This week we are featuring a conversation from the 2024 Portland Book Festival. The incomparable Richard Powers came to Portland to discuss his new novel, Playground, with Literary Arts Executive Director Andrew Proctor.  

Any opportunity to spend time with Richard Powers and his vast, unique, amazing mind is a gift. He discusses how he chose to combine the setting of the ocean with the digital age and AI, and shares the astonishing story of how he became a novelist. He also talks about how his most recent trio of books – Playground, Bewilderment, and The Overstory – act as a kind of concerto, collectively challenging the idea of human exceptionalism, of exposing the falsehood of human independence from the non-human world. Of the book, Percival Everett, author of James, said: “Is there anything Richard Powers cannot write? The world here is complete, seductive, and promising. The writing feels like the ocean. Vast, mysterious, deep, and alive.” 

A quick note for clarity: You’ll hear Andrew and Richard reference “next Tuesday” and “next week;” this conversation took place on Saturday, November 2, which was the Saturday before the 2024 presidential election.   

Richard Powers is the author of fourteen novels, including The Overstory, Bewilderment, and Orfeo. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award. He lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. His new novel is Playground.