Marilynne Robinson
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Marilynne Summers Robinson (born November 26, 1943) is an American novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. In 2016, Robinson was named in ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine's list of 100 most influential people. Robinson began teaching at the
Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...
in 1991 and retired in the spring of 2016. Robinson is best known for her novels ''
Housekeeping Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running and maintaining an organized physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as cleaning, tidying/organizing, cooking, shopp ...
'' (1980) and '' Gilead'' (2004). Her novels are noted for their thematic depiction of faith and rural life. The subjects of her essays span numerous topics, including the relationship between religion and science, US history, nuclear pollution,
John Calvin John Calvin (; ; ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French Christian theology, theologian, pastor and Protestant Reformers, reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of C ...
, and contemporary American politics.


Early life and education

Robinson was born Marilynne Summers on November 26, 1943, in
Sandpoint, Idaho Sandpoint is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Bonner County, Idaho, Bonner County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 9,777 as of the 2022 United States census, census. Sandpoint's major economic contributors include forest pr ...
, the daughter of Ellen (Harris) and John J. Summers, a lumber company employee. Her brother is the art historian David Summers, who dedicated his book ''Vision, Reflection, and Desire in Western Painting'' to her. She did her undergraduate work at Pembroke College, the former
women's college Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male st ...
at
Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
, receiving her BA ''
magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'' in 1966, and being elected to
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
. At Brown, one of her teachers was the postmodern novelist John Hawkes. She received her
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in English from the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
in 1977.


Writing career

Robinson has written five highly acclaimed novels: ''
Housekeeping Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running and maintaining an organized physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as cleaning, tidying/organizing, cooking, shopp ...
'' (1980), '' Gilead'' (2004), ''
Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...
'' (2008), '' Lila'' (2014), and '' Jack'' (2020). ''Housekeeping'' was a finalist for the 1982
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
(US), ''Gilead'' was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer, and ''Home'' received the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction (UK). ''Home'' and ''Lila are'' companions to ''Gilead'' and focus on the Boughton and Ames families during the same time period. Robinson is also the author of many nonfiction works, including '' Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution'' (1989), ''The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought'' (1998), ''Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self'' (2010), ''When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays'' (2012), ''The Givenness of Things: Essays'' (2015), and ''What Are We Doing Here?'' (2018). ''Reading Genesis'' was released on March 12, 2024. Her novels and nonfiction works have been translated into 36 languages. She has written numerous articles, essays and reviews for '' Harper's'', ''
The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...
,'' and ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
.''


Academic affiliations

In addition to her tenure from 1991 to 2016 on the faculty of the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
, where she retired as the F. Wendell Miller Professor of English and Creative Writing, Robinson has been writer-in-residence or visiting professor at many colleges and universities, including
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
, and the
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...
's MFA Program for Poets and Writers. In 2009, she held a Dwight H. Terry Lectureship at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, where she delivered a series of talks titled ''Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self''. In May 2011, Robinson delivered the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
's annual Esmond Harmsworth Lecture in American Arts and Letters at the university's Rothermere American Institute. On April 19, 2010, she was elected a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
. Robinson was selected by the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University to deliver the 2018 Hulsean Lectures on Christian theology. She was the fourth woman selected for the series which was established in 1790.  She has been elected a fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford and of Clare Hall, Cambridge. In 2023, Robinson received the Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus from the University of Washington, the highest honor bestowed upon a graduate of the university. The Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired the papers of writer and essayist Marilynne Robinson.


Honors and awards

Robinson has received numerous literary, theological and academic honors, among them the 2006 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion, the 2013 Park Kyong-ni Prize, and the 2016 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2021, the Tulsa Library Trust presented her with the Helmerich Distinguished Author Award.  Robinson's alma mater, the University of Washington, honored her with their 2022 Alumni Summa Laude Dignata Award. Robinson has received honorary degrees from over a dozen universities and colleges, starting with Oxford University in 2010 and Brown University in 2012, and followed most recently by the University of Iowa, Yale University, Boston College, Cambridge University, and the University of Portland.


Commendations

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has described Robinson as "one of the world's most compelling English-speaking novelists", adding that "Robinson's is a voice we urgently need to attend to in both Church and society here n the UK" On June 26, 2015, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
quoted Robinson in his eulogy for Clementa C. Pinckney of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In speaking about "an open heart," Obama said: a friend of mine, the writer Marilynne Robinson, calls 'that reservoir of goodness, beyond, and of another kind, that we are able to do each other in the ordinary cause of things.'" In November 2015, ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
'' published a two-part conversation between Obama and Robinson, covering topics in American history and the role of faith in society.


