Introduction
Padgett Powell (born April 25, 1952 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American novelist in the Southern literary tradition. His debut novel, Edisto (1984), was nominated for the American Book Award and was excerpted in The New Yorker.
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 has been a writing professor at the University of Florida since 1984. He loves snakes, particularly the indigo snake.
Awards and honors
- 1984 American Book Award, nomination, Edisto
- 1986 Whiting Award
- 1987 Rome Fellowship in Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
- 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)
Story collections
- Typical (1991)
- Aliens of Affection (1998)
- Cries for Help, Various (2015)
Essays
- "Tangled Up in Indigo," Garden & Gun, April/May 2015
- "Padget Powell on Donald Barthelme," "Tin House" (blog), October 15, 2015