Richard Powers Popular Books

Richard Powers Biography & Facts

Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction. He has also won many other awards over the course of his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship. As of 2023, Powers has published thirteen novels and has taught at the University of Illinois and Stanford University. He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory. Life and work Early life One of five children, Powers was born in Evanston, Illinois. His family later moved a few miles west to Lincolnwood, where his father was a local school principal. When Powers was 11, they moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where his father had accepted a position at International School Bangkok, which Powers attended through his freshman year, ending in 1972. During that time outside the U.S., he developed skills in vocal music and proficiency in cello, guitar, saxophone, and clarinet. He also became an avid reader, enjoying nonfiction primarily and classics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. The family returned to the U.S. when Powers was 16. Following graduation in 1975 from DeKalb High School in DeKalb, Illinois, he enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) with a major in physics, which he switched to English literature during his first semester. He earned a BA in 1978 and an MA in Literature in 1980. He decided not to pursue a PhD partly because of his aversion to strict specialization, which had been one reason for his early transfer from physics to English, and partially because he had observed in graduate students and their professors a lack of pleasure in reading and writing (as portrayed in Galatea 2.2). Professorships and awards In 2010 and 2013, Powers was a Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University, during which time he partly assisted in the lab of biochemist Aaron Straight.Powers was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1989. He received a Lannan Literary Award in 1999. Powers was appointed the Swanlund Professor of English at UIUC in 1996, where he is currently an emeritus professor.On August 22, 2013, Stanford University announced that Powers had been named the Phil and Penny Knight Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of English. Novels Powers learned computer programming at Illinois as a user of PLATO and moved to Boston to work as a programmer. One Saturday in 1980, Powers saw the 1914 photograph "Young Farmers" by August Sander at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and was so inspired that he quit his job two days later to write a novel about the people in the photograph. Powers spent the next two years writing the book, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, which was published by William Morrow in 1985. It comprises three alternating threads: a novella featuring the three young men in the photo during World War I, a technology magazine editor who is obsessed with the photo, and the author's critical and historical musings about the mechanics of photography and the life of Henry Ford. It was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, and received Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. It also received a Special Citation from PEN Hemingway Awards.Powers moved to the Netherlands, where he wrote Prisoner's Dilemma about The Walt Disney Company and nuclear warfare. He followed with The Gold Bug Variations about genetics, music, and computer science. It was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.In 1993, Powers wrote Operation Wandering Soul about an agonized young pediatrician. It was a finalist for the National Book Award.In 1995, Powers published the Pygmalion story Galatea 2.2 about an artificial intelligence experiment gone awry. It was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.In 1998, Powers wrote Gain about a 150-year-old chemical company and a woman who lives near one of its plants and succumbs to ovarian cancer. It won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction in 1999. 2000's Plowing the Dark tells of a Seattle research team building a groundbreaking virtual reality while an American teacher is held hostage in Beirut. It received Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Powers wrote The Time of Our Singing in 2003. It is about the musician children of an interracial couple who met at Marian Anderson's famed 1939 concert on the Lincoln Memorial steps. Powers's ninth novel, 2006's The Echo Maker, is about a Nebraska man who suffers head trauma in a truck accident and believes his caregiver sister is an imposter. It won a National Book Award and was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist.Powers's tenth novel, 2009's Generosity: An Enhancement, has writing professor Russell Stone encountering his former student, Thassa, an Algerian woman whose constant happiness is exploited by journalists and scientists. In 2014, Powers wrote Orfeo about Peter Els, a retired music composition instructor and avant-garde composer who is mistaken for a bio-terrorist after being discovered with a makeshift genetics lab in his house. The Overstory, published in April 2018, is about nine Americans whose unique life experiences with trees bring them together to address the destruction of forests. It won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the $75,000 2019 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and was runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.Bewilderment, published in September 2021, was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award and Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. It is described as "an astrobiologist thinks of a creative way to help his rare and troubled son in Richard Powers’ deeply moving and brilliantly original novel." Bibliography 1985 Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, HarperCollins ISBN 0-688-04201-5 1988 Prisoner's Dilemma, McGraw Hill ISBN 0-07-050612-4 1991 The Gold Bug Variations, William Morrow ISBN 0-688-09891-6 1993 Operation Wandering Soul, HarperCollins ISBN 0-688-11548-9 1995 Galatea 2.2, Farrar Straus & Giroux ISBN 0-374-19948-5 1998 Gain, Farrar Straus & Giroux ISBN 0-312-20409-4 2000 Plowing the Dark, Farrar, Straus & Giroux ISBN 0-374-23461-2 2003 The Time of Our Singing, Farrar, Straus & Giroux ISBN 0-374-27782-6 2006 The Echo Maker, Farrar, Straus & Giroux ISBN 0-374-14635-7 2009 Generosity: An Enhancement, Farrar, Straus & Giroux ISBN 0-374-16114-3 2014 Orfeo, W. W. Norton & Company ISBN 978-0-393-24082-5 2018 The Overstory, W. W. Norton & Company ISBN 978-0-393-63552-2 2021 Bewilderment, W. W. Norton & Company ISBN 978-0-393-88114-1 2024 PlaygroundAwards and recognition References External links Official website Richard Powers, Professor of English at UIUC Archived official website with extensive bibliography Kevin Berger (2002). "Richard Powers, The Art of Fiction.... Discover the Richard Powers popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Richard Powers books.

