Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver with a member of her herd of Icelandic sheep.
“I recently planted peas in dry soil,” Barbara Kingsolver tells me on an April day on her farm in Southwestern Virginia, “and then went to sleep and heard rain. I can sleep, and I’m still being productive. I love that about farming. There are days I spend writing words that I’m going to throw away, because I’m not getting anywhere. But the peas are out there growing.”
Kingsolver’s bestselling memoir Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, co-authored with her husband, Steven Hopp, and her daughter, Camille Kingsolver, documents the family’s commitment to a year of eating locally. Among Kingsolver’s books, it is the most explicit exploration of her agrarian values. Yet, as she points out, “Some form of growing food–some characters involved in food production–has shown up in every one of my novels.”
“I would say that being a writer makes me a better farmer, and being a farmer makes me a better writer. When I’m at my desk for hours and then snap out of it, everything hurts. So I think it’s helpful that this other job is calling to me. And sometimes literally: the donkey braying, telling me maybe something’s happening with a lamb. Or I see it’s a perfect day for planting peas.”
Listen to Barbara Kingsolver talk about being an agrarian writer.
Morning view from Kingsolver’s front porch.