Personal life

Robinson was raised as a
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
and later became a Congregationalist, worshipping and sometimes preaching at the Congregational United Church of Christ in Iowa City."Marilynne Robinson interview: The faith behind the fiction"
''
Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...
'', September 2010.
Her Congregationalism and her interest in the ideas of
John Calvin John Calvin (; ; ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French Christian theology, theologian, pastor and Protestant Reformers, reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of C ...
have been important in many of her novels, including ''Gilead'', which centers on the life and theological concerns of a fictional Congregationalist minister. In an interview with the ''
Church Times The ''Church Times'' is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper based in London and published in the United Kingdom on Fridays. History The ''Church Times'' was founded on 7 February 1863 by George Josiah Palmer, a printer. It fought for the ...
'' in 2012, Robinson said: "I think, if people actually read Calvin, rather than read
Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...
, he would be rebranded. He is a very respectable thinker." In 1967 she married Fred Miller Robinson, a writer and professor at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...
. The Robinsons divorced in 1989. The couple have two sons. In the late 1970s, she wrote ''Housekeeping'' in the evenings while they slept. Robinson said they influenced her writing in many ways, since changes your sense of life, your sense of yourself." Robinson divides her time between northern California and upstate New York.


Bibliography


Novels

* * * * *


Short Fiction


''Connie Bronson''
- published in ''The Paris Review'', 1986
''Kansas''
- published in ''The New Yorker'' on September 6, 2004 (Extract from ''Gilead')
''Jack and Della''
- published in ''The New Yorker'' on July 13, 2020 (Extract from ''Jack'').


Nonfiction


Books

* * * * * * *


Essays and reportage

*
Bad News From Britain: Dangerous Chemicals, Awful Silence
, ''Harper's Magazine'', February, 1985 *
A Great Amnesia
, ''Harper's Magazine,'' May 2008 * * "On
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
", ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
'', vol. LXII, no. 2 (February 5, 2015), pp. 4, 6. * * *
Save Our Public Universities
'', Harper's Magazine,'' March, 2016 * *
Is Poverty Necessary?
'', Harper's Magazine,'' June, 2019 * *
The Gun-violence Plague is Evolving, Dangerously
''The Washington Post'', June 17, 2022
One Manner of Law
''Harper's Magazine'', July, 2022
Glories Stream from Heaven Afar
''New York Review of Books'', December 25, 2022
Dismantling Iowa
''New York Review of Books'', November 2, 2023 *
And It Was So: Creation in Genesis
, ''Harper's Magazine,'' February, 2024


Interviews

*
Marilynne Robinson: The Art of Fiction, No. 198
, ''The Paris Review'', Fall 2008. * A September 2015 interview with
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
in
Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...
,
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
, recorded by the ''
New York Review of Books New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
'' and published in the October issues of the magazine in two parts *
Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Beauty, Human Evil and the Idea of Israel
, ''The Ezra Klein Show'', March 5, 2024


Awards

* 1982: Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for best first novel for ''
Housekeeping Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running and maintaining an organized physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as cleaning, tidying/organizing, cooking, shopp ...
'' * 1982:
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
shortlist for ''
Housekeeping Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running and maintaining an organized physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as cleaning, tidying/organizing, cooking, shopp ...
'' * 1989: National Book Award for Nonfiction shortlist for '' Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution'' * 1999: PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay for ''The Death of Adam'' * 2004: National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for '' Gilead'' * 2005: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for '' Gilead'' * 2005: Ambassador Book Award for '' Gilead'' * 2006:
University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...
Grawemeyer Award in Religion * 2008: National Book Award finalist for ''
Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...
'' * 2008:
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), his ...
for fiction for ''
Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...
'' * 2009: Orange Prize for Fiction for ''
Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...
'' * 2011: Man Booker International Prize nominee * 2012: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from
Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
* 2012: National Humanities Medal for "grace and intelligence in writing" * 2013: Man Booker International Prize nominee * 2013: Park Kyong-ni Prize * 2014:
National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction and Dayton Literary Peace Prize * 2016: Premio Autore Straniero (Foreign Author Award), Il Premio Letterario Internazionale Mondello * 2017: Chicago Tribune Literary Award * 2019: Newberry Library Award * 2021: Tulsa Library Trust Helmerich Distinguished Author Award * 2023: University of Washington Alumni Summa Laude Dignata Award * 2024: Robinson received an
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
from the Free University of Amsterdam


Honorary degrees

* 2007:   Amherst College * 2010:   Skidmore College * 2011:   Holy Cross * 2011:   Oxford University * 2012:   Brown University * 2013:   University of the South * 2013:   Notre Dame * 2015:   Liverpool Hope University * 2016:   Lund University * 2017:   University of Iowa * 2017:   Duke University * 2018:   Yale University * 2019:   Boston College * 2019:   Cambridge University * 2019:   University of Portland


References


External links

*
Recognitions by: Marilynne Robinson
on her opinion of
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...
, PEN American Center * Marilynne Robinson Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Marilynne 1943 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists Academics of the University of Kent American Congregationalists American women novelists Pembroke College in Brown University alumni Brown University alumni Christian novelists Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Writers from Iowa City, Iowa Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners University of Iowa faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty University of Washington alumni Novelists from Idaho People from Sandpoint, Idaho National Humanities Medal recipients American women essayists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winners PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award winners 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American essayists PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners Novelists from Massachusetts Novelists from Iowa American women academics Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters National Book Critics Circle Award winners