Dillard's books have been translated into at least 10 languages. Her 1975 Pulitzer-winning book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, made Random House's survey of the century's 100 best nonfiction books. The Los Angeles Times' survey of the century's 100 best Western novels includes The Living. The century's 100 best spiritual books (ed. Philip Zaleski) also includes Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. The 100 best essays (ed. Joyce Carol Oates) includes "Total Eclipse," from Teaching a Stone to Talk. The translators of two of Dillard's books—Sabine Porte and Pierre Gault—have won Maurice-Edgar Cointreau Prizes in France for their translations.[6] Gault's translation of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek as Pélerinage à Tinker Creek won in 1999 and Porte's translation of For the Time Being as Au Présent won in 2002.[17]
To celebrate its city's centennial in 1984, the Boston Symphony commissioned Sir Michael Tippett to compose a symphony. He based part of its text on Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.[18]
In 1997, Dillard was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame for Writing and Journalism.[6]
In 2000, Dillard's For the Time Being received the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.[19]
In 2005, artist Jenny Holzer used An American Childhood, along with three other books, in her light-based 'scrolling' artwork "For Pittsburgh," installed at the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh.[20]
The New York Times named Maytrees among the top ten books published in 2007.[6]
On September 10, 2015, Dillard was awarded a National Humanities Medal.[21]
