Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver was born in 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland, the daughter of Wendell Roy Kingsolver and Virginia Lee (née Henry) Kingsolver, but grew up in Carlisle, Kentucky.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/01/garden/at-lunch-with-barbara-kingsolver-termites-are-interesting-but-books-sell-better.html?pagewanted=2|title=At Lunch With Barbara Kingsolver|last=Lyall|first=Sarah|format=interview|work=The New York Times|date=September 1, 1993|access-date=May 3, 2010}} When Kingsolver was seven, her father, a physician, took the family to Léopoldville, Congo (now Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo).{{Citation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/11/magazine/the-novel-as-indictment.html?scp=4&sq=Poisonwood%20Bible&st=cse|title=The Novel as Indictment|last=Kerr|first=Sarah| work=The New York Times|date=October 11, 1988|access-date=May 3, 2010}}{{cite news|first=Ellen|last=Kanner|title=Barbara Kingsolver turns to her past to understand the present|date=November 1998|url=http://www.bookpage.com/books-5367-The+Poisonwood+Bible|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721120202/http://www.bookpage.com/books-5367-The+Poisonwood+Bible|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-21|access-date=May 3, 2010}}

After graduating from high school, Kingsolver attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. She changed her major to biology after realizing that "classical pianists compete for six job openings a year, and the rest of [them] get to play 'Blue Moon' in a hotel lobby".

Kingsolver was involved in activism on her campus, and took part in protests against the Vietnam War. In 1977, Kingsolver graduated Phi Beta Kappa{{cite book|last1=Snodgrass|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Barbara Kingsolver: A Literary Companion|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476611174|page=13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAsyBgAAQBAJ&q=Barbara+Kingsolver+phi+beta+kappa&pg=PA13|language=en}} with a Bachelor of Science, and moved to France for a year. In 1980, she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned a master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology.{{cite web|url=http://www.st-charles.lib.il.us/readers_service/bios/kingsolver.htm |title=Barbara Kingsolver profile |work=St Charles Public Library |date=February 2010 |access-date=May 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615125302/http://www.st-charles.lib.il.us/readers_service/bios/kingsolver.htm |archive-date=June 15, 2011 }}{{cite book|title=Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia|last=Ballard|first=Sandra L.|year= 2003 |publisher= The University Press of Kentucky |location=Kentucky |isbn= 978-0-8131-9066-2|pages=330–31|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i090MbNYlIYC&pg=PA330|access-date=May 25, 2010}}

In 1985, Kingsolver married Joseph Hoffmann, and gave birth to their daughter Camille in 1987.{{cite web |url=http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/kingsolver-barbara|title=Barbara Kingsolver|work= eNotes|access-date=May 18, 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.kingsolver.com/biography|title=Barbara Kingsolver Brief Biography|format=Biography|work=Barbara Kingsolver's official website|access-date=2010-05-12|archive-date=2010-07-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714171744/http://www.kingsolver.com/biography/|url-status=dead}} During the first First Gulf War, she moved with her daughter to Tenerife in the Canary Islands for a year, mostly due to her frustration over America's military involvement.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6606679/Barbara-Kingsolver-Interview.html|title=Barbara Kingsolver: Interview|last=Leonard|first=Tom|format=Interview|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=November 20, 2009|access-date=May 12, 2010|location=London, UK|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618214901/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6606679/Barbara-Kingsolver-Interview.html|archive-date=June 18, 2010|url-status=live}} After returning to the United States in 1992, she separated from her husband.

In 1994, Kingsolver was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from her alma mater, DePauw University.{{cite web|url=http://www.depauw.edu/news/?id=25211|title=Barbara Kingsolver '77 is Finalist for Britain's Orange Prize|work=DePauw University News|date=April 20, 2010|access-date=May 3, 2010}} That same year, she married Steven Lee Hopp, an ornithologist, and their daughter Lily was born in 1996. In 2004, Kingsolver moved with her family to a farm in Washington County, Virginia. In 2008, she received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Duke University, where she delivered a commencement address entitled "How to Be Hopeful".{{cite web|url=http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2008/05/kingsolver.html|title=How to be Hopeful|last=Kingsolver|first=Barbara|format=Speech|publisher=Duke University|date=May 11, 2008|access-date=May 3, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100511142111/http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2008/05/kingsolver.html|archive-date=May 11, 2010|url-status=dead}}

In the late 1990s, Kingsolver was a founding member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock-and-roll band made up of published writers. Other band members included Amy Tan, Matt Groening, Dave Barry, and Stephen King, and they played for one week during the year. Kingsolver played the keyboard, but is no longer an active member of the band.{{cite web| url=http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/history.html| title=History of the Rock Bottom Remainders|format=website|access-date=May 3, 2010}}

In a 2010 interview with The Guardian, Kingsolver said, "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 defense to protect my family from misinformation".{{cite web |work=The Guardian|location=UK|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/12/life-in-writing-barbara-kingsolver|title=Guardian interview: A life in writing: Barbara Kingsolver|date=June 12, 2010}}

Kingsolver lives in the Appalachia area of the United States. She said in 2020 that rural America is generally regarded by artistic elites with "a profound antipathy".{{Cite news|last=Marriott|first=James|title=Barbara Kingsolver interview: The Poisonwood Bible author talks about how her mother's death allowed her to write about family|newspaper=The Times |language=en|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/barbara-kingsolver-interview-the-poisonwood-bible-author-talks-about-how-her-mothers-death-allowed-her-to-write-about-family-8fhj38kz0|access-date=2020-09-14|issn=0140-0460}}

File:Barbara Kingsolver speaking at BookExpo 2018.jpg in 2018]]

Kingsolver began her full-time writing career in the mid-1980s as a science writer for the University of Arizona, which eventually led to 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.

Kingsolver's first novel, The Bean Trees, 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.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-homeland.html?scp=19&sq=barbara%20kingsolver&st=cse|title=Distant as a Cherokee Childhood|last=Banks|first=Russell|work=The New York Times|date=1989-06-11|access-date=2010-05-18}}

The novel Animal Dreams was also published in 1990,{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-animal.html?scp=23&sq=barbara%20kingsolver&st=cse|title=In One Small Town, the Weight of the World|last=Smiley|first=Jane |work=The New York Times|date= 1990-09-02|access-date=2010-05-18}} followed by Pigs in Heaven, the sequel to The Bean Trees, in 1993.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/27/books/and-baby-makes-two.html?scp=45&sq=barbara%20kingsolver&st=cse|title=And Baby Makes Two|last=Karbo|first=Karen|format=Book review|work= The New York Times|date=1993-06-27|access-date=2010-05-18}} Every book that Kingsolver has written since Pigs in Heaven has been on The New York Times Best Seller list.

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.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/reviews/981018.18klinket.html |title=Going Native |last= Klinkenborg |first= Verlyn|work= The New York Times |date=October 16, 1998|access-date=May 3, 2010}} Although the setting of the novel is somewhat similar to Kingsolver's own childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then "the Democratic Republic of Zaire"), the novel is not autobiographical. The novel was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection.{{cite web |title=Barbara Kingsolver author biography |url=http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Barbara-Kingsolver-author-biography |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100603022916/http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Barbara-Kingsolver-author-biography |archive-date=June 3, 2010 |access-date=May 3, 2010 |work=Oprah.com}} The Poisonwood Bible won the National Book Prize of South Africa and was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award.{{cite web |title=Awards & Honors | Barbara Kingsolver |url=http://www.kingsolver.com/awards-and-honors |access-date=2010-05-12 |work=Official Site |format=Awards & Honors List}}

Her next novel, published in 2000, was Prodigal Summer, set in southern Appalachia.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/05/reviews/001105.05schuest.html?scp=1&sq=barbara%20kingsolver%20AND%20prodigal%20summer&st=cse|title=Men, Women and Coyotes|last=Schuessler|first=Jennifer|format= Book review|work=The New York Times|date=November 5, 2000|access-date=May 3, 2010}} In 2000, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by the U.S. President Bill Clinton.{{cite web |last=Harper Collins |title=About the Author, Barbara Kingsolver |url=http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/About.aspx?authorid=5311 |access-date=2010-05-02 |archive-date=2010-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100205002224/http://harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=5311 |url-status=dead }}

Kingsolver wrote a Los Angeles Times opinion piece following the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks, which received widespread criticism for conflating innocent Afghans with the Taliban regime. 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.{{'"}}{{Citation |last=Barbara |first=Kingsolver |title=No Glory in Unjust War on the Weak |date=October 14, 2001 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-oct-14-op-57057-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |page=2 |access-date=June 10, 2016}}. By some accounts, she was "denounced as a traitor," but rebounded from these accusations and later wrote about them.{{cite web |date=November 8, 2009 |title=How Barbara Kingsolver recovered from a 9/11 backlash |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/book-features/how-barbara-kingsolver-recovered-from-a-9-11-backlash-1.931075 |access-date=June 19, 2016 |website=Herald Scotland}}

Starting in April 2005, Kingsolver 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=9891473|title=Back to Basics: Kingsolver Clan Lives off Land: NPR|last=Neary|first=Lynn|work=National Public Radio|date=April 29, 2007|access-date=May 3, 2010}} Kingsolver, her husband, and her elder daughter chronicled their experiences of that year in the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, published in 2007. Although exceptions were made for staple ingredients not available locally, such as coffee and olive oil, the family grew vegetables, raised livestock, made cheese, and preserved much of their harvest.{{cite book|title=Animal, Vegetable, Miracle|url=https://archive.org/details/animalvegetablem00king|url-access=registration|last=Kingsolver|first=Barbara|author2=Hopp, Steven|author3=Kingsolver, Camille|year=2006|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=9780060852559}} Animal, Vegetable, Miracle won the 2008 James Beard Foundation Award.

Kingsolver returned to novel-writing with The Lacuna, published in 2009. Kingsolver received her first Women's Prize for Fiction for the novel in 2010. The Lacuna won the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction.{{cite news |last=Brown |first=Mark |title=Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna beats Wolf Hall to Orange prize |work=The Guardian |location=London, UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/09/orange-prize-barbara-kingsolver |url-status=live |access-date=June 9, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612090903/http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/09/orange-prize-barbara-kingsolver |archive-date=12 June 2010}} Flight Behavior was published in 2012. It explores environmental themes and highlights the potential effects of global warming on the monarch butterfly.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/books/barbara-kingsolvers-flight-behavior.html|title=A Visitation of Butterflies to a Town and a Life|last=Lipman|first=Elinor|date=November 19, 2012|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 5, 2019|pages=6}}

In 2011, Kingsolver was the first ever recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. The newly named award to celebrate the U.S. diplomat who played an instrumental role in negotiating the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995.{{Cite web |title=About the Awards – Dayton Literary Peace Prize |url=https://www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/about-the-awards/ |access-date=2022-03-29 |language=en}} In 2014, Kingsolver was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Library of Virginia. The award recognizes outstanding and long-lasting contributions to literature by a Virginian.{{cite web|title=Annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards|url=http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/litawards/|publisher=Library of Virginia|access-date=March 10, 2014}} In 2018 the Library of Virginia named her one of the Virginia Women in History.{{cite web|url=https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/vawomen/2018/honoree.htm?bio=Kingsolver|title=Virginia Women in History 2018 Barbara Kingsolver|website=www.lva.virginia.gov|date=30 June 2016 |access-date=15 March 2018}}

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.{{Cite web |last=Zongker |first=Brett |date=2019-05-09 |title=U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Join Leading Authors at 2019 National Book Festival {{!}} National Book Festival |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/national-book-festival/2019/05/u-s-supreme-court-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-to-join-leading-authors-at-2019-national-book-festival/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=The Library of Congress}} Her latest book, published in 2022, is Demon Copperhead. The novel was inspired by David Copperfield and is set in southern Appalachia, dealing with the effects of the opioid crisis on the region's families. In 2023, Demon Copperhead received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction alongside Hernan Diaz's Trust, the first time the award was shared in its history.

