Rep. Gayle Harrell's Son-in-Law, Adam Johnson, Wins Pulitzer for Fiction

Adam Johnson, son-in-law of Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Port St. Lucie, has been awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, for "The Orphan Master's Son," a novel about North Korea.

Harrell bubbled after the announcement. "What an honor," she said. "We are so proud of him and Stephanie."

Calling Johnson's book an "exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart," the members of the Pulitzer panel announced the big news on Monday.

Johnson, 46, and his wife Stephanie -- daughter of Gayle and husband James -- both got their Ph.Ds at Florida State University. ("It was hard for this Gator to accept!" Rep. Harrell admitted)

He is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow who teaches at Stanford University. His fiction has appeared in Esquire, Harper's, and The Paris Review. He is the author of "Emporium," a short story collection and the novel, "Parasites Like Us," which won the California Book Award. "The Orphan Master's Son" is his third novel.

Adam and Stephanie Johnson have three children and live in California.