Padgett Powell (born April 25, 1952 in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

in the Southern literary tradition. His

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, ''Edisto'' (1984), was nominated for the

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

and was excerpted in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. Powell has written five more novels—including ''A Woman Named Drown'' (1987); ''Edisto Revisited'' (1996), a sequel to his debut; ''Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men'' (2000); ''The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?'' (2009); and ''You & Me'' (2012), his most recent—and three collections of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

. In addition to ''The New Yorker'', Powell's work has appeared in ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'', '' Harper's'', '' Grand Street'', ''

Oxford American The ''Oxford American'' is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the American South. First publication The magazine was begun in late 1989 in Oxford, Mississippi, by Marc Smirnoff (born July 11, 1963). The name "Oxford American" is a play on ''T ...

'', ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', and other publications. Powell has been a writing professor at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

since 1984.

Awards and honors

*1984

, nomination, ''Edisto'' *1986 Whiting Award *1987 Rome Fellowship in Literature from

The American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqua ...

. *2011

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

, ''You & Me''

Works

Novels * ''Edisto'' (1984) * ''A Woman Named Drown'' (1987) * ''Edisto Revisited'' (1996) * ''Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men'' (2000; reissued in 2014 as ''Hologram'') * ''The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?'' (2009) * ''You & Me'' (2012) Story collections * ''Typical'' (1991) * ''Aliens of Affection'' (1998) * ''Cries for Help, Various'' (2015) Essay collection * ''Indigo'' (2021) Essays
"Tangled Up in Indigo,"
''Garden & Gun'', April/May 2015

"Tin House" (blog), October 15, 2015

References

External links

Profile at The Whiting Foundation

Interview with Padgett Powell
at "

The Faster Times ''The Faster Times'' was an online newspaper launched by Sam Apple on July 9, 2009. Many print newspapers were going out of business and reporters were losing their jobs. ''The New York Times'' reported that in this climate, Apple was able to recr ...

"
Padgett Powell faculty page
at the

, Department of English
2006 interview
in '' The Believer''
"Wayne in the Desert"
a short story from ''Mississippi Review'' (1996)

a short story from "Unsaid Magazine" Vol. 1, n. 1 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Padgett 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists University of Florida faculty University of Houston alumni Living people 1952 births James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Writers from Gainesville, Florida American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Florida