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.{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1025_021029_LastStand.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021101122255/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1025_021029_LastStand.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 1, 2002 |title=New Photo Book an Homage to Last U.S. Wildlands |last= Parsell|first= T.L.|work= National Geographic News|date=October 29, 2002 |access-date=May 3, 2010}}

Her major nonfiction works include her 1990 publication Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-holding.html?scp=61&sq=barbara%20kingsolver&st=cse|title=Both Sides Lost|last=Stegner|first=Page|work=The New York Times|date=January 7, 1990|access-date=May 3, 2010}} and 2007's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a description of eating locally.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/books/11book.html?scp=17&sq=barbara%20kingsolver&st=cse|title=Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life|last=Maslin|first=Janet|work=The New York Times|date=May 11, 2007|access-date=May 18, 2010}} She has also been published as a science journalist in periodicals such as Economic Botany on topics such as desert plants and bioresources.{{cite web|url=http://www.kingsolver.com/bibliography|title=Bibliography|format=Bibliography|work=Official Website|access-date=May 3, 2010}}

In 2000, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Named for the bellwether, the literary prize supports writers whose works support positive social change. The award is given to a U.S. citizen for a previously unpublished work of fiction that addresses issues of social justice. The Bellwether Prize is awarded in even-numbered years and includes guaranteed major publication and a cash prize of US$25,000, fully funded by Kingsolver.{{cite web|url=http://www.bellwetherprize.org/info.html|title=Bellwether Prize Information|work=Bellwether Prize Official Site|access-date=May 3, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505052223/http://www.bellwetherprize.org/info.html|archive-date=May 5, 2010|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} 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".{{cite web|url=http://www.kingsolver.com/faq/about-writing.html#11|title=Frequently Asked Questions|work=Official site|access-date=May 3, 2010}}

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.{{cite web|title=American PEN Centre |url=http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006000932/http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6004 |archive-date=2012-10-06 }}

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, such as Central Africa, Arizona, and Appalachia. She has stated that her novels are not autobiographical, although there are often commonalities between her life and her work. Her work is often strongly idealistic and has been called a form of activism.{{cite book |title= Women on War: an International Anthology of Women's Writings from Antiquity to the Present|last=Gioseffi|first=Daniela|year= 2003|publisher=Feminist Press|location=New York, NY|isbn=1-55861-408-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenonwarintern00gios/page/86 86]–88|url=https://archive.org/details/womenonwarintern00gios|url-access= registration|access-date=May 25, 2010}}

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.

Note: Kingsolver's Women's Prize for Fiction win for Demon Copperhead made her the first person to win the award twice. https://www.nationalbook.org/national-book-foundation-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-barbara-kingsolver/

;Other Awards

• Arizona Civil Liberties Union Award http://www.kingsolver.com/awards-and-honors/
• Won the National Humanities Medal in 2000.
• Won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's "Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award" in 2011.
• In 2014, won the Library of Virginia's Virginia Literary Awards' Lifetime Achievement award. https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/litawards/winners.htm
• In 2018, recognized & honored as "Virginia Women in History". https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/changemakers/va-women-2018
• Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters for Literature in 2021.{{Cite web |title=Membership |url=https://www.artsandletters.org/membership |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=American Academy of Arts and Letters |language=en}}
• Received the National Book Foundation's 2024 Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters (DCAL).{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Meredith |date=2024-09-04 |title=National Book Foundation to Present Lifetime Achievement Award to Barbara Kingsolver |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/national-book-foundation-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-barbara-kingsolver/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=National Book Foundation |language=en-US}}

• The Bean Trees, 1988, 1st UK edition 1989, Limited edition (200) 1992
• Homeland and Other Stories, 1989
• Animal Dreams, 1990
• Pigs in Heaven, 1993
• The Poisonwood Bible, 1998
• Prodigal Summer, 2000
• The Lacuna, 2009
• Flight Behavior, 2012
• Unsheltered, 2018
• Demon Copperhead, 2022

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

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

• Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983, 1989, {{isbn|9780875461564}}
• Last Stand: America's Virgin Lands, 2002 (with photographer Annie Griffiths Belt) {{isbn|9780792269090}}
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, 2007 (with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver) {{isbn|9780062653055}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{Official website|http://www.barbarakingsolver.net}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090919045446/http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/5311/Barbara_Kingsolver/index.aspx Author page on HarperCollins]
• [http://animalvegetablemiracle.com/ Official page of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"]

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