Author
Paul Harding
Associated Country
United States
Paul Harding is an American author best known for his debut novel Tinkers, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2010.
Harding grew up in Wenham, Massachusetts, and originally pursued music before turning to writing. He played drums in the band Cold Water Flat before studying creative writing, earning a BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has also studied and taught under notable writers and has worked extensively in academia as a creative writing professor.
His fiction is known for lyrical, reflective prose and meditations on time, memory, and family. In addition to Tinkers, he has written the novels Enon (2013) and This Other Eden (2023), both of which continue his focus on intimate human lives shaped by history and place.
Harding has taught at several universities, including Harvard University and Stony Brook University, where he has held leadership roles in creative writing programs.
Harding grew up in Wenham, Massachusetts, and originally pursued music before turning to writing. He played drums in the band Cold Water Flat before studying creative writing, earning a BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has also studied and taught under notable writers and has worked extensively in academia as a creative writing professor.
His fiction is known for lyrical, reflective prose and meditations on time, memory, and family. In addition to Tinkers, he has written the novels Enon (2013) and This Other Eden (2023), both of which continue his focus on intimate human lives shaped by history and place.
Harding has taught at several universities, including Harvard University and Stony Brook University, where he has held leadership roles in creative writing programs.
Books
This Other Eden 2023
This Other Eden by Paul Harding is a lyrical historical novel inspired by the true story of Malaga Island, a racially mixed community off the coast of Maine. Set in the early twentieth century, the...
Tinkers 2019
As George Washington Crosby lies dying in his living room, time begins to blur, and memories rise and fall like fragments of a dream. Confined to his bed, he drifts through recollections of his own...
Enon 2014
In Enon, Paul Harding follows a year in the life of Charlie Crosby as he tries to come to terms with a shattering personal tragedy. Grandson of George Crosby (the protagonist of Tinkers), Charlie...