On the evening of Sept. 26, the Schoening Conference Center at Arizona Western College was packed for the appearance of a contemporary literary giant, Adam Johnson, who won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction for his novel The Orphan Master's Son.

Johnson is the personification of the gentle giant. Though standing very tall, he has a soft humility in his voice. When he spoke to the standing-room-only crowd, his voice was neither booming nor monotonous; it simply expressed his confidence the subject he knows so well.

"Really enlightening"

One student, Nicole Walls-Trujillo, came to the event with her two younger daughters, said, "It was easy to listen to him because he spoke with such passion."

Johnson shared with the crowd many insights about North Korea, the setting for his celebrated novel. His knowledge comes from a limited visit to that country, and from reading and studying for years on the subject so that he could write a novel that touched hearts and minds as to the issues of another land.

"Really enlightening," Yuma County Librarian Bryan Summers said of the visit, adding that "it's perspective to that side of the world."

Ric Jahna, Professor of English and organizer of the event, noted that Johnson's visit was doubly valuable.

"From a literary perspective, we get to hear from a writer who has honed his art for many years and has managed to reach international success," said Jahna. "At the same time, his insights into North Korea make for fascinating content and shed light on a country very much in the news today."

Rather than advocating that we should rush to free a troubled people, Johnson offers an unbiased view of the problem so that we as free citizens of the U.S. could see how the other side lives. As with all the great cultural critics of the past who have set out to help the world through writing, Johnson gives us the information and leaves the choice to us.

An inspiring life story

Johnson, an associate professor of creative writing at Stanford University, was recently named the "one of the nation's most influential and imaginative college professors" by Playboy magazine.

Originally from Tempe, Ariz., this "desert boy" revealed his story of rising from construction worker to accomplished writer and professor. His mother encouraged his learning by enrolling him in after-school classes that were so expansive that, when he went to register for his senior year of high school he found to his surprise that he had completed enough work to graduate.

From there, Johnson worked a number of construction jobs until his mother again encouraged him to learn by offering to pay for his college classes. That was enough of a push to get him from the construction site to the classroom where he quickly found his passion in writing.

A worthy message for a college audience.