Biography of Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver is the author that wrote the Poisonwood Bible which I really enjoyed sometime ago. Barbara is originally from Annapolis Maryland, born on April 8, 1955. Besides being an novelist, she also has written a lot of poetry. The first time Barbara lived in Africa, she was just a small child.

Barbara's dad was a doctor, and when Barbara turned seven, the family again traveled to Africa where he helped the people over there. The family lived in difficult conditions, surviving without any water or power. This is how I am sure, Barbara wrote the Poisonwood Bible later, was through her memories as a child in Africa.

After completion of her high school career, Barbara went on to enroll at DePauw University, and she studied classical piano music for awhile. Barbara decided to change that major however, when she was told that jobs weren't so easy to get as a classical pianist. She ended up with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from DePauw in 1977, and from there, traveled to France for one year. After that one year period, Barbara then moved on to Tucson Arizona, and decided to further her education at the University of Arizona. There, she earned her masters degree both in ecology, and evolutionary biology.

Barbara started writing all of the time somewhere in the middle of the 1980s decade. She married Joseph Hoffman in 1985, and their first daughter Camille was born in 1987. That marriage didn't last however, as when Barbara returned from traveling with her daughter to Tenerife during the time of the Gulf War, she and Joseph split up. It was the year of 1994, when Barbara became re-married to Steven Hopp, and she had another daughter named Lily with him in 1996.

Barbara's very first novel which she had ever written was back in 1988, known as the Bean Trees. This is the story of a young woman who adopts a child. The next book she had written was in 1990, which is entitled, "Homeland and Other Stories." Barbara's "Poisonwood Bible," was a book that received very high honors. It was the eighth book which was published, and you can tell by reading it, that she had some good experience in her writing novels by then. This book came out in 1998, and it received the National Humanities Medal at the time. The Poisonwood bible is about a family that travels to Africa, and the dad is an Evangelical minister who is on a mission to Africa. The family has many trials and tragedies while they are there. The father who is a minister, is very strict and domineering. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good and very intense book.