Richard Russo: On the 25th anniversary of the publication of Empire Falls
- NYS Writers Institute
- May 1
- 2 min read
“And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you don't take the opportunity to be happy, you may never get another chance again."
― Richard Russo, Empire Falls
To mark the anniversary of his 2001 novel Empire Falls, Richard Russo shared a post on Facebook.
First published in 2001, Empire Falls was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year.
In a review published in The New York Times, critic A.O. Scott praised the novel, Russo's fifth, writing that “Russo's command of his story is unerring, but his manner is so unassuming that his mastery is easy to miss.”
The novel was adapted as a two part miniseries that aired on HBO in 2005 starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Dennis Farina.
From Richard Russo:
"Today is the 25th anniversary of the publication of Empire Falls.
I’m remembering the year Empire Falls won the Pulitzer (2002), I was sure it had no chance.
The day the prize was to be announced I did the sensible thing: instead of sitting around waiting for the phone to ring when it clearly wasn’t going to, I went out and played tennis with a friend. The match went long, and when I returned home, Barbara, my wife, hurried out onto the porch to greet me. One look at her stricken face and I knew that either someone had died, or that the phone had indeed rung. Had been ringing for the last forty-five minutes, in fact."
Richard Russo speaking with Times Union Editor Casey Seiler at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center in in September, 2023.
We've had the privilege of having Richard Russo as our guest many times. Here is a collection of videos from those appearances.