Paul Harding (born 1967) is an American musician and author, best known for his debut novel Tinkers (2009), which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction^[1] and the 2010 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize^[2] among other honors. He is currently the director of the Creative Writing and Literature MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton,^[3] as well as Interim Associate Provost of SUNY-Stony Brook's Lichtenstein Center.^[4]

Life and career

Paul Harding grew up on the north shore of Boston in the town of Wenham, Massachusetts. As a youth, he spent a lot of time "knocking about in the woods," which he attributes to his love of nature.^[5] His grandfather fixed clocks and he apprenticed under him, an experience that found its way into Harding's first novel, Tinkers.^[6] Harding has a B.A. degree in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst^[7] and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has taught writing at Harvard University and the University of Iowa.^[8]

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts, he spent time touring with his band Cold Water Flat in the US and Europe. He had always been a heavy reader and recalls reading Carlos Fuentes' Terra Nostra and thinking "this is what I want to do". In that book, Harding "saw the entire world, all of history". When he next had time off from touring with the band he signed up for a summer writing class at Skidmore College in New York. His teacher was Marilynne Robinson and through her he learned about the Iowa Writers' Workshop writing program. There, he studied with Barry Unsworth, Elizabeth McCracken, and later Robinson. At some point,^[when?] he realized some of the people he admired most were "profoundly religious" and so he spent years reading theology, and was "deeply" influenced by Karl Barth and John Calvin. He considers himself a "self-taught modern New England transcendentalist".^[5]

Musically, Harding admires jazz drummers and considers John Coltrane's drummer, Elvin Jones, the greatest.^[5] Harding was the drummer in the band Cold Water Flat throughout its existence from 1990 to 1996.^[9]

Harding's second novel, Enon (2013), concerns characters from his first novel, Tinkers, looking at the lives of George Crosby's grandson, Charlie Crosby, and his daughter Kate.^[8] His third novel, This Other Eden, was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize^[10] and the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction.^[11]

Harding lives near Boston with his wife and two sons.^[8]

Awards and honors

• 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, winner
• 2010 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, winner
• 2012 Fernanda Pivano Award

Works

• Tinkers (New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-934137-12-3)
• Enon (New York: Random House, 2013. ISBN 978-1-400069-43-9)
• This Other Eden (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2023. ISBN 978-1324036296)