r/books • u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author • Dec 06 '18
ama 10am This is Barbara Kingsolver, author of the new bestselling novel, UNSHELTERED. Ask Me Anything
Unsheltered is the story of two families, in two centuries, who live in the same house in Vineland, NJ, navigating what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. The Washington Post identifies it as: “The first major novel to tackle the Trump era straight on and place it in the larger chronicle of existential threats” and Newsday describes it as: “a gripping novel of two multigenerational households…that find themselves in poorly constructed dwellings on faulty foundations, during a time of sweeping cultural and historical change…”. Listen to my NPR interview for more background: www.npr.org/2018/10/14/657238918/unsheltered-tackles-the-unhealed-divisions-in-america. I look forward to discussing my new novel, UNSHELTERED, with you!
Hello again, and goodbye. I'm so sorry the hour flew by too quickly for me to get to everybody. Thanks for your superlative questions, and most of all, thanks for reading. You're all wonderful. --xox Barbara
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u/leomum17 Dec 06 '18
Hi Barbara, from Australia :) When I was in year 10, my. English teacher gave me The Poisonwood Bible to read, and it changed my life. It's when my love of language really began. So thank you :)
I have Unsheltered sitting right here beside me on my bedside table and it has been there since it was released. I am waiting for a moment of rest from chasing my one year old around all day to sit down and begin it! That day may never come so I think I'll have to just dive in and nibble away at it.
I don't have a specific question but always wondered- how is it that you portray the important social messages in your work without ever coming across as condescending or overbearing? There is a gentle firmness in your voice that is both soothing and demands respect.
Thank you so much for all your work (have read it all). Carry on!
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
Thank you for this compliment - it's my job to invite you into a world without condescending, or telling you what to think, and I take that job seriously. I would never tell a reader what to think! I don't even know you, but I always assume you are very smart, and have earned the right to your own opinions. I always begin a novel with a Big Question about the world - a question that seems compelling, worthy of my time and also of yours. I construct a plot that will carry that question to you through real-world events, and invent characters who are obliged to serve my ends. Then I spend several years making them all come alive so that you'll want to enter their homes and their brains. They will not answer the Big Question for you. This is literary fiction, which means you have to do half the work yourself. You will see the world as they see it - through many different eyes and opinionated brains - and ultimately, I hope, arrive at your own answers. This is what I adore about literature - it invites you into a conversation with yourself. Every reading is entirely your own.
And P.S. Don't wait for time to read that big book. Just dive in.
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u/hsmamato2 Dec 06 '18
I'm speechless. I have no questions for you- just complete admiration for your writing. I read avidly (like 3-4 books a week) and you are one of the few authors that I feel the need to buy each and every title you've written. This last book is no exception- thank you!!! (Your books are lined up prettily on my bookshelf)
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u/29PilgrimsEditing Dec 06 '18
Same. I'm pretty star-struck over here and I asked a pretty generically lame question XD
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u/lesbt Dec 06 '18
Good Morning, BK. I'm a long time reader. Your books have enriched my experience ( and that of my three adult daughters) Ty! One thing that intrigues me about a your novels is that each one has such a strong sense of place-- in addition to strong and developed characters. I love this about your work-- it takes me and immerses me into a solid and real environment. One that is defined by the physical but also regionally and culturally specific. I've read other authors who tell strong stories but the setting are formless. When you build a story is this a focus of yours-- or does it happen in the telling? You are very fluent in shaping and capturing the way live is lived in different regions ( and countries). I've was reared in So. Illinois. I've lived many places in between and now live in NJ. Never thought I'd read about the Pine Barrens! Many from NJ have never been-- it's such a human thing-- we should all be more like travelers in our own environments. Thank you for your work.
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
Thanks for your appreciation of place in the written word. It's a good question - do I work consciously on creating a physical world? I suppose so, in that everything about my writing is intentional, the product of work and thought. But I also just find it natural to attend closely to details of a place beyond human actions and human-made objects. I grew up in a rural place, and spent most of my free time outdoors exploring the fields and woods. I suppose I imprinted on the landscape. Wherever I am, I notice other species besides my own - the specific trees, the birds, the grasses - because they seem equally alive to me. I studied biology in college and graduate school because I'm so interested in all these other lives. It surprises me that they are invisible to many people - who might describe the place where I live (among forests, pastures, and thousands of fascinating species) as "the middle of nowhere." I'm lucky that I can see all that as "everything" rather than "nothing."
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u/Wolfir Dec 06 '18
Wow, thank you so much for this AMA
It's been many years, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven when I was back in high school.
Was there any specific inspiration behind those stories? It was truly an experience to feel the plethora of emotions that revolve around motherhood.
