An American novelist, essayist and poet, Barbara Kingsolver is known for writing novels focusing on social justice, biodiversity and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments. In 1988, Kingsolver published her first novel, The Bean Trees and in 1993, she published her first national bestseller, Pigs in Heaven. Since then, her books have been on The New York Times bestseller list. Former President Bill Clinton awarded Kingsolver the National Humanities Medal after publishing her most famous novel, The Poisonwood Bible, in 1998. She also won the U.K.'s Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010 and was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent novel, Demon Copperhead, will be released in October 2022.