Barbara Kingsolver '77 Among "Writers Who Didn't Study Writing"

December 9, 2015

"Barbara Kingsolver studied classical piano at DePauw University until -- as she told the New York Times’ Sarah Lyall -- she realized that 'classical pianists compete for six job openings a year, and the rest get to play Blue Moon in a hotel lobby'."  A 1977 graduate of DePauw and best-selling author, Kingsolver is included in a Huffington Post feature, "Writers Who Didn't Study Writing."

The text continues, "She prudently switched to biology, and went on to earn a master's degree in ecology -- in short, as she emphatically writes on her official Web site, 'in school I studied nearly everything except writing.' But her broad scientific background directly launched her writing career: 'Editors knew they could send me into a biotech lab or epidemiology office, where people seemed to be speaking in tongues, and I’d come out with a printable story in lay-person’s English.'"

Access the item here.

The author of The Poisonwood Bible; The Bean Trees; Flight Behavior; The Lacuna; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life; and The Bean Trees, among other books, Kingsolver received the National Humanities Medal in 2000 and the 2010 Orange Prize.

A zoology (biological sciences) major at DePauw, Barbara Kingsolver said in a PBS documentary, "I wanted to go somewhere far away and exotic, so I went to DePauw University in Indiana. All the scales fell from my eyes; it was wonderful."

Kingsolver delivered the 1994 commencement address at her alma mater, "As Little Advice as Possible." You can see and hear the speech below.

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