Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize

In the late 1990s, author Barbara Kingsolver founded the Bellwether Prize, which seeks to promote literature of social justice by emerging writers in the United States. The prize, which includes a reward of $25,000 as well as a publishing contract, has been awarded in even-number years since 2000, and previous judges include such writers as Toni Morrison, Russell Banks, and Anna Quindlen. The deadline for submissions for the 2010 prize is October 2, 2009, and the winner’s manuscript will be published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. More information can be found at The Bellwether Prize website.

Born in Maryland and raised in Kentucky, Kingsolver is the award-winning, bestselling author of a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction, including THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, PRODIGAL SUMMER, and the recent ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE. Kingsolver’s work is marked by a commitment to social and environmental issues, and in 2000 she received the National Humanities Medal in recognition of these efforts. She now lives with her family on a farm in Virginia.


THE OXFORD AMERICAN: Could you talk about the books that have won the Bellwether Prize and why they were selected?

BARBARA KINGSOLVER: In every case, a winner has risen to the top because of a compelling combination of voice and vision. We have hundreds of submissions, and every one has merit, but in the end the judges always agree on one that seems to sing the clearest possible note.

THE OA: Do you think literary fiction has an obligation to contain a social component and why?

BK: I think writing a novel is a political act, automatically, because of the way it draws the reader into a carefully constructed worldview and generates empathy for the people who inhabit that world. I think the novelist's duty, then, is to own up to the power of the craft, and use it wisely.

THE OA: Why is “social commentary” in art “viewed with suspicion”—and is this the case mostly in the U.S. or everywhere?

BK: The uneasy relationship between art and politics in the U.S. dates back to a period of censorship in the late 1940s–1950s. I've just written a novel about that era, as a matter of fact, because I'm very interested in the subject. Fortunately, the rest of the world doesn't share this problem—in most other countries, politics and social justice are absolutely the domain of art.

THE OA: What advice do you have for young writers?

BK: Mostly: Write about what moves you. From passion flows dedication. And hard work often leads to accomplishment.

THE OA: We recently conducted a poll of the Best Southern Novels and Nonfiction, and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD won a spot in the top ten list of novels. Besides TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, would you like to weigh in by telling us your favorite works of Southern fiction or nonfiction?

BK: My list is long, but here are just a few of the artists everyone should read: Denise Giardina, Silas House, Ann Pancake, Wendell Berry, Janisse Ray. Most of these are more specifically “Appalachian” than Southern, per se—but so is Barbara Kingsolver, so I’ll make a request that you allow us in the club.

THE OA: Obviously you have made a significant commitment to writing as an instrument of social change. In addition to writing, what other social projects are you engaged in?


BK: I’m always working on half a dozen issues here in my community, having to do with keeping people’s dignity and the landscape intact. But always, my biggest project for improving the human condition is somehow lodged inside the next book.