Monday, May 3, 2021

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

 




Summary (Amazon): Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Roanoke Valley, where Annie Dillard set out to chronicle incidents of "beauty tangled in a rapture with violence."

Dillard's personal narrative highlights one year's exploration on foot in the Virginia region through which Tinker Creek runs. In the summer, she stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and examines it under a microscope. She unties a snake skin, witnesses a flood, and plays King of the Meadow with a field of grasshoppers. The result is an exhilarating tale of nature and its seasons."


(wikipedia)


Reviews:


1. Kirkus: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/annie-dillard/pilgrim-at-tinker-creek/


2. NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/24/archives/pilgrim-at-tinker-creek-meditation-on-seeing-by-annie-dillard-271.html


3. The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2015/02/the-thoreau-of-the-suburbs/385128/



Interviews:


1. wNYC: https://www.wnyc.org/story/david-remnick-speaks-annie-dillard/


2. NPR: https://freshairarchive.org/guests/annie-dillard



(wikipedia)


Author's Website: http://www.anniedillard.com/



Supporting materials including questions, response journals and reading guides: 


1. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=qb_oers


2. Response Journal: https://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/pilgrim/pilgrim1.cfm


3. Reading Guide: https://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/documents/SeeingandStalkingtheActionofCreation.pdf


4. A Visual Approach: http://numerocinqmagazine.com/2013/03/08/a-visual-approach-to-syntactical-and-image-patterns-in-annie-dillards-pilgrim-at-tinker-creek-essay-images-anna-maria-johnson/



(wikipedia)


Discussion Questions: