Be Mine

2. Richard Powers, Playground (see below #) 

3. Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

 

**Possible fourth choices, for individual reports: 

• The Sellout by Paul Beatty (2015) - A satirical look at race and identity that won the Man Booker Prize.

• The Candy House by Jennifer Egan (2022) - Explores themes of memory, connection, and digital surveillance. 

• Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (2024) - Considers whether the path to emancipation from what ails modern life is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past. 

• Any of the earlier Frank Bascombe novels by Richard Ford...

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (2016) - Explores the lasting impacts of slavery and the search for identity across generations.

• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (2012) - Explores climate change, ecological disruption, and human responsibility. 

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006) - A harrowing journey through a post-apocalyptic landscape, meditating on survival, love, and morality.

• A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet (2020) - Set in a near-apocalyptic world, it examines generational responsibility and environmental collapse.

• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (2022) - Dystopian fiction about cultural repression and familial bonds.

• The Overstory by Richard Powers (2018) - A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel weaving interrelated stories about trees, nature, and activism. 

• Bewilderment by Richard Powers (2021) - This novel delves deeply into themes of ecological awareness and the human condition through the story of a father and his neurodivergent son.

• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (2019) - Investigates issues of race, privilege, and morality in contemporary America.

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (2022) - This narrative explores human creativity and relationships within the context of gaming and artificial intelligence.

• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2004) - A profound exploration of faith, mortality, and legacy in small-town America.

**Possible authors,  for individual reports:

• Michael Chabon

• Jennifer Egan

• Richard Ford

• Jonathan Franzen

• Barbara Kingsolver

• Rachel Kushner

• Ann Patchett

• Richard Powers

• Marilyn Robinson

• Philip Roth

• Your suggestion...

I asked Scarlett to draft a story combining the voices and themes of Richard Ford and Richard Powers, narrated by Frank Bascombe…