Adam Johnson, Associate Professor of English, recently won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his novel “The Orphan Master’s Son.” The work focuses on a fictional character who initially works for and then falls victim to the North Korean state, and it was described as “an exquisitely crafted novel” by the Pulitzer committee. The Daily sat down with Johnson to discuss his work at Stanford, his novel and the experience of winning a Pulitzer Prize.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Stanford’s Creative Writing Program and the 67th anniversary of the Wallace Stegner Fellowship, the second-oldest fellowship of its kind in the country.
It takes a bit of star power for any lecturer to fill Cemex Auditorium on a school night — but the New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett spoke to a full house on Monday evening. She was introduced by Professor Tobias Wolff, who fondly recalled a 20-something Patchett just embarking on her literary career.
The Stanford Storytelling Project sponsored ‘Big Shorts’ at a packed CoHo Tuesday evening. Writers, including Tobias Wolff, read selections from their work.
Celebrated writer Tim O’Brien, best known for his Vietnam War accounts in award-winning novels “Going After Cacciato” and “The Things They Carried,” delved into his personal experience with war and discussed the ethics of writing about war with Stanford professor and novelist Tobias Wolff during his Stanford visit yesterday.
When is war justified? What can we do in the name of war? What do we owe to people who fight in war? Who decides who should fight?
Bringing together different academic units on campus, the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society has spearheaded a project that is set to discuss such ethical questions surrounding war in a wide range of academic disciplines. The year-long series will continue until mid-May, concluding with two culminating drama performance events. The first event, “War Photographer,” took place on Oct. 14.