Dillard, Annie (1945–)
Dillard, Annie (1945–)
American essayist, novelist and poet. Born Anne Doak, April 30, 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; eldest of 3 daughters of Frank Doak (advertising executive) and Pam (Lambert) Doak; Hollins College, BA, 1967, MA, 1968; m. Richard Henry Wilde Dillard (poet and novelist), June 5, 1965 (div. 1975); m. Gary Clevidence (novelist), April 12, 1980 (div. 1987); m. Robert D. Richardson (scholar-biographer), Dec 10, 1988; children: (2nd m.) Rosie.
Began keeping journals (1971); published 21 of her poems in Tickets for a Prayer Wheel (1974); spent 4 seasons living near Tinker Creek in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains; used her notebooks to write the bestselling Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize; other writings include Holy the Firm (1977), Living by Fiction (1982), Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (1982), Encounters with Chinese Writers (1984), The Writing Life (1989), (novel) The Living (1992), and For the Time Being (1999); also published numerous essays in journals, magazines, and anthologies; was scholar-in-residence at Western Washington University (1975–79, 1981–82), then became an adjunct professor of English at Wesleyan University.
See also autobiography, An American Childhood (1987).