Richard Powers is all that and more: an alumnus of our department, a beloved (former) colleague, a writer of engrossing and brilliant novels. Above all, he's a kind, ethical, and deeply humane person whom I feel fortunate to know and to have worked with for a number of years here at the University of Illinois.
Congratulations, Rick, for another well deserved honor!
Here is the citation from the Gallery of Excellence:
There was a time, believe it or not, when Richard Powers was known more for his computer prowess than his writing. After graduating from the U of I, he was working as a computer programmer in Boston in the early 1980s when one day he walked into the Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and saw a 1914 photo of three farm boys headed to a dance. Something about it sparked an idea, and within 48 hours he quit his job to write his first novel.
The result was Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, published in 1985 to wide acclaim. Powers has been writing novels ever since, winning the National Book Award in 2006 for The Echo Maker, and named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award prior to his 2006 win.
After the success of his first book, Powers (BA ’78; MA ’80, English) moved to Holland to write without distraction, but he was drawn back to the Midwest, and in 1992 he returned to the U of I as a professor of English and writer-in-residence. During his time at Illinois he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, among many other honors.
“His generosity to colleagues and students in English is truly legendary,” says Curtis Perry, professor and former head of the Department of English. Powers recently retired from his position, and in fall 2013 he joined the Stanford University Department of English as a professor of creative writing.
Technology is often at the core of his novels, but complex characters and ideas drive the plot.
“The need for knowledge is as passionate as any other human obsession,” he once told The Believer magazine.