Best Seller Richard Powers Books of 2024

  • Lessons synopsis, comments

    Lessons

    Ian McEwan

    NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER  A NEW YORKER ESSENTIAL READ  From the bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across ...

  • First in Line synopsis, comments

    First in Line

    Kate Andersen Brower

    “An intimate, compulsively readable account of the dynamics that have shapedand sometimes destroyedrelations at the top of the American political hierarchy.... [and] a valuabl...

  • Perestroika in Paris synopsis, comments

    Perestroika in Paris

    Jane Smiley

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER  From the Pulitzer Prizewinning and bestselling author: a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animalsand a young boywhose liv...

  • The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner synopsis, comments

    The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner

    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Two representative and important works in one volume by one of the greatest German philosophers.The Birth of Tragedy (1872) was Nietzsche's first book. Its youthful faults were exp...

  • Bold synopsis, comments

    Bold

    Peter H. Diamandis & Steven Kotler

    “A visionary roadmap for people who believe they can change the worldand invaluable advice about bringing together the partners and technologies to help them do it.” President Bill...

  • Siege of Stone synopsis, comments

    Siege of Stone

    Terry Goodkind

    io9's New SciFi and Fantasy Books You Need to Put On Your Radar Set in the world of the Sword of Truth saga, the ramifications of New York Times bestseller Terry Goodkind's Shroud ...

  • Operation White Rabbit synopsis, comments

    Operation White Rabbit

    Dennis McDougal

    A search for the truth behind the DEA’s life imprisonment of acid's most famous martyr.  Operation White Rabbit traces the rise and falland rise and fall againof the psychedel...

  • Tattoos on the Heart synopsis, comments

    Tattoos on the Heart

    Gregory Boyle

    “Destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality” (Los Angeles Times)Tattoos on the Heart is a series of parables about kinship and redemption fr...

  • The Virgin Elizabeth synopsis, comments

    The Virgin Elizabeth

    Robin Maxwell

    Now available again, the third book in Robin Maxwell's acclaimed Elizabethan quartet, a Los Angeles Times bestseller called "Tense, absorbing, highly enter...

  • Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance synopsis, comments

    Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance

    Richard Powers

    “Dazzling and audacious. . . Nothing short of astounding.” Philadelphia InquirerThe critically acclaimed debut novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory and the...

  • Nixon and Kissinger synopsis, comments

    Nixon and Kissinger

    Robert Dallek

    In this epic dual biography, one of our most distinguished scholarsthe bestselling author of An Unfinished Lifeprobes the lives and times of two unlikely leaders whose partnership ...

  • Shroud of Eternity synopsis, comments

    Shroud of Eternity

    Terry Goodkind

    Shroud of Eternity picks up where Terry Goodkind’s New York Times bestseller Death’s Mistress left off, promising a thrilling brew of bloodshed, sex, deception, and sorcery.The for...

  • Goliath synopsis, comments

    Goliath

    Matt Stoller

    “Every thinking American must read” (The Washington Book Review) this startling and “insightful” (The New York Times) look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism has t...

  • Destiny and Power synopsis, comments

    Destiny and Power

    Jon Meacham

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  In this brilliant biography, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham chronicles the life of George Herbert Walker Bush.NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BES...

  • A Prophet with Honor synopsis, comments

    A Prophet with Honor

    William C. Martin

    A Prophet with Honor is the biography Billy Graham himself invited and appreciated for its sympathetic but frank approach. Carefully documented, eminently fair, and gracefully writ...

  • Velocity synopsis, comments

    Velocity

    Ajaz Ahmed & Stefan Olander

    How can you win when the only certainty is change? Highly accessible, lively and inspiring, Velocity draws upon the authors’ unique perspectives and experiences to present seven ti...

  • The Price of Silence synopsis, comments

    The Price of Silence

    William D. Cohan

    A Duke alumnus whose work has been hailed as “authoritative” (The Washington Post), “seductively engrossing” (Chicago Tribune), “riveting” (The Economist), and “masterful” (Los Ang...

  • Humiliation synopsis, comments

    Humiliation

    Wayne Koestenbaum

    Wayne Koestenbaum considers the meaning of humiliation in this eloquent work of cultural critique and personal reflection.The lives of people both famous and obscure are filled wit...

  • 21 Secrets of Million-Dollar Sellers synopsis, comments

    21 Secrets of Million-Dollar Sellers

    Stephen J. Harvill

    Fortune 50 consultant Stephen Harvill reveals the secrets of the world’s best salespeople who earn at least one million dollars a year in “the only sales book most superstar hopefu...

