Monday, April 25, 2016

Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and F. Wendell Miller Professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2016. Time’s annual list recognizes the 100 people who have impacted the American world most in the past year.

“ …the influence of this year’s Time 100, to my mind, is that down to the last person, they have the power to make us think. And they are using it,” writes Nancy Gibbs, managing editor for Time. Nominations are made by Time 100 alumni and the magazine’s international writing staff, while the final list is selected by Time editors. Robinson, whose entry was written by Irish poet and essayist Colm Tóibín, is listed under the icon category, along with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, singer Adele, track star Usain Bolt, and others.

Robinson is the author of four novels: Lila (2014), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home (2008), winner of the Orange Prize (UK) and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Gilead (2004), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Housekeeping (1980), winner of PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction. Her five nonfiction books include The Givenness of Things: Essays (2015) and The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (1998).

Read Robinson’s full entry here.