Authors Jay Griffiths and Geoff Dyer are our guests for a discussion of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Annie Dillard was only twenty-nine when her first prose book was published in 1974; it went onto win the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction the following year. To discuss this classic of observational nature writing and spiritual enquiry, we are joined by two writers making their Backlisted debuts: Jay Griffiths, the author of Wild: An Elemental Journey and Geoff Dyer, whose most recent book The Last Days of Roger Federer, featured on the Gormenghast episode. By coincidence, Andy has been reading Pages from the Goncourt Journals (NYRB Classics), a spicy, gossip-rich glimpse into 19th century French literary life which has a foreword by Geoff, while John immerses himself in the inner world of John Donne, through regular Backlisted guest Katherine Rundell’s widely acclaimed biography: Super Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (Faber).

Books mentioned:

Annie Dillard - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek; The Abundance
Jay Griffiths - Wild: An Elemental Journey; Nemesis, My Friend
Geoff Dyer - The Last Days of Roger Federer
Edmond and Jules de Goncourt - Pages from the Goncourt Journals
Katherine Rundell - Super Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

Other links:

Annie Dillard talks to David Remnick for The New Yorker Radio Hour, 2016
Annie Dillard talks to Melissa Block, NPR 2016
Annie Dillard’s reads ‘Dots in Blue Water’ NPR, 2005
Mockingbird Song
'The Thoreau of the Suburbs', Diana Saverin, The Atlantic, Feb 2015
Silent All These Years by Brian VanDyke, The Millions Sept 2021
Annie Dillard’s website
Jay Griffiths’ website
Geoff Dyer’s website