“In my own worst seasons I've come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red geranium outside my bedroom window. And then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. And another: the perfect outline of a full, dark sphere behind the crescent moon. Until I learned to be in love with my life again. Like a stroke victim retraining new parts of the brain to grasp lost skills, I have taught myself joy, over and over again(15).”

American novelist, essayist, and poet

Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She is known for fiction and nonfiction that examine how people live within their communities and environments, with attention to social justice and biodiversity. Her best-known books include The Poisonwood Bible, about a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family’s effort to eat locally. In 2023, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Demon Copperhead.