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Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
and lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at
DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the ...
and the
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...
and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her widely known works include '' The Poisonwood Bible'', the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and ''
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle ''Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life'' (2007) is a non-fiction book by Barbara Kingsolver detailing her family's attempt to eat only locally grown food for an entire year. Description The book revolves around the concept of improvin ...
'', a non-fiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally. Her work often focuses on topics such as social justice, biodiversity and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments. Each of her books published since 1993 has been on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list. Kingsolver has received numerous awards, including the
Dayton Literary Peace Prize The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is an annual United States literary award "recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace" that was first awarded in 2006. Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point ...
's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award 2011, UK's Orange Prize for Fiction 2010, for '' The Lacuna'', and the
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the huma ...
. She has been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
. In 2000, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize to support "literature of social change".


Personal life

Kingsolver was born in
Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...
, in 1955 and grew up in Carlisle, Kentucky. When Kingsolver was seven years old, her father, a physician, took the family to Léopoldville, Congo (now
Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...
,
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
). Her parents worked in a public health capacity, and the family lived without electricity or running water. After graduating from high school, Kingsolver attended
DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the ...
in Greencastle, Indiana, on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. Eventually, however, she changed her major to biology when she realized that "classical pianists compete for six job openings a year, and the rest of hemget to play '
Blue Moon A blue moon is an additional full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year: the third of four full moons in a season. The phrase in modern usage has nothing to do with the actual color of the Moon, although a visually blue Moon (the Moon ...
' in a hotel lobby". She was involved in activism on her campus, and took part in protests against the
Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. She graduated
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
with a Bachelor of Science in 1977, and moved to France for a year before settling in Tucson, Arizona, where she lived for much of the next two decades. In 1980, she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned a master's degree in
ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
and
evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life ...
. Kingsolver began her full-time writing career in the mid-1980s as a science writer for the university, which eventually led to some freelance feature writing, including many cover stories for the local alternative weekly, the ''Tucson Weekly''. She began her career in fiction writing after winning a short story contest in a local Phoenix newspaper. In 1985, she married Joseph Hoffmann; their daughter Camille was born in 1987. She moved with her daughter to
Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...
in the
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...
for a year during the first
Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
, mostly due to frustration over America's military involvement. After returning to the US in 1992, she separated from her husband. In 1994 Kingsolver was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from her alma mater, DePauw University. In the same year, she married Steven Hopp, an
ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
, and their daughter, Lily, was born in 1996. In 2004, Kingsolver moved with her family to a farm in
Washington County, Virginia Washington County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,935. Its county seat is Abingdon. Washington County is part of the Kingsport–Bristol–Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statis ...
. In 2008, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...
, where she delivered a commencement address entitled "How to be Hopeful". In the late 1990s she was a founding member of the
Rock Bottom Remainders The Rock Bottom Remainders, also known as the Remainders, was an American rock charity supergroup, consisting of published writers, most of them both amateur musicians and popular English-language book, magazine, and newspaper authors. The band ...
, a rock and roll band made up of published writers. Other band members included Amy Tan, Matt Groening, Dave Barry and
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
, and they played for one week during the year. Kingsolver played the keyboard, but is no longer an active member of the band. In a 2010 interview with ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'', Kingsolver says, "I never wanted to be famous, and still don't... the universe rewarded me with what I dreaded most". She said she created her own website just to compete with a plethora of fake ones, "as a defence to protect my family from misinformation. Wikipedia abhors a vacuum. If you don't define yourself, it will get done for you in colourful ways". Kingsolver lives in the
Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, C ...
area of the United States. She has said that friends in the urban literary community disparage rural areas such as Appalachia, but also that the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
might change these types of opinions as people move away from cities to practice social distancing longterm.


Local-eating experiment

Starting in April 2005, she and her family spent a year making every effort to eat food produced as locally as possible. Living on their farm in rural Virginia, they grew much of their own food, and obtained most of the rest from their neighbors and other local farmers. Kingsolver, her husband and her elder daughter chronicled their experiences that year in the book ''
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle ''Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life'' (2007) is a non-fiction book by Barbara Kingsolver detailing her family's attempt to eat only locally grown food for an entire year. Description The book revolves around the concept of improvin ...
''. Although exceptions were made for staple ingredients which were not available locally, such as coffee and
olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...
, the family grew vegetables, raised livestock, made cheese and preserved much of their harvest.


