25 Facts About Annie Dillard

1.

Annie Dillard is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction.

2.

Annie Dillard has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir.

3.

From 1980, Dillard taught for 21 years in the English department of Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut.

4.

Annie Dillard was born April 30,1945, in Pittsburgh to Frank and Pam Doak.

5.

Annie Dillard's father taught her many useful subjects such as plumbing, economics, and the intricacies of the novel On the Road, though by the end of her adolescence she began to realize neither of her parents is infallible.

6.

Annie Dillard's days were filled with exploring, piano and dance classes, rock collecting, bug collecting, drawing, and reading books from the public library including natural history and military history such as World War II.

7.

Annie Dillard spent four summers at the First Presbyterian Church Camp in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

8.

Annie Dillard attended Pittsburgh Public Schools until fifth grade, and then The Ellis School until college.

9.

Annie Dillard attended Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, where she studied English, theology, and creative writing.

10.

Annie Dillard spent the first few years after graduation oil painting, writing, and keeping a journal.

11.

From 1975 to 1978, Annie Dillard was a scholar-in-residence at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.

12.

Annie Dillard has since received honorary doctorate degrees from Boston College, Connecticut College, and the University of Hartford.

13.

Annie Dillard's works have been compared to those by Virginia Woolf, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson, William Blake, and John Donne, and she cites Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Graham Greene, George Eliot, and Ernest Hemingway among her favorite authors.

14.

Annie Dillard's journals served as a source for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, a nonfiction narrative about the natural world near her home in Roanoke, Virginia.

15.

Annie Dillard was 28, making her the youngest woman to have won the award.

16.

One day, Annie Dillard decided to begin a project in which she would write about whatever happened on Lummi Island within a three-day time period.

17.

One part takes place in China, where Annie Dillard was a member of a delegation of six American writers and publishers, following the fall of the Gang of Four.

18.

Annie Dillard took and arranged phrases from various old books, creating poems that are often ironic in tone.

19.

In 1975, Annie Dillard moved to the Pacific Northwest and taught for four years at Fairhaven College and Western Washington University.

20.

Annie Dillard's books have been translated into at least 10 languages.

21.

Two of Annie Dillard's books have won Maurice-Edgar Cointreau Prizes for Best Translation in English.

22.

Annie Dillard based part of its text on Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

23.

In 1997, Annie Dillard was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame for Writing and Journalism.

24.

On September 10,2015, Annie Dillard was awarded a National Humanities Medal.

25.

In 1988, Dillard married historical biographer Robert D Richardson, whom she met after sending him a fan letter about his book Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind.