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Annie Dillard

アニー・ディラード

Annie Dillard

Pen Names: Annie Doak（birth name）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1945-04-30 （Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
None (formerly Roman Catholic) Baptized in 1988
Residence History
Pittsburgh (childhood) → Roanoke, Virginia (Hollins; early career) → Lummi Island, Washington (residence) → Middletown, Connecticut (Wesleyan University faculty)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Poet, Essayist, Professor
Active Years
1974-
Affiliations
Wesleyan University, Department of English (faculty), Fairhaven College (teaching), Western Washington University (scholar-in-residence)
Memberships
American Academy of Arts and Letters (member)
Influenced By
Henry David Thoreau, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Graham Greene, George Eliot, Ernest Hemingway
Nominations
PEN/Faulkner Award (The Maytrees — finalist, 2008)

Education

Hollins College
English, Theology, Creative Writing
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Period: 1963-1967
Year of Graduation: 1967
Country: United States
Studied English, theology and creative writing
Hollins College
English (Master's thesis on Henry David Thoreau)
Degree: Master of Arts
Period: 1967-1968
Year of Graduation: 1968
Country: United States
Master's thesis examined Thoreau and Walden Pond

Awards

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
1975
Work: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Organization: Pulitzer Prize committee
Result: 受賞
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay
2000
Work: For the Time Being
Organization: PEN America
Result: 受賞
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
1997
Category: Writing and Journalism
Organization: Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
Result: 殿堂入り
National Humanities Medal
2015
Organization: The White House
Result: 受賞
Campion Award
1994
Organization: Editors of America (Campion Award)
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

1974 Nonfiction (narrative nonfiction) 240 pages

A narrative nonfiction work of close natural observation and meditations on existence, God, and suffering around the author's home in Roanoke, Virginia.

Nature observationReligious and philosophical meditationExistence and suffering
Adaptations
  • [Music (text used)] Symphony by Sir Michael Tippett (text partially based on the book) (1984)
Translations
  • Pélerinage à Tinker Creek (French translation)

The Maytrees

2007 Novel (fiction)

A postwar novel about the lifelong love and separations of a husband and wife living in Provincetown, Cape Cod.

Love and lossTime and memoryFamily relationships

The Living

1992 Novel (historical fiction)

A historical novel focusing on the first European settlers of the Pacific Northwest coast.

Settlement and colonizationHuman relationshipsReconstruction of history

Teaching a Stone to Talk

1982 Essay collection (nonfiction)

A collection of travel and nature essays, including pieces such as 'Total Eclipse'.

Nature and observationHuman experienceLiterary reflection

For the Time Being

1999 Nonfiction (narrative essay)

A wide-ranging narrative essay work addressing birth, death, religion, numbers, and culture.

Life and deathReligion and faithCultural reflection
Translations
  • Au Présent (French translation)

An American Childhood

1987 Memoir

A memoir reflecting on growing up in 1950s Pittsburgh.

Growing up and awakeningFamily and homeMemory

Tickets for a Prayer Wheel

1974 Poetry

Her first book of poems, which articulates themes later explored in her prose.

Religious imageryNature and introspection

The Writing Life

1989 Essays (on writing)

Short essays discussing how, where, and why she writes.

The craft of writingReflections on the writer's life

The Abundance

2017 Essay collection

A curated collection of old and new narrative essays.

NatureMemory and time

Bibliography

  • Tickets for a Prayer Wheel (1974)
  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974)
  • Holy the Firm (1977)
  • Living by Fiction (1982)
  • Teaching a Stone to Talk (1982)
  • Encounters with Chinese Writers (1984)
  • An American Childhood (1987)
  • The Writing Life (1989)
  • The Living (1992)
  • Mornings Like This: Found Poems (1995)
  • For the Time Being (1999)
  • The Maytrees (2007)
  • The Abundance (2017)

Adaptations

  • Sir Michael Tippett used part of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek as text for a commissioned symphonic work (1984)
  • Jenny Holzer's light-based installation using An American Childhood (Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh, 2005)

Translations of Works

  • Pélerinage à Tinker Creek (French translation)
  • Au Présent (French translation of For the Time Being)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Lyrical, meditative proseCombines close natural description with philosophical reflectionNarrative nonfiction that blurs the line between essay and story
Recurring Motifs
Detailed observation of natureLight and darkness, astronomical phenomena such as eclipsesReligion, faith, and sufferingMemory and time

Legacy

Annie Dillard is an American writer known for combining close natural observation with philosophical meditation. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, she has had a significant influence on late 20th- and early 21st-century essay writing.

Museums

  • Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. Opened in 1895

Academic Societies

  • Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
  • American Academy of Arts and Letters

Archives

  • Annie Dillard Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

In Popular Culture

  • Jenny Holzer used An American Childhood in a light-based installation (2005)

Quotes

  • How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
    Source: An American Childhood (1987)

Trivia

  • In 1975 she won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction at age 28, making her the youngest woman to win the award at that time.
  • Taught in the English Department at Wesleyan University from 1980 until retiring as Professor Emerita in 2002.
  • Her books have been translated into at least ten languages.