The final program of City of Asylum’s fourth annual LitFest welcomes Richard Powers, New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory and Bewilderment. This program will follow Richard’s magisterial new novel Playground, which has been Longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize and will be moderated by local journalist John Allison. 

Playground is Richard Powers at the height of his skills. The novel weaves together the lives of four individuals. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away. Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.

Purchase your own copy of Richard’s book, Playground, at City of Asylum Bookstore and get it signed after the program.

About the Author:

Richard Powers is the author of fourteen novels, including The Overstory, Bewilderment, and Orfeo. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award. He lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

About the Moderator:

John Allison, a City of Asylum neighbor, is a local journalist. He worked in Washington, New York, and Prague before returning to Pittsburgh in 1994 to become an editor at the Post-Gazette. Today he’s the editor of Shady Ave Magazine, published by Trib Total Media.