Barbara Kingsolver
1955-
Other Works
The Bean Trees
Animal Dreams
Pigs in Heaven
Biologist to Writer Barbara Kingsolver began writing stories as a child but never dreamed that she could earn a living as a writer. In college, she started writing poetry but turned to science for her future career. In 1977, Kingsolver graduated from DePauw University in Indiana with a major in biology. She later received a master's degree, also in science, from the University of Arizona. When she took a job writing scientific articles, Kingsolver finally realized that writing could be a career. In 1987, she became a full-time writer and published her first novel the following year.
Kentucky to Arizona Kingsolver grew up in eastern Kentucky but now lives in Tucson, Arizona. The people and cultures of both regions are reflected in her writing. In fact, the narrator in her novel The Bean Trees is also a young woman who leaves her native Kentucky and moves west, eventually settling in Arizona. In 1989, Kingsolver published Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983, a nonfiction account of incidents that occurred at an Arizona copper mine.
Awards and Admiration Kingsolver has won many awards for her writing, including the American Library Association Award for The Bean Trees and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Pigs in Heaven. Her work has appeared in numerous popular magazines, including McCall's, Redbook, and Mademoiselle, and The Bean Trees has been published in over 65 different countries.
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