Impact & Influence

Biography

Major Works

Scholarly Works

Audio/Video

Impact & Influence

Although he produced a slim volume of work and kept a low profile, Powers' writings captivated his audience with realistic, rather than dramatic, tales of Catholic priesthood. Using subtle comedy, he points out the underlying struggles between the secular and the profane. He twice won the National Book Award, first with his debut novel, Morte d'Urban, in 1963 and again for a collection of short stories entitled Look How the Fish Live in 1973. His short story "Lions, Harts, Leaping Does" was selected for inclusion in the O. Henry Prize Stories in 1944, and "Death of a Favorite" was later selected by author John Updike for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. He also earned the Wethersfield Institute Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement in 1989.

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Biography

Called "the finest Catholic writer of the 20th Century," J.F. Powers lived a quiet life. Born in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1917, he was raised by a devout Catholic family and attended a Franciscan high school. He later enrolled in a few college courses in English and philosophy but never earned a degree. Although he expressed no interest in the joining the clergy, Powers did attend a retreat for priests in 1943 in Minnesota, where he would later make his home. Influenced by the Catholic Workers movement and Dorothy Day, he became a conscientious objector to World War II, which resulted in thirteen months in Sandstone Prison in Minnesota for refusing to join the military. Upon release, he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he wrote slowly but steadily — over the years he published several short stories for the New Yorker and other magazines. Powers went on to teach writing at several colleges, including Marquette and Smith, and spent long periods living in Ireland. In 1975, Powers returned to Minnesota as a Regents English professor and writer-in-residence at St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict's, where he remained until his death in 1999.

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Major Works

Prince of Darkness and Other Stories (1947)
The Presence of Grace (1956)
Morte d'Urban (1963)
Look How the Fish Live (1973)
Wheat that Springeth Green (1988)

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Scholarly Works

J. F. Powers, by John V. Hagopian

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Audio/Video

Sorry, none available at this time.

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