This volume in the Critical Insights series brings together a set of materials to serve both as an introduction to Barbara Kingsolver's writings and as a guide to scholarly readings of her work. The volume begins with a general introduction to Kingsolver's life and work that provides a context for the beginning reader. Biographical data shedding light on her fiction and essays are provided in the sketch by Marilyn Kongslie and Karen L. Arnold, and Katherine Ryder's sketch for The Paris Review shows us Kingsolver at her most political, especially in her essay collection Small Wonder (2002).