Annie Dillard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author known for her poetic explorations of nature and spirituality, has died at the age of 81. She passed away Tuesday of natural causes at her home in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts, according to her literary agent, Rob McQuilkin. Dillard was a prolific writer whose work spanned poetry, essays, journalism, meditations on religion, literary theory, two novels, and a bestselling autobiography. Dillard's most famous work, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," was published in 1974 when she was just 28. The nonfiction narrative, which explored the natural world surrounding her mountainous Virginia home, won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and was later included in Modern Library’s list of 100 best nonfiction books. The book was an instant critical and financial success, establishing Dillard as one of the most prominent nonfiction writers of her generation. Born Meta Ann Doak, Dillard was a Pittsburgh native who wrote about her early years in the 1987 memoir "An American Childhood." She was raised by nonconformists who gave her a wide range to learn and discover. She remembered with awe her growing sense of knowledge and self-knowledge. Dillard's literary career began in the mid-1970s, during which she completed a wide range of books, from the poetry collection "Tickets for a Prayer Wheel" to the "jolly journalism" of "Encounters with Chinese Writers" and the novel "The Maytrees," a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award in 2008. Seven years later, President Barack Obama presented her with a National Humanities Medal for her "profound reflections on human life and nature." In the 1989 collection of short essays, titled "The Writing Life," Dillard wrote, "how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." She spent her days outdoors taking notes and contemplating everything. Her acute ability to capture the astonishment that humans feel in the face of wilderness and the plurality of the world left readers astonished. Dillard was married three times. Her first husband was creative writing teacher Richard Dillard, whom she divorced in 1975 after 10 years of marriage. Her second husband was Gary Clevidence, with whom she had one daughter, Cody, born in 1984 in Connecticut. Her third husband was historical biographer Robert D Richardson, whom she was married to for 32 years until his death in 2020. Dillard taught for more than 20 years at Wesleyan University before retiring in 2002. She was well known throughout her career for her tremendous range as a writer. Her work was often compared to Henry David Thoreau, the naturalist about whom she wrote her master’s thesis. Despite the association, Dillard rejected the pigeonhole label of "nature writer," instead considering herself a theologian pondering the mystery of God and the duality of reality.