From the Archives : Richard Powers : The Overstory
episode
Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry
1h 32m
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 23 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
How did Richard Powers conceive a novel told from the perspective of trees?
Today's episode, From the Archives, is with Richard Powers and was recorded in 2019 at the studios of Kebu Community Radio under unusual circumstances, namely that I was also in conversation with Richard that same night, live at a ticketed event at Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon. So beyond the differences between an intimate, one on one conversation that this episode is, and the very public facing live conversation with an audience very present and interactive. I also made two very different lines of inquiry for each of these conversations. And so the conversations themselves, while about the same book, the overstory, are quite different and complementary. So if you've heard one, I encourage you to seek out the other in the archives too, which we aired in 2023.
Another unusual thing about these two conversations is that the overstory while being fiction, a novel, is inspired by several very Oregon specific acts of civil disobedience and forest defence that sprung from long standing movements in our region. So it's worth noting that Richard's arrival in Oregon to a home crowd of sorts happened quite late in the life cycle of this book, as he didn't make it this way for either the hardback or paperback tours, and came instead after both, after the book had won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. In the live episode, I recount some of the interesting behind-the-scenes encounters we both had with the local activist community in relation to his book and his appearance for it.
Richard Powers contributed an incredibly moving recording to the Bonus Audio Archive. In it, he talks about a collaborative cantata for trees. a collaboration between musicians and writers, where each writer picked a favorite text about trees that the musicians then put to music. He then reads for us his selection for this project Native Trees by W. S. Merwin. And this joins an ever-growing archive of supplemental recordings from past guests, including Victoria Chang discussing the multiple constraints she used to write her tiny poems in her collection, The Trees Witness Everything. and then she reads some for us, or Forrest Gander reading poetry he wrote in collaboration with a lichen scientist, or Jory Graham reading poems by others about rain, Alice Oswald reading from the Book of Job,
Adrian Marie Brown singing some songs from her Grievers trilogy, or various writing exercises, whether one to help develop characters with Will Alexander, one for writing from memory, with Lucy Ives, or in generating ideas how nothing comes from nothing, with Lily Dunn. You can find out about how to subscribe to the bonus audio and about all the other potential benefits and rewards at patreon.com slash between the covers. And now for today's conversation with Richard Powers.
Good morning and welcome to Between the Covers. I'm David Nayman, your host. Today's guest is the writer Richard Powers. Powers is the author of twelve novels, novels that have often interwoven science, from genetics and medicine to neuroscience and artificial intelligence, with his love of the humanities, from music theory, painting and photography to investigating storytelling itself. Powers is a graduate of the University of Illinois in Champaign, Urbana, where he studied physics and English and received a master's degree in literature. Before Powers was a novelist, he was a computer programmer, but he found immediate success with his nineteen eighty five debut novel, Three Farmers on a Way to a Dance.
It and four of his other novels have been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His fourth book, Operation Wandering Soul, was a finalist for the National Book Award. His nineteen ninety-eight novel, Gain, won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction. And his ninth novel, The Echo Maker, won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in two thousand six. Richard Powers has taught at the University of Illinois and Stanford. He's a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Richard Powers conceive a novel told from the perspective of trees?
0:00–16:11
2
What scientific and indigenous influences shaped the character Patricia Westerford?
16:11–27:11
3
Why does Powers use a tree‑based structural framework (roots, trunk, crown, seeds) for the novel?
27:11–36:37
4
How does the book balance moral ambition with literary storytelling?
36:37–46:10
5
What role does language play in connecting humans to non‑human beings?
46:10–56:35
6
How does the novel portray the history and challenges of environmental direct action?
56:35–1:07:25
7
What hope does Powers see for humanity and trees in the face of climate crisis?
1:07:25–1:17:49
8
How does the opening passage illustrate the deep time of trees versus human lifespan?
1:17:49–1:30:21