Kingsolver's writing has received much acclaim. Her awards and honors include American Library Association awards for The Bean Trees in 1988 and Homeland in 1990; a citation of accomplishment from United Nations National Council of Women in 1989; a PEN fiction prize and Edward Abbey Ecofiction award, both in 1991, for Animal Dreams; a Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction in 1993 for Pigs in Heaven; and a feature-writing award from the Arizona Press Club (1996). The Bean Trees has been published in more than 65 countries throughout the world and was released in 1998 in a mass-market edition. In 1995, Kingsolver was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters degree from her alma mater, DePauw University.
Kingsolver was divorced from her first husband in 1993. In 1995, she married Steven Hopp, an ornithologist, animal behaviorist, and guitarist, with whom she has a second daughter, Lily, born in 1996. Kingsolver, her husband, and the two girls continue to live in Tucson. When she isn't writing, she spends her time parenting, cooking, gardening, and hiking. Because Kingsolver loves music, she sings and plays keyboard in several small groups, including an amateur rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, which is made up of fellow writers Stephen King, Amy Tan, and Dave Barry. Kingsolver continues to be an environmental activist and human rights advocate. She cherishes her role as a professional writer, which enables her to promote personal political and social agendas in hopes of leaving the world "a little more reasonable and just."
