'Through the eyes of another'

 “Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life.” – Barbara Kingsolver

 

Since 1993, the year of her first novel The Poisonwood Bible, every one of Barbara Kingsolver's 16 books have reached The New York Times Best Seller list.

 

Born in Appalachia on this date in 1955, Kingsolver intended to be a classical musician and, in fact, had a college scholarship to become one.  But, she said she realized that “only about 6 people a year get hired in that world.”  So she switched her focus to the study of science and on a whim tried her hand at “creative” writing. 

Kingsolver has split her adult life between homes in Appalachia and Arizona, where she wrote some of her most memorable works including Pigs in Heaven earning a reputation as a writer focusing on social justice, biodiversity and the interaction between humans, their communities and their environments.

 

 

Barbara Kingsolver

 

“Every time I write a new novel about something somber and sobering and terrible I think (of my readers) ‘Oh Lord, they’re not going to want to go here.’ But they do.  Readers of fiction read, I think, for a deeper embrace of the world, of reality.  And that’s brave."