Adam Johnson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Orphan Master’s Son” spoke to Shippensburg University students on Oct. 15 to promote his newest set of short stories.

The lecture was held in Old Main Chapel and was sponsored by the English Department, its creative writing committee, The Reflector, the College of Arts and Sciences and the SU Foundation. This is the second time that Johnson has come to SU to give a lecture -— the first being several years ago.

Johnson, an English professor at Stanford University, had his work in publications such as Esquire, GQ, Harper’s Magazine, Playboy, Granta, Tin House and “The Best American Short Stories.”

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Johnson said that his life experiences, including his parents’ divorce and his wife’s battle with breast cancer, weighed heavily on his mind during the development of several of his short stories.

One such short story is “Nirvana,” which Johnson began to recite after the introductory speeches. The story follows the unnamed protagonist and his wife, Charlotte, who is battling a disease that has left her almost completely paralyzed.

In the story, the protagonist spends his nights in deep conversation with a hologram of the assassinated president of the U.S. Despite being very skilled with technology and inventing in general, the protagonist seems unable to understand his wife and her condition and worries that she will soon commit suicide.

In a brief Q&A session after the reading, Johnson said that engaging in technology is something that he is very interested in. One of the great ways that a story unfolds is by leaving information about the characters to be naturally explored as the story progresses, according to Johnson.

Johnson said that he prefers to juxtapose the elements of his stories so that they intersect, instead of letting all of the elements fit together, as many authors choose to do.

“I thought it was cool how he had such different characters in his story, like a paralyzed person and a holographic president, and integrated them into one story and how they all connected with one another,” student Alexa Gibson said.

Describing himself as a researcher, Johnson said that he loves to source information from the real world and to take what is emotionally true about himself and be able to put it into something that is entirely different.

“The greatest compliment [to receive after an author finishes reading] is a collective thrum,” Johnson said. “It normally means that the story is working in a harmonic way and that all of the elements are coming together.”

Johnson said that one of the best ways he prevents writer’s block is by leaving and coming back to his writing on a regular basis. This way, Johnson said, his mind has time to chew at it and is more susceptible to thinking of new story ideas.

Johnson’s collection of short stories, “Fortune Smiles,” is available now on Amazon.com.

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