Richard Russo
Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Empire Falls, Richard Russo's work is distinguished by rich characters and a pitch-perfect description of small town America. His humorous lectures cover his approach to writing both for novels and for television and film. Read Full BiographyAbout Richard Russo
Richard Russo knows small town America. This masterful novelist has an uncanny sense of the way life works in the gritty industrial towns of the American Northeast. From the gossip and the resentments to the people and the cafes, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Richard Russo chronicles blue-collar America in ways constantly surprising and utterly revealing.
Russo’s previous works include seven novels and one collection of short stories. His 2001 novel, Empire Falls, won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It was also adapted into an HBO mini-series, starring Paul Newman, Ed Harris, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Helen Hunt. His newest book, That Old Cape Magic, came out in 2009.
Russo earned a bachelor’s degree, a master’s in fine arts, and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. He has two daughters and lives with his wife in Camden, Maine.
Praise for Richard Russo:
“There is a big, wry heart beating at the center of Russo’s fiction” — The New Yorker
“Nobody does small-town life better than Richard Russo.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Russo is one of the best novelists around.” — New York Times Book Review