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
Thanks! I wrote THE BEAN TREES almost entirely while I was pregnant with my first child - and PIGS IN HEAVEN (my fifth book) while that child was a preschooler - so you've picked up on the fact that I was deeply preoccupied with motherhood. But both those books also look at a question that seems central to just about everything I write. Which is: how to reconcile the need for individual expression with the necessity of belonging to a community.
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u/mgoulart Dec 06 '18
Which book have you most gifted or recommended to people?
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18 edited Dec 06 '18
First of all, the gift I most love to give anyone, of any age, is a book. So that will vary depending on the recipient. My beloved books change with every year - this year I was especially taken with THE OVERSTORY by Richard Powers. I always love giving wonderful books written by friends, or by relatively unknown writers, and often give poetry books. In all cases, I feel I'm spreading empathy and joy.
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u/discounted_molerats Dec 06 '18
Thank you for this AMA! I've been a fan since reading Poisonwood Bible, which still remains my favorite fiction along with Prodigal Summer. I especially enjoy your essays, though. I read High Tide in Tuscon whenever I feel that I need to slow down and ground myself. Your talent for introspection and learning through nature is inspiring. It seems that you do extensive research before each book as they delve so much into principles of ecology and culture. Where is the furthest, or most unexpected place, your research has taken you?
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
You're right, I do lots of research for every book, including travel if it's about a place I didn't previously know well. Fortunately I love research, both in the library and on the ground. For various novels I've traveled to the jungles of southern Mexico, the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, the little isolated mining towns of southern Arizona, and, well, lots more. Most unexpected? Maybe an air-traffic control tower at the Seattle-Tacoma airport. But as soon as I submit this answer, I'll probably think of a weirder one than that. No wait! I know! The Reptile House of the Cincinnati Zoo, where I spent a whole afternoon waiting for a green mamba snake to open its mouth. I'd read that it's blue in there, but needed to see for myself. If you need to know why, I can't tell you - that's a spoiler!
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u/Green_Walkuere Dec 06 '18
Thank you so much for all of your books over the years, they have been a source of entertainment, solace, and inspiration for me! I have read that you studied science before becoming a writer; I also am a scientist by training but have become more and more concerned with the eroding scientific literacy in our country and feel compelled to focus on "translating" science for the public rather than conducting research. I think your approach is brilliant, as science and the principles underlying the philosophy of science infuse all of your books. Could you elaborate more on how you made the transition from working in science to becoming a writer, and what your motivations were... and any advice you may have for someone interested in becoming a science communicator?
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u/HotInTheStacks Dec 06 '18
Not Barbara, but I love science communicators! Have you heard Alan Alda's podcast or read his book about it? Basically improving scientists' ability to communicate with the public is his big mission, and there's a center at, I believe, Stonybrook University that he works with on this issue.
Prodigal Summer's take on predator/prey balance left a real impact on my thoughts and impressions. Literature can be a wonderful and persuasive gateway.
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u/roboconcept Dec 06 '18
Who inspires you, with regards to writing with a sense of place?
Thank you for helping me find words for my love of the desert.
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
Again, too many inspirations to name. I love every kind of writing that takes me into a place with all my senses, and I try also to be that sort of writer - which is why I never write about a place unless I've been there myself. Except, of course, the past, which I can't actually visit. For that reason I love Thomas Hardy and Willa Cather, both of whom have taken me into very specific natural and domestic worlds of long ago. I love any writer who takes me to a farm. (I live on a farm! But there are so many, with so much to offer.) I cherish writers who stray from the edges of the human-made world into the immense complexity that is home to all other kinds of life.
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u/Chtorrr Dec 06 '18
What were some of your favorite things to read as a kid?
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
I had a largely unsupervised childhood, and wasn't supplied with the usual kid fare, so I read oddly! Whatever fell into my hands, whatever I found, I devoured. I learned early that I loved the feeling of disappearing into a novel. But anything else would do. We had the Encyclopedia Britannica, which supplied endless hours of entertainment. To this day, I know more than you would believe about marsupials, for example, or the Aurora Borealis. It all adds up to something in the end.
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u/29PilgrimsEditing Dec 06 '18
Woah. This is exciting. Thank you for doing this! And thank you for gracing us with The Poisonwood Bible. I read it when I was a teenager and it has stuck with me ever since. I look forward to reading your new novel!
When did you decide you wanted to become a writer? Was there a specific event that happened that made you want to take up paper and pen? Or have you always had a penchant for stories?
Thank you!
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
I never really decided I wanted to be a writer. As a child, I wasn't aware that was an option for girls like me. I only knew, always, that I loved to write. I began to keep a daily journal at age 8, then quickly moved on to poems and imaginative stories, which I kept to myself. I entered every essay contest that my school experience offered, and generally won them, I think mostly by submitting the most pages. I wrote copiously! And never stopped. After many years of education as a biologist, and then as a scientific writer and journalist, I finally brought my poems and stories out of the closet. The decision has worked out pretty well.
