Adam Johnson, major contemporary novelist, received the Pulitzer Prize for his 2012 novel of North Korea, The Orphan Master’s Son. Writing in the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani called it, “a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of North Korea but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice.”

He also received the National Book Award for his 2015 story collection, Fortune Smiles. His new novel is The Wayfinder (2025), a historical epic about a girl from a remote Tongan island who embarks on a risky seafaring journey across a vast ocean empire built on power, consumption, and bloodshed. Born in South Dakota, Johnson is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

4:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 28
University at Albany
Recital Hall, UAlbany Performing Arts Center
1400 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12222

Free and open to the public. Books will be sold. A signing will follow the conversation.

Presented by the NYS Writers Institute.