Bestselling Author │ Novelist │ Essayist Sue Monk
Kidd’s stunning bestselling debut novel, The Secret Life of Bees (2002),
has enchanted critics and readers alike, bringing her literary renown and
establishing her as one of the most popular writers working today. Taught
widely now in colleges and high schools, The Secret Life of Bees is
Southern storytelling at its finest and is fast becom
ing a modern classic. With more than 5.5 million copies in print, it
has been translated into 23 languages, produced on stage in New York and was been made into a
major motion picture released in the fall of 2008.
After
spending over 2 years on the New York Times bestseller list her readers eagerly anticipated the publication of
her next book, The Mermaid Chair (2005), an “emotionally rich novel,
full of sultry, magical descriptions of life in the South.” It immediately
found its way on to the hardcover bestseller list where it stayed for 6 months.
Winner of the 2005 Quill Award for General Fiction, The Mermaid Chair
has sold over 1.7 million copies and was adapted into a television movie.
Kidd has
a flair for making us see her characters with great vividness and immediacy.
—The New
York Times Book Review
Sue Monk
Kidd is also the author of three highly regarded spiritual memoirs: God’s
Joyful Surprise (1988), When the Heart Waits (1990) and The Dance
of the Dissident Daughter (1996), her groundbreaking work in the field of
feminine spirituality and feminist theology.
A
collection of her early writings was published by Penguin in paperback in 2007. Titled Firstlight, the book is a compilation of
inspirational stories, spiritual essays, and meditations that Kidd wrote for a
little over a decade—from the age of thirty until she was around forty-two—and
which offers an intimate glimpse into her formative years as a writer and a
spiritual seeker. The book, which debuted on the New York Times extended
bestseller list and was a book club selection for Spirituality and Health magazine,
is being translated into several languages and has over 200,000 copies in
print.
Sue Monk
Kidd has received numerous writing awards and honors, including the 2004 Book
Sense Paperback book of the Year, a nomination for the Orange Prize in England
and the selection of The Secret Life of Bees as Good Morning America’s Read
This! Book Club pick.
In her
lectures she talks about the experience of becoming a writer, shifting the
focus of her work from nonfiction to fiction, the inspiration for her stories
and characters and Southern literature.
Kidd lives
with her husband Sandy near Charleston,
SC.
SELECTED
WRITING
Fiction
- The Mermaid Chair (Viking, 2005)
- The Secret Life of Bees (Viking, 2001)
Nonfiction
- Traveling With Pomegranates (Viking, 2009, co-authored with her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor)
- Firstlight: The Early
Inspirational Writings of Sue Monk Kidd (GuidepostsBooks, 2006/Penguin, 2007
- The Dance of the Dissident
Daughter: A Journey from the Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (Harper, 1996)
- When the Heart Waits (Harper, 1990)
- God's Joyful Surprise (Harper, 1988)
Selected
Awards
2006 South Carolina “The
Order of the Palmetto” Award, The state’s highest civilian honor, bestowed by
the Governor
2005
Winner, Quill Award in General Fiction, The Mermaid Chair
2004
Winner, Book Sense Book of the Year in paperback, The Secret Life of
Bees
2003
Winner, SEBA Book of the Year, The Secret Life of Bees
2003
Finalist, Book Sense Book of the Year for fiction, The Secret Life of
Bees
2003
Finalist for the 2003 Boeke Prize in South Africa, The Secret Life of
Bees
2002
Nominee, the Orange Prize (England), The Secret Life of Bees
Media
To hear
an audio interview with Sue Monk Kidd on barnesandnoble.com, click here.
For more
information about Sue Monk Kidd and her work, go to www.suemonkkidd.com.