Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard - Rerun
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What is the premise of the episode and why are we revisiting Pilgrim at Tinker Creek?
Hi, it's Andy. Hi, it's John. Welcome to another archive show from Backlisted. This week you're gonna hear uh an episode we recorded four years ago and it's about Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek by Annie Dillard. Yeah, a Pulitzer Prize winner for non fiction in nineteen seventy four and we had a I think a really cracking pair of guests to discuss it. Jeff Dyer, uh whose most recent book then was The Last Days of Roger Federer, but whose book Homework has been published I think last year and his memoir has got marvellous coverage. Anyway, he's a massive Annie Dillard fan. Almost as big an Annie Dillard fan as the great Jay Griffiths, who's the author of Wild, An Elemental Journey. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, I think, is one of those books that people discover at a certain moment in their lives and have plenty to say about it forever afterwards.
And this show definitely harvests that. And there is a a a sadly a timely reason for us revisiting this episode, John, which is that Annie Dillard died This week s in uh September twenty twenty six, which is when we're recording this, and so it seemed appropriate this. She was eighty one. I mean, which used to be a good innings, but now people I don't know, we always slightly expect it's a bit like Dolly, you know, we always expect people to live a little longer. Not that I'm suggesting that Annie Dillard is in any way the Dolly Parton of uh d uh Stop Dilly R religious na nature of writing. Eighty is the new seventy. There you go. In a in a sort of gloomy way. Andy, tell us what's coming up. Uh if you go over to the Patreon, patreon dot com forward slash backlisted, you can join the conversations that are happening there.
You can listen to episodes of shows like Batlisted Readers. We've just recorded one on Susanna Clark's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a much loved book and with good reason. And we've just had an episode of Posh Bingo, our random selection from winners of the Booker Prize for fiction over the last fifty plus years. Our most recent discussion was a About Disgrace by JM Kurt Sayer. Yep. You can find that on the Patreon. And coming up on October the twelfth, for some obscure reason, we'll be talking about Amsterdam by Ian McEwen. Because that's what the random tin produced on its slip of paper. But I'm actually looking forward to that a lot because um Me too. But I'm at Me too. Um there's lots to say about Ian McEwen and
And there's lots to say about that novel. Might not be what you're expecting. So do join us on October the twelfth at the Patreon for that. And in the meantime. Enjoy this conversation on Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek by Annie Dillard uh with our guests Jay Griffith and Jeff Dyke.
Mm-hmm.
Hello and welcome to Backlisted, the podcast that gives new life to old books. Today you find us near the town of Roanoke in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. It's a sunny day in january nineteen seventy one, and we're heading north following a stream. Ahead of us, in the middle of the water there is a tear shaped island sitting on the dry grass at the far end. A young woman is staring intently at the slow moving current, as water striders skate across the surface, and a frog sits half in and half out of the water. And today we're joined by two guests making their batlisted debut. Please welcome Jay Griffiths and Jeff Dyer. Hello to you both. Hello. Welcome, welcome.
Hi.
Thanks for coming. Uh Jay Griffiths is the author of many books, including Wild, An Elemental Journey, Kith, The Riddle of the Childscape, Tristamania Pip pip, a sideways look at time and why rebel? She won the Discover Award for the best first time author in the USA. The inaugural Orion Award and has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. She has held the Hay International Fellowship and has broadcast and written widely, including for Radiohead and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her work has received widespread accolades, including from Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, John Berger, and Katie Tunstall. She wrote the script for Almost Invisible Angels, a short film about insects school by Sam Lee and voiced by Mark Rylance, and her most recent book is titled Nemesis My Friend Journeys Through the Turning Times published by our friends A Little Toller.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the premise of the episode and why are we revisiting Pilgrim at Tinker Creek?
0:00–9:03
2
How do the hosts introduce the guests and their connection to Annie Dillard’s work?
9:03–49:01
3
What is Pilgrim at Tinker Creek about and how do the guests summarize it in three sentences?
49:01–53:38
4
Why do the hosts read excerpts from the Goncourt Journals and how do they relate to the main book?
53:38–1:08:03