Writing career

Kingsolver's first novel, ''
The Bean Trees ''The Bean Trees'' is the first novel by American writer Barbara Kingsolver. It was published in 1988 and reissued in 1998. The novel is followed by the sequel '' Pigs in Heaven''. Plot Taylor Greer sets out to leave home, Kentucky, and trave ...
'', was published in 1988, and told the story of a young woman who leaves Kentucky for Arizona, adopting an abandoned child along the way; she wrote it at night while pregnant with her first child and struggling with insomnia. Her next work of fiction, published in 1990, was ''Homeland and Other Stories'', a collection of short stories on a variety of topics exploring various themes from the evolution of cultural and ancestral lands to the struggles of marriage. The novel ''
Animal Dreams ''Animal Dreams'' is a 1990 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. A woman named Cosima "Codi" Noline returns to her hometown of Grace, Arizona to help her aging father, who is slowly losing his struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She takes a biology teach ...
'' was also published in 1990, followed by '' Pigs in Heaven'', the sequel to ''The Bean Trees'', in 1993. '' The Poisonwood Bible'', published in 1998, is one of her best known works; it chronicles the lives of the wife and daughters of a Baptist missionary on a Christian mission in Africa. Although the setting of the novel is somewhat similar to Kingsolver's own childhood in DRC (then Zaire), the novel is not autobiographical. Her next novel, published in 2000, was '' Prodigal Summer'', set in southern Appalachia. '' The Lacuna'' was published in 2009, and ''
Flight Behavior ''Flight Behavior'' is a 2012 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It is her seventh novel, a New York Times Bestseller,Charis Perkins"Barbara Kingsolver talks Trump, #MeToo and the magic of Australia" ''The Australian Financial Review'', 28 March 2018 ( ...
'' was published in 2012. It explores environmental themes and highlights the potential effects of global warming on the
monarch butterfly The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. ...
. '' Unsheltered'' was published in 2018 and follows two families in Vineland, New Jersey with one in the 1800s and the other in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Kingsolver is also a published poet and essayist. Two of her essay collections, '' High Tide in Tucson'' (1995) and '' Small Wonder'' (2003), have been published, and an anthology of her poetry was published in 1998 under the title ''Another America''. Her essay "Where to Begin" appears in the anthology ''Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting ''(2013), published by W. W. Norton & Company. Her prose poetry also accompanied photographs by Annie Griffiths Belt in a 2002 work titled ''Last Stand: America's Virgin Lands''. Her major non-fiction works include her 1990 publication ''Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983'' and 2007's ''
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle ''Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life'' (2007) is a non-fiction book by Barbara Kingsolver detailing her family's attempt to eat only locally grown food for an entire year. Description The book revolves around the concept of improvin ...
'', a description of eating locally. She has also been published as a science journalist in periodicals such as ''
Economic Botany ''Economic Botany'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers all aspects of economic botany. The editor-in-chief is Robert A. Voeks (California State University, Fullerton). The journal was established in 1947 and is published by ...
'' on topics such as desert plants and bioresources.


Literary style and themes

Kingsolver has written novels in both the first person and third person narrative styles, and she frequently employs overlapping narratives. Kingsolver often writes about places and situations with which she is familiar; many of her stories are based in places she has lived in, such as central Africa and Arizona. She has stated emphatically that her novels are not autobiographical, although there are often commonalities between her life and her work. Her work is often strongly idealistic and her writing has been called a form of activism. Her characters are frequently written around struggles for social equality, such as the hardships faced by undocumented immigrants, the working poor, and single mothers. Other common themes in her work include the balancing of individuality with the desire to live in a community, and the interaction and conflict between humans and the ecosystems in which they live. Kingsolver has been said to use prose and engaging narratives to make historical events, such as the Congo's struggles for independence, more interesting and engaging for the average reader.


