The Orphan Master’s Son Wins Pulitzer for Fiction

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Author Adam Johnson loves his indie bookstore

This year’s winners of the Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday, April 15, with all the more excitement after last year’s surprise turn of events when the Pulitzer board declined to award a prize for fiction for the first time since 1977.

The fiction prize this year was awarded to The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (Random House). The Pulitzer citation described the book as “an exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart.”

Johnson is an avid supporter of independent stores, and was part of the Why Indies Matter campaign last year, appearing in a Why Indies Matter video (below). Johnson discussed the important role of his independent store, The Booksmith in San Francisco, saying that his store, “like all independent bookstores, always feels like the heart of a neighborhood, it has the pulse. Everything around goes through it. When we go down there with our family, it feels like an extra room in our house.”

Nathan Englander, who was a finalist for the fiction prize for What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (Knopf), also gave praise in the video to independent booksellers for the work they do in promoting authors. Of independent bookstores, he said, “it’s about intimacy, it’s about closeness, it’s about breaking the distance, and there’s simply nothing like having a book put into your hands.”

The 2013 Pulitzer Prize winners for Letters, Drama, and Music are:

  • Fiction: The Orphan Master’s Son, by Adam Johnson (Random House)
  • General Nonfiction: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, by Gilbert King (Harper)
  • History: Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam, by Fredrik Logevall (Random House)
  • Biography: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, by Tom Reiss (Crown)
  • Poetry: Stag’s Leap, by Sharon Olds (Knopf)
  • Drama: Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar
  • Music: Partita for 8 Voices, by Caroline Shaw, recording released on October 30, 2012 (New Amsterdam Records)

Categories: