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Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver at the 2019 National Book Festival
Kingsolver at the 2019 National Book Festival
Born Barbara Ellen Kingsolver
(1955-04-08) April 8, 1955 (age 70)
Annapolis, Maryland,
U.S.
Occupation
Education
Period 1988–present
Genre Historical fiction
Subject Social justice, feminism, environmentalism
Notable works
  • The Poisonwood Bible
  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
  • Flight Behavior
  • Demon Copperhead
Spouse
  • Joseph Hoffmann (1985–1992)
  • Steven Lee Hopp (1994–present)
Children 2
Relatives Wendell Roy Kingsolver (father), Virginia Lee (née Henry) Kingsolver (mother)

Barbara Ellen Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is a famous American writer. She writes novels, essays, and poems. Her books often explore important ideas like social justice, protecting nature (biodiversity), and how people connect with their communities and the environment.

Some of her most well-known books include The Poisonwood Bible, which tells the story of a missionary family in the Congo. Another popular book is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a true story about her family trying to eat only local food for a year. In 2023, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel Demon Copperhead.

Barbara Kingsolver has won many awards for her writing. She received the National Humanities Medal and was the first author to win the Women's Prize for Fiction twice. Since 1993, every one of her books has appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky. She lived for a short time in the Congo when she was a child. Today, she lives in the Appalachia region of the United States. She studied biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona. Before becoming a novelist, she worked as a freelance writer. In 2000, Kingsolver started the Bellwether Prize. This award supports "literature of social change," helping writers who focus on important social issues.

About Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver was born in 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland. Her parents were Wendell Roy Kingsolver and Virginia Lee Kingsolver. She spent most of her childhood growing up in Carlisle, Kentucky. When she was seven, her father, who was a doctor, took the family to Léopoldville, Congo.

After finishing high school, Kingsolver went to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. She first studied classical piano on a music scholarship. However, she soon changed her major to biology. She realized that it was very hard to find a job as a classical pianist.

Kingsolver was active in student protests against the Vietnam War during her college years. In 1977, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. She then moved to France for a year. In 1980, she went to graduate school at the University of Arizona. There, she earned a master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology.

In 1985, Kingsolver married Joseph Hoffmann. Their daughter, Camille, was born in 1987. For a year, Kingsolver and Camille lived in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. She returned to the United States in 1992 and later separated from her husband.

In 1994, DePauw University gave Kingsolver an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. That same year, she married Steven Lee Hopp, who studies birds (ornithologist). Their second daughter, Lily, was born in 1996. In 2004, Kingsolver and her family moved to a farm in Washington County, Virginia.

In the late 1990s, Kingsolver helped start a rock-and-roll band called the Rock Bottom Remainders. The band was made up of famous writers like Amy Tan and Stephen King. They played music for one week each year. Kingsolver played the keyboard in the band.

Kingsolver lives in the Appalachia region of the United States. She has said that she never wanted to be famous. She created her own website to make sure people got correct information about her and her family.

Her Writing Journey

Barbara Kingsolver speaking at BookExpo 2018
Kingsolver speaking at BookExpo America in 2018

Barbara Kingsolver started her writing career in the mid-1980s. She worked as a science writer for the University of Arizona. This led her to write freelance articles, including many for the Tucson Weekly newspaper. She began writing fiction after winning a short-story contest.

Kingsolver's first novel, The Bean Trees, came out in 1988. It tells the story of a young woman who leaves Kentucky for Arizona. On her journey, she adopts an abandoned child. Kingsolver wrote this book at night while she was pregnant with her first child. Her next book, Homeland and Other Stories, was published in 1990. It is a collection of short stories about different topics.

The novel Animal Dreams was also published in 1990. Then came Pigs in Heaven in 1993, which was a sequel to The Bean Trees. Every book Kingsolver has written since Pigs in Heaven has been a New York Times Best Seller.

The Poisonwood Bible, published in 1998, is one of her most famous works. It follows the lives of a Baptist missionary's wife and daughters in Africa. The setting is similar to where Kingsolver lived as a child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This novel was chosen for Oprah's Book Club. It won the National Book Prize of South Africa and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Her next novel, Prodigal Summer, was published in 2000. It is set in southern Appalachia. In 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton gave her the National Humanities Medal.

Starting in April 2005, Kingsolver and her family tried to eat only locally produced food for a year. They lived on their farm in rural Virginia. They grew much of their own food and bought the rest from local farmers. Kingsolver, her husband, and her older daughter wrote about this experience in the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. This book won the 2008 James Beard Foundation Award.

Kingsolver returned to writing novels with The Lacuna, published in 2009. She won her first Women's Prize for Fiction for this novel in 2010. Flight Behavior was published in 2012. This book explores environmental themes. It highlights how global warming might affect the monarch butterfly.

In 2011, Kingsolver received the first-ever Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. This award is part of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Virginia. This award honors writers from Virginia who have made important contributions to literature.

Unsheltered was published in 2018. It tells the story of two families in Vineland, New Jersey. One family lives in the 1800s, and the other lives after Hurricane Sandy. Her most recent book, Demon Copperhead, came out in 2022. In 2023, Demon Copperhead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She shared the award with another writer, which was the first time this had happened. She also won the Women's Prize for Fiction for Demon Copperhead, making her the first person to win it twice.

Kingsolver also writes poetry and essays. Two of her essay collections are High Tide in Tucson (1995) and Small Wonder (2003). A collection of her poetry, Another America, was published in 1998.

Her major non-fiction works include Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (1989). And, of course, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007) about eating locally.

The Bellwether Prize

In 2000, Barbara Kingsolver created the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. This literary award is named after a bellwether, which is a leader or indicator. The prize supports writers whose books promote positive social change.

The award is given to a U.S. citizen for a new, unpublished work of fiction. This work must deal with issues of social justice. The Bellwether Prize is awarded every two years. It includes a publishing deal and a cash prize of US$25,000. Kingsolver herself pays for the prize. She wanted to create this award to "encourage writers, publishers, and readers to consider how fiction engages visions of social change and human justice."

In 2011, the PEN American Center took over managing the prize. It is now known as the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.

Writing Style and Themes

Kingsolver writes her novels using both first-person (where a character tells the story) and third-person (where a narrator tells the story). She often uses overlapping narratives, meaning different characters might tell parts of the same story.

Kingsolver often writes about places and situations she knows well. Many of her stories are set in places where she has lived. These include Central Africa, Arizona, and Appalachia. She says her novels are not about her own life, but there are often similarities. Her writing is often very idealistic and has been called a form of activism.

Her characters often face struggles for social equality. For example, she writes about the difficulties faced by undocumented immigrants, people who are working but still poor, and single mothers. Other common themes in her books include finding a balance between being an individual and living in a community. She also explores how humans interact with the natural world around them. Kingsolver is known for making historical events, like the Congo's fight for independence, interesting and easy to understand for readers.

Awards and Honors

Barbara Kingsolver has received many awards for her writing. Here are some of them:

Her Books

Fiction Novels

  • The Bean Trees, 1988
  • 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

Essays

  • High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never, 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)
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