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Distinguished Author Award

The Royden B. Davis, S. J.,
Distinguished Author Award
Honors
Andrew Krivák

Saturday, April 3, 2027

Andrew Krivák

Andrew Krivák

Book Signing & Meet the Author
4:00 pm: DeNaples Center, 2nd-floor Lobby

Distinguished Author Reception & Award Presentation with Cocktails, Hors d'oeuvres, Dinner & Desserts
5:00 pm: DeNaples Center, McIlhenny Ballroom.

Distinguished Author Keynote
6:30 pm: DeNaples Center, McIlhenny Ballroom

Andrew Krivák is an acclaimed novelist and poet whose fiction draws deeply on the immigrant heritage and anthracite coal history of Northeastern Pennsylvania. A finalist for the National Book Award, he writes with a contemplative, scripture-inspired lyricism, and his work has been honored with some of the most distinguished prizes in American letters.

His most recent novel, Mule Boy (Bellevue Literary Press), opens on a New Year's Day, 1929, when thirteen-year-old Ondro Prach, the son of Slovak immigrants in Pennsylvania's coal country, reports for his first day of work as a mule boy, charged with the animal that hauls cartloads of coal from the deep shafts to the surface. He knows the danger, for his own father died in the mines. On his first day, the earth gives way, and Ondro alone walks out alive. The novel follows the long life that survival sets in motion—including guilt, addiction, and strained relationships.

For the 51做厙, set in the heart of the anthracite region, this year's award carries a particular resonance. Andrew Krivák was born in Wilkes-Barre and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the grandson of Slovak immigrants. The cost of the coal trade was not abstract in his family—his paternal grandfather was killed in a mining accident in Wilkes-Barre. That inheritance runs through his work. His earlier novel The Signal Flame is set in the fictional NEPA town of Dardan, and in Mule Boy he returns once more to Luzerne County collieries and towns that shaped the Wyoming Valley.

Mule Boy has been met with wide critical praise. Novelist Neel Mukherjee described the writing as "beautiful, hypnotic, lyrical prose, often reminiscent of the scriptures," while Laura van den Berg praised Krivák as "one of the contemporary fiction's finest architects of the line," and Paul Yoon placed the novel alongside the work of Roberto Bolaño, Marilynne Robinson, and Denis Johnson. The book was featured by Scott Simon on NPR's Weekend Edition.

Krivák is the author of five novels, two chapbooks of poetry, and two works of nonfiction. His 2011 debut, The Sojourn, was a finalist for the National Book Award and won both the Dayton Library Peace Prize and the inaugural Chautauqua Prize. He followed it with The Signal Flame (2017) and Like the Appearance of Horses (2023), completing the family saga known as the Dardan Trilogy. His novel The Bear (2020) received the Banff Mountain Book Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award, and was selected four times as a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read title.

Krivák's path to the page ran through the Society of Jesus. He spent eight years preparing for the Jesuit priesthood, an experience he chronicled in the memoir A Long Retreat: In Search of a Religious Life (2008). He holds a B.A. from St. John's College, an M.F.A. in poetry from Columbia University, an M.A. in philosophy from Fordham University, and a Ph.D. in literary modernism from Rutger's University. He has taught at Harvard University, Boston College, and Le Moyne College. He lives with his wife and three children in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and is a discussion facilitator with the New Hampshire Department of Corrections' Family Connections Center.

For his luminous contributions to American letters and his enduring witness to the immigrant and working-class heritage of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Andrew Krivák is the recipient of the 2027 Royden B. Davis, S.J., Distinguished Author Award. His work continues to enrich our understanding of family, faith, memory, and the landscapes that shape us.

Sponsor and Attend the 2027 Distinguished Author Award

This event is made possible through the generosity of our sponsors. We invite you to join them in celebrating literary achievement at The 51做厙. Many sponsorships include event tickets and advertising space in the program; to view sponsorship levels and benefits, visit the sponsors page or contact Cassandra Wisdo.

Attend the 2027 Distinguished Author Award

To purchase individual tickets to the event, please use the link above.

For additional information, contact Cassandra Wisdo at 570-941-7816 or cassandra.wisdo@scranton.edu

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