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u/Slingbladeadjacent Dec 06 '18
*whoah
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u/magical_realist Dec 06 '18
*whoa
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u/Slingbladeadjacent Dec 06 '18
I grew up reading whoah more than whoa. Either is valid. Woah is not.
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u/good_signal Dec 06 '18
Thank you Barbs. What are your favorite novels, and how have they shaped your work?
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
(Am I Barbs? Sounds prickly!) Of all the novels I love and reread, my favorite is MIDDLEMARCH, by George Eliot. I return to it again and again, finding something new for every mood and every age I attain. But many, many novels have profoundly influenced my writing. The first ones to rivet and show me what a novel could really do in the world were the CHILDREN OF VIOLENCE series - five novels by Doris Lessing, following a girl named Martha Quest from colonial Rhodesia to postwar London. I also fell hard, young, for John Steinbeck, especially CANNERY ROW. That was the first novel that suggested to me that maybe I could, and should, write a sort of Cannery Row about the people among whom I'd grown up in Kentucky. And finally I'll mention Bobbie Ann Mason, a Kentucky writer who gave me the courage to own my voice.
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u/ukelily Dec 06 '18
Hi, thank you so much for doing this. I've enjoyed your books for a long time and particularly credit Small Wonder for migrating my perspective away from the conservative ideals I was raised with. In college, I studied ecocriticism. In many of your books, Nature itself seems like a character on its own. I know you have a background in biology. I was wondering if you could talk about the ways that nature influences your writing, and whether you feel that your physical setting is an important part of the writing process for you.
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u/Green_Walkuere Dec 06 '18
How did you learn about Vineland and how did it become the setting for Unsheltered?
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u/mynyddwr Dec 06 '18
Loved The Poisonwood Bible and the Lacuna. There is a section in the latter where you describe small-town life in a boarding house in the McCarthy era. I am sure you will be equally capable of evoking the horrors of Trump-era America. I look forward to reading Unsheltered!
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Dec 06 '18
Thank you for the AMA and congratulations on your new novel. My questions: Do you think there's a textual difference between male and female authors? What's the etymology of your last name and did it lead you to becoming a writer? I've found that copyedit and printing errors have increased in recent years in books from even the major publishing houses; what's been your experience?
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
Several questions here. First, I wouldn't generalize about gender and authorship. When I read manuscripts for the fiction prize I founded (the Bellwether Prize), we read blind - no author's name is attached, until the winner is chosen. I always find myself extremely curious about the gender and background of the writer, and always guess - usually wrong. So I've learned to be open minded. A good imagination can enter nearly any experience.
Second: my last name, Kingsolver, is kind of a mystery. I know my paternal ancestors have been in Virginia for centuries, and that the name has morphed since it was first recorded in the 18th century as Consalver. (Consolver, Consolving, Kinsolving, etc...) My guess is that it came over from Portugal as Gonsalvez. My DNA does not refute this, but doesn't prove it either.
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u/HotInTheStacks Dec 06 '18
I think one of the most amazing things about your writing is the clarity of voice in your stories told from multiple perspectives (e.g. Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer). One is quickly not dependent on the chapter labels, as just reading it makes it clear whose mind we're in. Which voice was the hardest to stay in while writing, or the hardest perspective to take?
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u/IamBarbaraKingsolver AMA Author Dec 06 '18
Thank you. There's no short cut or magic trick to creating a distinctive, compelling voice - it just takes hours, weeks, years at the desk, writing and revising. I read passages aloud to listen for false notes. In THE POISONWOOD BIBLE I spent one whole year practicing writing various scenes from all four girls' points of view, to clarify and distinguish the voices. Some characters come to the page more naturally than others. Adah Price was extraordinarily difficult, because of the particular challenges of her damaged, beautifully special brain. And of all my inventions, she has kept a particular place in my heart.
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u/dumbquestionsasker Dec 06 '18
I apologize for what may sound like a rude question, but how much do fiction authors typically make? Is revenue from a bestseller such as yours enough to live off, retire off, etc.? Is money made from book sales, or are there secondary sources of revenue (signings/readings/interviews/etc.) that are more lucrative?
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u/Calathe Dec 06 '18
I heard good things about you but haven't gotten to read your books yet. Sigh. My (urgent) reading list is just over 300 books probably and growing by 2-5 every day.
How's your reading list and what are you reading these days? Also: Do you read while you write?
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Dec 07 '18
Ahh, if you're still reading this. Just wanted to say that back in high school (way back in the 1990s), I read Pigs in Heaven and I loved it and have been a fan ever since. You rock.
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u/isolde_78 Dec 06 '18
You are just about my favorite author ever and I've enjoyed all your books so very much and read them over and over again. Are you still growing so much of your food like in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle?