“The Best Place for It.” The New Yorker 63 (February 1, 1988): 28-35. Excerpt from Prisoner’s Dilemma.
“State and Vine: Vineland.” Yale Review 79.4 (Summer, 1990): 690-698. Review of Pynchon’s Vineland.
“Hard Ones.” Harper’s Magazine 283 (August, 1991): 37. Excerpt from Gold Bug Variations.
“We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder.” Grand Street 10.1 (Winter, 1991): 182. Excerpt from Gold Bug Variations.
“Een Amerikaan in Holland.” De Groene Amsterdammer (March 11, 1992):24-25. Essay by Powers on the creative uses of cultural misunderstanding. Reprinted in Joustra, Arendo (editor), Vreemde Ogen. Amsterdam: Prometheus, 1993.
“A Game We Couldn’t Lose.” New York Times. (February 18 1996): IV, 13:1. Op-Ed article on Gary Kasparov’s chess match against IBM’s Deep Blue computer. (865 words)
with Bruno Latour. “Two Writers Facing One Turing Test: A Dialog in Honor of HAL Between Richard Powers and Bruno Latour.” Common Knowledge, 7.1: 177-191. Text prepared for the Cyberfest, March, 14, 1997, Urbana-Champaign.
“Losing Our Souls, Bit by Bit.” New York Times. (July 15 1998): A, 19:2. Op-Ed article on the encroachment of online technologies into our personal lives. (1060 words)
“Life By Design: Too Many Breakthroughs.” New York Times. (November 19 1998): A, 32:5. Op-Ed piece on biotechnology. (780 words)
“Eyes Wide Open.8 New York Times Magazine (April 18, 1999): 80- 83. An assessment of the greatest ideas and accomplishments of the millennium.
“Escapes.” Esquire 131.7 (July, 1999): 86. Excerpt from Plowing the Dark.
[excerpt from Plowing the Dark] Conjunctions. 33 (Fall 1999).
“Being and Seeming: the Technology of Representation.” Context. 3 (2000).
“All That Is Solid Melts Into Air” [excerpt from Plowing the Dark]. Harper’s 300:1800 (May 2000): 20, 22-23.
“American Dreaming: The Limitless Absurdity of Our Belief In an Infinitely Transformable Future.” New York Times Magazine. (May 7 2000): 67. Powers comments on a survey indicating Americans think they can be whoever they want to be. (1671 words)
“Sein und Schein: Zur Technologie der Darstellung.” Schreibheft, Zeitschrift für Literatur. 56 (Mai 2001). Translation of “Being and Seeming: the Technology of Representation” (see above).
“The Simile.” New York Times Magazine 151:51885 (September 23, 2001): 21-22. Powers is one of several authors sharing personal reflections on the events of September 11, 2001. He reflects on the inadequacy of similes to covey the effect of the attacks.
“Ba-Da Bang.” New York Times Magazine. 151:51983 (December 30, 2001): 49. Powers remembers British astrophysicist and science fiction author Sir Fred Hoyle.
“Singing.” (excerpt from The Time of Our Singing) Conjunctions. 37 (Fall 2001): 12-18.
“Und was kommt dann? Je mehr die Medizin vermag, umso mehr gleicht sie der Erzählkunst: Beide sollen zeigen, was die Zukunft bringt.” Suddeutscher Zeitung. (August 10, 2002). A meditation on the parallels between storytelling and medicine, and on their ability to show the future. Translated into German by Joachim Kalka.
“From The Time of Our Singing.” Tin House 4.1 (Fall, 2002): 42-52.
Entry in Harmon, James, L, (editor), Take My Advice: Letters to the Next Generation, Simon and Schuster (2002): 77-8.
“Literary Devices.” Zoetrope 6.4 (Winter, 2002): 8-15. A piece on “self-telling” fiction in the digital age. Reprinted in Lightman, Alan, et. al. (editor) Living With The Genie,Island Press (2003): 5-21. Reprinted in Henderson, Bill, (editor), 2004 Pushcart Prize XXVIII: Best of the Small Presses (2003): 326-341.
“From the Files–John Barth: An Introduction.” The Paris Review. 45, no. 167, (2003): 292 (3 pages)
Im Labor der Nomaden: Neue us-amerikanische Literatur. Vorwort [preface] by Richard Powers. Germany: Wehr, Norbert, 2003. ISBN: 3924071160. Includes work by Ben Marcus, David Markson, and Curtis White. Edited by Guido Graf; translations by Marcus Ingendaay, Eike Schoenfeld, and Nikolaus Stingl.
“From Plowing the Dark” in Gamers: Writers, Artists, and Programmers on the Pleasures of Pixels, edited by Shanna Compton. Brooklyn: Soft Skull Press, 2004. Excerpt from Plowing the Dark.
“Improvisations.” PEN America, Volume 3, Issue 5 (2004): 15 (2 pages). Excerpt from Galatea 2.2.
“Introduction.” Hughes, Brigid (editor), Paris Review Book of Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms, Picador (2004): (ISBN: 0312433407). Reprinted in edited extract as “Real Time Bandits,” in The Guardian (UK) Review (August 14, 2004), p. 3
“Kincatenate.” Foer, Jonathan Safran, Nicole Krauss, and Dave Eggers (editors), The Future Dictionary of America. McSweeny’s (2004): (ISBN: 1-932416-20-X).
“They Come in a Steady Stream Now.” A piece written by Powers for BBC radio, turned into an interactive digital work by Jessica Mullen for the web counterpart of the magazine Ninth Letter. (December, 2004)
“I remember the thing homing in…” Short appreciation of Thomas Pynchon in a special edition of Bookforum Volume 12, Issue 2 (June-September, 2005) p. 40.
“Cranes.” Excerpt from novel in progress, in Black Clock number 3 (Spring, 2005). p 1.
“The Seventh Event.” Article in Granta 90: Country Life (Summer, 2005) p. 57.
“My Music.” in Gramophone (October 2005), p. 170.
“In den Docks.” Neue Rundschau (No. 2, 2005), p. 83-86. Translated into German by Manfred Allié. Reprinted in Mein Klassiker: Autoren Erzählen vom Lesen, Fischer Verlag (Frankfurt am Main: 2008) p. 115-119. An essay on Thomas Mann.
“Wat er niet meer is.” De Standaard der Letteren (November 25, 2005), p. 8-9. Cover story on memory, phantom pain, and a belated return to Belgium. Translated into Dutch by Geert Lernout.
“Meer der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten.” Profil 48:36 (November 28, 2005), p. 143-145. On Mozart’s discovery of Bach Translated into German by Manfred Allié and Gabrielle Kempf-Allié
An artificial being.” in Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel (eds) Making things public: Atmospheres of Democracy, Cambridge (Massachusetts): MIT Press, pp. 614-619.
“A Head for Music.” The New York Times. (Jan. 8, 2006): 4:14. Op-ed article on the efforts of researchers to gain insight into Mozart’s genius via scientific analysis of his putative skull. 898 words.
“A Brief Take on Genetic Screening.” The Believer. (March, 2006). p.
“De taal van het leven: een ruwe schets.” Dietsche Warande & Belfort 06: 2 (April, 2006), p. 212-223. An essay on writing science-based fiction.
“The Global Distributed Self-Mirroring Subterranean Neurological Soul-Sharing Picture Show.” Japanese Book News 48 (Summer 2006) p. 2-14. An essay on the fiction of Haruki Murakami. Reprinted in A Wild Haruki Chase, Japan, 2006 (ISBN 4-16-368470-0) In Japanese. Also reprinted in an English translation of the anthology, A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World, Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press / The Japan Foundation, 2008. (ISBN 978-1-933330-66-2) p. 38-55.
Bradshaw, Sara, et al. Nine Novels by Younger Americans. Foreword by Richard Powers. San Francisco: 826 Books, 2007. Includes work by Sara Bradshaw, Rachel Barber, Daniel Cowen, Sarah Meira Rosenberg, Dylan Suher, Lucas Gonzalez, Julia Mayer, Carolyn Maughan, and Samantha Lipman. Publisher’s description: ‘This anthology collects nine exceptional novels that were written by high school students from New York City during the summer of 2005 in 826NYC’s Young Adult Writers’ Colony.”
“How to speak a book.” New York Times Book Review (January 7, 2007).
Bachmann, Vera, ed. Das Lesen–ein Traum: Strahlende Geschichten fur Dunkle Nachte.Frankfurt: Fischer, 2007. (ISBN 3596510198) Includes stories by Powers, Audrey Niffenegger, Haruki Murakami, Roger Willemsen, Marisha Pessl, Steffi von Wolff among others.
“Making the Rounds.” in Intersections: Essays on Richard Powers. Dalkey Archive Press, 2008. For more information, see entry under Theses, Special Studies, and Books about Powers
“In den Docks” in Mein Klassiker: Autoren erzaehlen vom Lesen. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 2008. pp. 115-119. (ISBN 978-3-596-90001-5). Powers contributes an essay to this anthology of authors writing about their own favorite classic writers, discussing, as his choice, Thomas Mann. In German.
“Modulation.” Conjunctions. 50 (Spring 2008). Short story read by Powers during his series of appearances in 2008, including San Francisco and Seattle. This issue of Conjunctions includes works by 50 contemporary writers, including, besides Powers, Joyce Carol Oates, Sandra Cisneros, Rick Moody, William Gass, Jonathan Carroll, and Robert Coover, among others. Also anthologized in the Pushcart Prize XXXIV and Best American Short Stories 2009 (see entries below).
