LITERARY GIANT

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Dies at 81

The author of “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” had not been seen publicly since 2014.

Annie Dillard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose vivid explorations of nature made her one of America’s most celebrated literary voices, has died at 81, according to The New York Times. Dillard was just 28 when Pilgrim at Tinker Creek was published in 1974. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction the following year and transformed her into a major figure in American letters. The attention that followed was not always welcome. Dillard was inundated with requests for interviews, speeches, and television appearances, while some media outlets focused as much on her appearance as her writing. She was mocked in some circles as “Cheesecake at Tinker Creek.” She responded by retreating from the spotlight, eventually moving to Washington state. Dillard went on to publish essays, poetry, novels, journalism, and a memoir, as well as The Writing Life, a bestselling meditation on the demands of putting words on a page. Her final book, The Maytrees, appeared in 2007. Dillard was last photographed publicly in 2014, when President Barack Obama presented her with the National Humanities Medal.