Barbara Kingsolver

American novelist known for her anti-establishment stance, and the winner of the 2010 Orange Prize, with The Lacuna...

Barbara Kingsolver was born in Annapolis, Maryland but was raised near Carlisle, Kentucky, "in the middle of an alfalfa field... between the opulent horse farms and the impoverished coal fields." Her parents were medical and public-health workers who briefly embarked on an expedition to the Congo when Kingsolver was a child. Kingsolver describes her childhood as a rather solitary one, and used the time she spent by herself to stimulate an "elaborate life of the mind."

Kingsolver attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. Eventually, however, she changed her major to biology.In 1986, she won an Arizona Press Club award for outstanding feature writing. Her first novel, The Bean Trees, was published in 1988.

Her subsequent books include The Poisonwood Bible (1998) and Prodigal Summer (2000); a poetry collection, Another America (1992) and the essay collections High Tide in Tucson (1995) and Small Wonder: Essays (2002). The Poisonwood Bible (1998) was a bestseller that won the National Book Prize of South Africa, made finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner award, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection. In 2000, Barbara was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Bill Clinton.

She lives with her husband Steven Hopp and their two daughters, Camille and Lily, on a farm in Southwest Virginia. Her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle describes their first year on the farm and their quest for self-sufficiency.

Her latest book is The Lacuna, which won the 2010 Orange Prize.

Fact file

Name: Barbara Kingsolver

Date of birth: 8.4.1955

Place of birth: Annapolis, Maryland

Current Home: South Western Virginia

Education: DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana

Similar Authors: Gloria Naylor, Ellen Gilchrist, Louise Erdrich