Richard Powers is the author of nine novels, including The Gold Bug Variations (1991), Operation Wandering Soul (1993), The Time of Our Singing (2003), and most recently, The Echo Maker (2006), which won the National Book Award. His novels explore connections between science, technology, music and other disciplines, and have been compared to the work of Thomas Pynchon. Powers has received a MacArthur “genius grant”, and a Lannan Literary Award. David Foster Wallace has called him one of the greatest novelists working today. Of his own work, Powers has said, “Fiction can travel anywhere, and probably should.”

photo credit: Jane Kuntz