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Annie Dillard (b. 1945)

American nature writer, poet, and novelist. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dillard received her B.A. and M.A. from Hollins College. Known both for her close observation of the natural world and her poet’s sensibility, she has published books that range from the poetry of her first book, Tickets for a Prayer Wheel (1974), to the nature meditation Holy the Firm (1977), the memoir An American Childhood (1987), the literary theory in Living by Fiction (1982), the essay collection Teaching a Stone to Talk (1982), and the novels The Living (1992) and The Maytrees (2007). In her Pulitzer Prize– winning nonfiction narrative Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), Dillard recounts years she spent living in seclusion in the natural world, much like Henry David Thoreau. In The Writing Life (1989) she muses on her life’s work—“to examine all things intensely and relentlessly.” See also anniedillard.com.