Why Barbara Kingsolver became a writer

"... She is asked how she knew, as a young woman growing up in a rural area in Kentucky, that she would always work to support herself.

"Because I am flat-chested," she says flatly. She explains:

"I was 5-9 and weighed 99 pounds. The basis of value for women in my county was very primal. It was strictly in reproductive terms. The most popular girls were the ones who were the most physically mature; they married and had babies very young. I could see that I was not going to be a success in the world of Nicholas County, and that I needed to get out and find some other way to excel.

"And I have."

(from "Novelist In Hog Heaven; `Pigs' Brings Home the Bacon While Its Author Writes Her Heart Out" by Megan Rosenfeld. The Washington Post, Jul 14, 1993. pg. D.01)

-- Submitted by Beth Blevins