Pluralist Desires: Contemporary Historical Fiction and the End of the Cold War, by Philipp Löffler (Series: European Studies in North American Literature and Culture, Camden House, 2015). Chapter 6: Lukácsian Aesthetics, Self-Creation, and Richard Powers’s Plowing the Dark. Philipp Löffler explores the contemporary historical novel in conjunction with three cultural shifts that have crucially, Read More

A musical reaction to Powers’s Plowing the Dark, by Swoon (aka Marc Neys), as part of his this Belgian artist’s series “Music for Books,” (2015).

To celebrate both Powers’ literary accomplishments and his contributions to the University of Illinois, the Provost’s Office commissioned production of five short video works, each of which interprets a passage from one of Richard Powers’ five novels.  The videos are a collaborative endeavor between Powers and a group of artists and designers from the, Read More

“Richard Powers: The Art of Fiction No. 175,” by Kevin Berger, appeared in The Paris Review, Winter 2002-2003, No. 164. “The following interview is the product of several meetings and conversations. The first came in the spring of 1998, when he was working on Plowing the Dark and living in a garage apartment near Stony Brook,, Read More

An audio interview from March 15, 2001, by Michael Silverblatt for KCRW, after publication of Plowing the Dark. “…his intensity and sincerity blaze through as he talks about science, personal sacrifice and the common mis-assumption that cerebral writers are without passion.”

“Mind Painting,” a review of Plowing the Dark, by John Leonard, New York Review of Books, January 11, 2001.

This interview by Harvey Blume appeared in The Atlantic Online, June 28, 2000, after publication of Plowing the Dark. It is called “Two Geeks on Their Way to Byzantium: A conversation with Richard Powers.

[excerpt from Plowing the Dark] Conjunctions. 33 (Fall 1999).  This millennial issue “celebrates the word in the world as we cross over into another century.”