Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Russo joined book critic Ron Charles for a discussion about the release of his latest novel, Under the Falls, on Thursday evening during a Martha’s Vineyard Author Series event at the Chilmark Community Center.
Mr. Russo, who has published ten novels, two short story collections and a memoir, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2002 for his novel Empire Falls, a story about the manager of a diner living in a decaying blue-collar town in Maine. Mr. Russo’s writing often depicts characters and stories living in small-town America.
“When you’re lucky enough to win the [Pulitzer Prize], it does suggest to you something that you have long hoped would be true, which is that maybe you can make a living at this, and maybe you won’t be grading papers forever, and maybe you’ve attended your last English department meeting,” said Mr. Russo, who retired from teaching in 1996.
The final push towards pursuing a career through writing came while Mr. Russo was pursuing a master of fine arts at the University of Arizona. He wrote a first draft of a novel set in California and handed it to his friend and mentor Bob Downs, who told him almost immediately that the draft was inert, and that he wrote like a tourist.
But hope was not all lost for Mr. Russo as Mr. Downs told him that he enjoyed a section of the story that was set in upstate New York, in a place similar to where Mr. Russo was born and raised.
“I could have killed him because that was not the kind of writer that I wanted to be,” said Mr. Russo. “I had other ideas, but he was right. I destroyed that book I had given to him, but it wasn’t that long after that I began working on Mohawk, because of course, you know, he was right. He had found me out.”
Locations and places play a central role throughout all of Mr. Russo’s works. They are characters in and of themselves and have as much of a story to tell as those who are given the time to speak in Mr. Russo’s novels.
“I would establish a voice for the story that was independent of any of the voices of the characters in the novel, you get a sense of a storyteller out there before the characters begin to speak,” said Mr. Russo.
Often, his stories take place in towns the world had passed by, where mills and tanneries were the main source of income until, eventually, they shuttered and were closed. Towns like Gloversville, where Mr. Russo was born.
“What the winding two-lane blacktop reveals around every turn is a fragment of the place you’re in,” writes Mr. Russo in the opening pages of his latest novel. “You don’t see things. You glimpse them, and just that quickly, they’re gone.”
His latest novel, titled Under the Falls, follows Tyler Sinclair, who has become a famous musician after leaving the small town where he was born and raised. Upon his return, he is reintroduced to the people he left behind and trouble ensues.
“In its various fictional guises, I keep going back there,” said Mr. Russo.
This, according to Mr. Russo, is sort of a conundrum when it comes to writing: his ear is far better than his eye. While writing, Mr. Russo said he often hears the characters talking to him. All he has to do is set them in motion.
Mr. Russo’s career of work has been held in high regard. His 1993 novel Nobody’s Fool was adapted for the screen in 1994 and starred Paul Newman. Empire Falls, the novel which earned him the Pulitzer in fiction, was adapted into a miniseries in 2005. Despite his success in Hollywood, Mr. Russo, first and foremost, still considers himself a novelist.
“One of the great things about storytelling, one of the great things about writing novels, is that for the period of time that you’re working on any given novel…one of the things that I loved about it most was that I could forget all about myself while I was dealing with these characters.”
This article appears in August 28, 2026.