Adam Johnson, a visiting author for the RopeWalk series, won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for 2013 for his novel “The Orphan Master’s Son.”

Jon Haslam, senior English major, saw Johnson read one of his stories at the RopeWalk Reading Series to fulfill a class requirement, which inspired him to take the class this semester.

The RopeWalk class organized and publicized the reading.

The class involves reading the work of the author and discussing the styles, themes, techniques and pastiches (mimicking the style of the author), Haslam said.

Haslam said he got more out of the piece when Johnson presented it.

The promotional campaign for RopeWalk was based around the book, with the campaign slogan of “North Korea invades the Cone,” said Ron Mitchell, English instructor who went to graduate school with Johnson.

But Johnson did not read from his own Pulitzer Prize winning book at the RopeWalk Reading; he read from a new short story he wrote, Mitchell said.

Not only was it not published yet, it didn’t even have a name yet, Mitchell said.

The “phenomenal” book, “The Orphan Master’s Son,” had good timing because it came out around Kim Jung Il’s death, which led to an increase in interest in Johnson’s book, Mitchell said.

The New York Times reviewed the book in January 2012.

The book was “emotionally compelling” and Johnson knew his characters and what his readers expected of his characters, English Assistant Professor Marcus Wicker said.

“Yeah, it knocked me out,” Wicker said. “Completely knocked me out. Good writer.”

Wicker and Johnson hit it off at the RopeWalk reading and have been emailing back and forth, Wicker said. Johnson also asks about Wicker’s book, he said.

Wicker kept rereading the announcement of Johnson’s Pulitzer novel because it was “surreal.”

Wicker said he hopes Johnson can come back to USI for the summer retreat in New Harmony in the summer of 2014, so more students can meet him.