Novelist Barbara Kingsolver Wants People to Embrace Sustainable Agriculture

Barbara Kingsolver, who won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for her novel Demon Copperhead, has woven environmental themes throughout her books for many years. This month, she will publish her first children’s book, Coyote’s Wild Home. She co-wrote it with her daughter Lily. They wanted to explain “how important predators are for maintaining the balance, and the species diversity of a whole ecosystem.” She hopes people will explore regenerative agriculture as way to combat climate change. — As told to Leslie Kaufman.

I grew up in rural Kentucky. We grew vegetables, and my dad raised cattle. My childhood took place mainly outdoors, mainly without adult supervision. My brother, and sister and I played in the woods, we fished in the ponds, we foraged, we collected and ate wild foods like pawpaws and persimmons. So I grew up fully aware that the world is inhabited by a lot more than one species. By the time I was in graduate school in the ’80s, I understood that climate change was a huge deal.