  • Lysistrata and Other Plays synopsis, comments

    Lysistrata and Other Plays

    Aristophanes & Alan H. Sommerstein

    The Acharnians/The Clouds/Lysistrata'We women have the salvation of Greece in our hands'Writing at a time of political and social crisis in Athens, the ancient Greek comic playwrig...

  • A Visit from the Goon Squad synopsis, comments

    A Visit from the Goon Squad

    Jennifer Egan

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER  NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER With music pulsing on every page, this startling, exhilarating novel of selfdestruction and redemption "fea...

  • Station Eleven synopsis, comments

    Station Eleven

    Emily St. John Mandel

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST  Set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapsethe spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, h...

  • The Whole Language synopsis, comments

    The Whole Language

    Gregory Boyle

    Gregory Boyle, the beloved Jesuit priest and author of the inspirational bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir, returns with a call to witness the transformativ...

  • Lincoln synopsis, comments

    Lincoln

    Richard Carwardine

    As a defender of national unity, a leader in war, and the emancipator of slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays ample claim to being the greatest of our presidents. But the story of his rise...

  • Shrines of Gaiety synopsis, comments

    Shrines of Gaiety

    Kate Atkinson

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The awardwinning author of Life after Life transports us to a restless London in the wake of the Great Wara city bursting with money, glamour, and corrup...

  • Barking to the Choir synopsis, comments

    Barking to the Choir

    Gregory Boyle

    In a moving example of unconditional love in dif­ficult times, Gregory Boyle, the Jesuit priest and New York Times bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart, shares what working w...

  • Hindu Myths synopsis, comments

    Hindu Myths

    Wendy Doniger

    Recorded in sacred Sanskrit texts, including the Rig Veda and the Mahabharata, Hindu Myths are thought to date back as far as the tenth century BCE. Here in these seventyfive semin...

  • The Friendly Orange Glow synopsis, comments

    The Friendly Orange Glow

    Brian Dear

    At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born, a group of visionary engineers and designerssome of them only high school studentsin the late 19...

  • The Garden of Lost and Found synopsis, comments

    The Garden of Lost and Found

    Harriet Evans

    Don't miss the STUNNING new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author, Harriet Evans THE BELOVED GIRLS is available to buy now!'Spellbinding' Independent'My top book of 2019' DI...

  • The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine synopsis, comments

    The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine

    Eusebius, Andrew Louth & G. Williamson

    Eusebius's account is the only surviving historical record of the Church during its crucial first 300 years. Bishop Eusebius, a learned scholar who lived most of his life in Caesar...

  • Energy synopsis, comments

    Energy

    Richard Rhodes

    A “meticulously researched” (The New York Times Book Review) examination of energy transitions over time and an exploration of the current challenges presented by global warming, a...

  • Firestarter synopsis, comments

    Firestarter

    Stephen King

    Master storyteller Stephen King presents the classic #1 New York Times bestsellernow a major motion picture!Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson were once college students looking to mak...

  • The White Queen synopsis, comments

    The White Queen

    Philippa Gregory

    The inspiration for the critically acclaimed Starz miniseries The White Queen, #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory brings to life the extraordinary story of Eliza...

  • A Self-Made Man synopsis, comments

    A Self-Made Man

    Sidney Blumenthal

    The first in a sweeping, multivolume history of Abraham Lincolnfrom his obscure beginnings to his presidency, death, and the overthrow of his postCivil War plan of reconciliation“e...

  • Be More Pirate synopsis, comments

    Be More Pirate

    Sam Conniff Allende

    Pirates didn’t just break the rules, they rewrote them. They didn’t just reject society, they reinvented it. Pirates didn’t just challenge the statusquo, they changed everyfckingth...

  • The Arrogance of Power synopsis, comments

    The Arrogance of Power

    Anthony Summers

    The controversial New York Times–bestselling biography of America’s most infamous president written by a master of investigative political reporting.   Anthony Summers’s tower...

  • Heart of Black Ice synopsis, comments

    Heart of Black Ice

    Terry Goodkind

    Heart of Black Ice is the climactic conclusion to Terry Goodkind's New York Times bestselling Nicci Chronicles.In the wake of the brutal war that swept the Old World in Siege of St...

  • All the Powers of Earth synopsis, comments

    All the Powers of Earth

    Sidney Blumenthal

    Lincoln’s incredible ascent to power in a world of chaos is newly revealed in this “compelling, original, and elegantly written” (Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling auth...

  • King Richard synopsis, comments

    King Richard

    Michael Dobbs

    ONE OF USA TODAY'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A riveting account of the crucial days, hours, and moments when the Watergate conspiracy consumed, and ultimately toppled, a presidentfro...

  • The Gay Science synopsis, comments

    The Gay Science

    Friedrich Nietzsche & Walter Kaufmann

    The book Nietzsche called "the most personal of all my books." It was here that he first proclaimed the death of Godto which a large part of the book is devotedand his doctrin...

  • King synopsis, comments

    King

    Ben Kane

    The thrilling adventure story about history's greatest warrior: Richard the Lionheart Autumn 1192. At the end of the Third Crusade Jerusalem remains in the Saracens' hands, and a p...