Bellwether Prize

In 2000, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Named for the bellwether, the literary prize is intended to support writers whose unpublished works support positive social change. The Bellwether Prize is awarded in even-numbered years, and includes guaranteed major publication and a cash prize of $25,000 USD, fully funded by Kingsolver. She has stated that she wanted to create a literary prize to "encourage writers, publishers, and readers to consider how fiction engages visions of social change and human justice". In May 2011, the PEN American Center announced it would take over administration of the prize, to be known as the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.


Honors and awards

Kingsolver has received a number of awards and honors. In 2000, she was awarded the
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the huma ...
by the U.S. President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
. Her 1998 bestseller, ''The Poisonwood Bible'', won the National Book Prize of South Africa, and was shortlisted for both the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
and PEN/Faulkner Award. Her most notable awards include the
James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awa ...
, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Edward Abbey EcoFiction Award, the Physicians for Social Responsibility National Award, and the Arizona Civil Liberties Union Award. Her novel, ''The Lacuna'', won the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction. Every book that Kingsolver has written since 1993's '' Pigs in Heaven'' has been on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list, and her novel ''The Poisonwood Bible'' was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection. In 2011, she was awarded the
Dayton Literary Peace Prize The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is an annual United States literary award "recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace" that was first awarded in 2006. Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point ...
Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. Kingsolver is the first ever recipient of the newly named award to celebrate the U.S. diplomat who played an instrumental role in negotiating the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. In 2014, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Library of Virginia. The award recognizes outstanding and long-lasting contributions to literature by a Virginian. In 2018 the Library of Virginia named her one of the Virginia Women in History.


Criticism

Kingsolver was criticized for a ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' opinion piece following the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan in the wake of the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
. She wrote, "I feel like I'm standing on a playground where the little boys are all screaming at each other, 'He started it!' and throwing rocks that keep taking out another eye, another tooth. I keep looking around for somebody's mother to come on the scene saying, 'Boys! Boys! Who started it cannot possibly be the issue here. People are getting hurt. By some accounts, she was "denounced as a traitor," but rebounded from these accusations and wrote about them.


Works


Fiction

* ''
The Bean Trees ''The Bean Trees'' is the first novel by American writer Barbara Kingsolver. It was published in 1988 and reissued in 1998. The novel is followed by the sequel '' Pigs in Heaven''. Plot Taylor Greer sets out to leave home, Kentucky, and trave ...
'', 1988, 1st UK edition 1989, Limited edition (200) 1992 * ''Homeland and Other Stories'', 1989 * ''
Animal Dreams ''Animal Dreams'' is a 1990 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. A woman named Cosima "Codi" Noline returns to her hometown of Grace, Arizona to help her aging father, who is slowly losing his struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She takes a biology teach ...
'', 1990 * '' Pigs in Heaven'', 1993 * '' The Poisonwood Bible'', 1998 * '' Prodigal Summer'', 2000 * '' The Lacuna'', 2009 * ''
Flight Behavior ''Flight Behavior'' is a 2012 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It is her seventh novel, a New York Times Bestseller,Charis Perkins"Barbara Kingsolver talks Trump, #MeToo and the magic of Australia" ''The Australian Financial Review'', 28 March 2018 ( ...
'', 2012; German translation by Sylvia Spatz 2014: ''Das Flugverhalten der Schmetterlinge'' * '' Unsheltered'', 2018 * ''
Demon Copperhead ''Demon Copperhead'' is a 2022 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. Demon Copperhead is a nickname for the narrator, Damon. The novel borrows its narrative structure from the Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – ...
'', 2022


Essays

* '' High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never'', 1995, also: Limited edition (150) 1995 * '' Small Wonder: Essays'', 2002


Poetry

* ''Another America'', 1992 * ''How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)'', 2020


Nonfiction

* ''Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983'', 1989 * ''Last Stand: America's Virgin Lands'', 2002 (with photographer Annie Griffiths Belt) * '' Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life'' 2007, (with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver)


References


External links

*
Author page on HarperCollins

Official page of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingsolver, Barbara 1955 births 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American essayists American women novelists American women essayists DePauw University alumni Living people National Humanities Medal recipients Nautilus Book Award winners People from Carlisle, Kentucky Rock Bottom Remainders members Sustainability advocates University of Arizona alumni Writers from Annapolis, Maryland Novelists from Kentucky Novelists from Virginia Novelists from Maryland PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners Kentucky women writers