“The Book of Me.” GQ. (November 2008): 220-225, 266, 271-272, 274-276. An article on Powers’s experience of having his genome sequenced. From the table of contents: “Last summer, Richard Powers became one of nine people on earth to have his entire genome sequenced. Are we ready for an era in which genes are as easy to measure as height and weight?” Available online at http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_7481.
Published as a separate monograph in German: Das Buch Ich #9: Eine Reportage.S. Fischer Verlag, 2010. 79 p. (ISBN: 9783100590275). Translated by Manfred Allié, and Gabriele Kempf-Allié. Cover.
[Entry] in Carolin Seeliger, Tobias Wenzel (eds) Was ich mich immer schon fragen wollte: 77 Schriftsteller im Selbstgespräch [What I always wanted to ask myself: 77 authors interview themselves], Germany: Benteli, 2008. (ISBN: 3716515310). Powers has an entry (“Was hält Richard Powers für böse?” [What does Richard Powers consider to be evil?]) in this collection, along with 76 other authors, including Isabel Allende, Paul Auster, William Boyd, DBC Pierre, Umberto Eco, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Gao Xingjian, Donna Leon, Frank McCourt, Chuck Palahniuk, Ingo Schulze, Zadie Smith, and Mario Vargas Llosa.
“A Brief Take on Genetic Screening.” in Read Hard: Five Years of Great Writing From Believer. San Francisco: McSweeney’s, 2009. (ISBN: 978-1934781395) Cover. Powers’s essay from the March 2006 Believer is included in this anthology along with work by Rick Moody, Jonathan Lethem on Nathanael West, William T. Vollmann on W. G. Sebald, Ben Ehrenreich on Brian Evenson, Paul La Farge on Dungeons & Dragons, and others.
“Schlage hier nach zu allem. Eine Erzählung.” Literaturen. 7/8 (July/August 2009):20-25. Story. Translated by Manfred Allié.
“Soaked.” Granta. 108 (Summer 2009). Story.
“Enquire Within Upon Everything.” Paris Review. 190 (Fall 2009). Story.
“1897, Memorial Day” in Greil Marcus, Werner Sollors A New Literary History of America. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Pres, 2009. pp. 434-440.(ISBN: 978-0674035942) Cover.. Essay on the Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Monument in Boston, and on its evolving meaning through poetry and art since its creation by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
“Over the Limited.” Black Clock. 11. (Fall 2009). “In Richard Powers’ “Over the Limited,” freely adapted from his just published novel, a young African woman genetically predisposed to happiness stands at the nexus of a brilliant, narcissistic scientist and the discontented moderator of a TV news magazine.”
“Modulation.” in Alice Sebold, Heidi Pitlor (eds.) Best American Short Stories 2009. Mariner Books, 2009. (ISBN: 978-0618792252).
“Modulation.” in Bill Henderson (ed.) The Pushcart Prize XXXIV (2010 Edition). Pushcart Press, 2009. (ISBN: 978-1888889543).
“The Whiteness of the Noise.” (Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition of White Noise) in Don DeLillo, White Noise, pp. ix-xviii. Penguin Books, 2009. (ISBN: 978-0143105985).
“Out of Body, Out of Mind.” The New York Times. December 26, 2009.
“Ich habe das Neugier-Gen.” Süddeutsche Zeitung, no. 298, Monday 28 December, 2009, p. 12. Translated by Manfred Allié and Gabriele Kempf-Allié.
“To the Measures Fall.” The New Yorker. (October 18, 2010): 72-77. Reprinted in Brooks, Geraldine (editor) The Best American Short Stories 2011, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, pp. 262-275. (see entry below.)
“To the Measures Fall.” in Brooks, Geraldine (editor) The Best American Short Stories 2011, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, pp. 262-275. (ISBN: 978-0547242088).
“What Is Artificial Intelligence?” The New York Times. February 6, 2011.
[Epilogue] to Switching Codes: Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts, edited by Thomas Bartscherer and Roderick Coover. University of Chicago Press, 2011.
“What Does Fiction Know?” The Design Observer. August 2, 2011. Powers discusses his work teaching a course on the relationship between fact and fiction in Berlin during the Spring of 2011.
“Dark Was the Night.” Playboy. December 2011, p. 76. Short story. “A retired aerospace engineer risks everything to go back in time.”
“Genie.” Byliner. November 2012, Short story. “On a tour of the bubbling fumaroles of Yellowstone park, Anca, a rising-star biologist, sneaks off to steal samples of an ancient bacterium.”
Librarian in Tie-dye 