Editing Richard Powers (section)

===Novels===
Powers learned [[computer programming]] at Illinois as a user of [[PLATO (computer system)|PLATO]] and moved to Boston to work as a programmer. One Saturday in 1980, Powers saw the 1914 photograph "[[Young Farmers (photograph)|Young Farmers]]" by [[August Sander]] at the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]], and was so inspired that he quit his job two days later to write a novel about the people in the photograph.<ref name="eakin20030218">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/18/books/author-science-guy-richard-powers-chronicling-technological-age-sees-novels-like.html |title=The Author as Science Guy; Richard Powers, Chronicling the Technological Age, Sees Novels, Like Computers, as Based on Codes |last=Eakin |first=Emily |date=2003-02-18 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2019-03-26 |page=E1 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Powers spent the next two years writing the book, ''[[Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance]]'', which was published by [[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow]] in 1985. It comprises three alternating threads: a novella featuring the three young men in the photo during [[World War I]], a technology magazine editor who is obsessed with the photo, and the author's critical and historical musings about the mechanics of photography and the life of [[Henry Ford]]. It was a [[National Book Critics Circle Award]] finalist,<ref>{{cite web|title=The National Book Critics Circle Awards {{!}} 1985 Winners & Finalists|url=https://www.bookcritics.org/past-awards/1985/|access-date=2021-11-05|website=National Book Critics Circle|language=en-US}}</ref> and received the Rosenthal Award from the [[American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Awards – American Academy of Arts and Letters|url=https://artsandletters.org/awards/|access-date=2021-11-05|language=en-US}}</ref> It also received a Special Citation from the [[PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel|PEN/Hemingway Awards]].<ref>{{cite web|last=semper2013|date=2013-01-01|title=Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance|url=https://www.richardpowers.net/three-farmers-on-their-way-to-a-dance/|access-date=2021-11-05|website=Richard Powers|language=en-US}}</ref>

Powers moved to the Netherlands, where he wrote ''[[Prisoner's Dilemma (novel)|Prisoner's Dilemma]]'' about [[The Walt Disney Company]] and nuclear warfare.

He followed with ''[[The Gold Bug Variations]]'' about genetics, music, and computer science. It was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.<ref>{{cite web|title=The National Book Critics Circle Awards {{!}} 1991 Winners & Finalists|url=https://www.bookcritics.org/past-awards/1991/|access-date=2021-11-05|website=National Book Critics Circle|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1993, Powers wrote ''[[Operation Wandering Soul (novel)|Operation Wandering Soul]]'' about, among other things, a genetic condition that causes accelerated aging, and an agonized young surgical trainee. It was a finalist for the [[National Book Award]].<ref name=nba1993>
[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1993 "National Book Awards – 1993"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 27, 2012.</ref><ref name=lynn/>

In 1995, Powers published the [[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]] story ''[[Galatea 2.2]]'' about an [[artificial intelligence]] experiment gone awry.<ref name=Forrest2010>{{cite news|last1=Forrest|first1=Sharita|title=Richard Powers elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters|url=http://www.news.illinois.edu/news/10/0413powers.html|access-date=5 January 2015|work=News Bureau Illinois|date=2010-04-13}}</ref> It was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.<ref>{{cite web|title=The National Book Critics Circle Awards {{!}} 1995 Winners & Finalists|url=https://www.bookcritics.org/past-awards/1995/|access-date=2021-11-05|website=National Book Critics Circle|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1998, Powers wrote ''[[Gain (novel)|Gain]]'' about a 150-year-old chemical company and a woman who lives near one of its plants and succumbs to [[ovarian cancer]]. It won the [[James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction]] in 1999.

2000's ''[[Plowing the Dark]]'' tells of a [[Seattle, Washington|Seattle]] research team building a groundbreaking [[virtual reality]] while an American teacher is held hostage in [[Beirut]]. It received [[Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award]] from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Powers wrote ''[[The Time of Our Singing]]'' in 2003. It is about the musician children of an interracial couple who met at [[Marian Anderson]]'s famed 1939 concert on the [[Lincoln Memorial]] steps.

Powers's ninth novel, 2006's ''[[The Echo Maker]]'', is about a Nebraska man who suffers head trauma in a truck accident and believes his caregiver sister is an impostor. It won a National Book Award<ref name=nba2006/><ref name=lynn/> and was a [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] finalist.<ref name=pulitzer>[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Fiction "Fiction"]. ''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 27, 2012.</ref>

Powers's tenth novel, 2009's ''[[Generosity: An Enhancement]]'', has writing professor Russell Stone encountering his former student, Thassa, an Algerian woman whose constant happiness is exploited by journalists and scientists.

In 2014, Powers wrote ''[[Orfeo (novel)|Orfeo]]'' about Peter Els, a retired music composition instructor and avant-garde composer who is mistaken for a bio-terrorist after being discovered with a makeshift genetics lab in his house.

''[[The Overstory]]'', published in April 2018, is about nine Americans whose unique life experiences with trees bring them together to address the destruction of forests. It won the 2019 [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]], was shortlisted for the [[Booker Prize]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-Overstory/|title=The Overstory {{!}} W. W. Norton & Company|website=books.wwnorton.com|access-date=2018-04-18}}</ref> and the $75,000 [[PEN/Jean Stein Book Award|2019 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pen.org/2019finalists/|title=Announcing the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists|date=2019-01-15|website=PEN America|access-date=2019-02-23}}</ref> and was runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/2019-fiction_runner-up.htm| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191016165843/https://www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/2019-fiction_runner-up.htm| archive-date = 2019-10-16| title = Dayton Literary Peace Prize - Richard Powers, 2019 Fiction Runner-Up}}</ref>

''[[Bewilderment]]'', published in September 2021,<ref>{{cite web |title=Bewilderment: A Novel by Richard Powers (Author) |url=https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393881141 |access-date=September 7, 2021 |website=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]}}</ref> was shortlisted for the 2021 [[Booker Prize]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/books/booker-prize-2021-shortlist.html|title='Great Circle,' 'Bewilderment' Among Booker Prize Finalists|newspaper=The New York Times|first= Alex |last=Marshall|date=2021-09-14}}</ref> and longlisted for the National Book Award<ref>{{cite web|date=2021-09-17|title=2021 National Book Awards Longlist for Fiction|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/2021-national-book-awards-longlist-for-fiction/|access-date=2021-09-22|website=National Book Foundation|language=en-US}}</ref> and [[Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction|Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction]].<ref>{{cite web|last=JCARMICHAEL|date=2021-10-17|title=2022 Winners|url=https://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/carnegie-medals/2022-winners|access-date=2021-11-05|website=Reference & User Services Association (RUSA)|language=en}}</ref> It is described as "an astrobiologist thinks of a creative way to help his rare and troubled son in Richard Powers’ deeply moving and brilliantly original novel."<ref>{{cite web|title=Bewilderment {{!}} The Booker Prizes|url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/bewilderment|access-date=2021-09-22|website=thebookerprizes.com|date=21 September 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

''[[Playground (novel)|Playground]]'' (2024), the 14th novel by Powers, was longlisted for the [[2024 Booker Prize]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Marshall |first=Alex |date=30 July 2024 |title=Books by Rachel Kushner and Richard Powers Are Among Booker Prize Nominees |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/30/books/booker-prize-2024-longlist.html |newspaper=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>