Padgett Powell

Padgett Powell
Born	(1952-04-25) April 25, 1952 (age 73) Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist, short story writer
Nationality	American
Period	1983–present
Notable works	Edisto (1984)

Padgett Powell (born April 25, 1952 in Gainesville, Florida) ^[1] is an American novelist in the Southern literary tradition. His debut novel, Edisto (1984), was nominated for the National Book Award and was excerpted in The New Yorker . ^[2]

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. In addition to The New Yorker, Powell's work has appeared in The Paris Review , Harper's , Grand Street , Oxford American , The New York Times Book Review , and other publications.

Powell is an emeritus professor ^[3] at the University of Florida, where he began teaching writing in 1984. ^[4]

Awards and honors

• 1984 National Book Award, nomination, Edisto
• 1986 Whiting Award ^[5]
• 1987 Rome Fellowship in Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters. ^[6]
• 2011 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, 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)

Novella

• The New Book (2024; from the anthology Blasphemy and Other Ancestors) ^[7]

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

1. "The Writer's Almanac, Broadcast Date: Tuesday: April 25, 2000". American Public Radio . 2000-04-25. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
2. "Abstract: Padgett Powell, Fiction, "Edisto"". The New Yorker . 1983-11-14. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
3. "Creative Writing Faculty". MFA@FLA: Creative Writing. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
4. ""Padgett Powell" (faculty page)". University of Florida, Department of English. n.d. Archived from the original on 2018-10-26. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
5. "Padgett Powell".
6. "Rome Fellowship in Literature". The American Academy of Arts and Letters . n.d. Archived from the original on 2008-05-05. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
7. "Blasphemy and Other Ancestors". Gordon Hill Press. Retrieved 2025-06-19.

External links

• Profile at The Whiting Foundation
• Interview with Padgett Powell ^{[ usurped ]} at "The Faster Times"
• Padgett Powell faculty page at the University of Florida, Department of English
• 2006 interview in The Believer
• "Wayne in the Desert", a short story from Mississippi Review (1996)
• "Dizzy", a short story from "Unsaid Magazine" Vol. 1, n. 1
• Works by Padgett Powell at Open Library (selected works: Edisto; You & Me; Cries for Help, Various; Indigo)