Sue Monk Kidd was raised in the small town of Sylvester, Georgia, a place that deeply influenced the writing of her first novel The Secret Life of Bees. An award-winning and international bestselling author, Kidd also authored The Invention of Wings and The Mermaid Chair, as well as several acclaimed memoirs, including Travelling with Pomegranates and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Her newest novel, The Book of Longings was published on April 21, 2020. suemonkkidd.com
A beautiful ode to creativity and the inner world of the writer and artist. This book offers a gentle journey through many of Sue Monk Kidd's own inspirations. I read it in a single sitting and came away both inspired and deeply moved -- EMMA GANNON A beautiful book of essays about getting back in touch with your creative spark -- EMMA GANNON A gorgeous memoir of the creative life, designed to bring out the writer's voice in all of us * * Kirkus * * A gorgeous book about creativity and the unconscious mind -- CLOVER STROUD Praise for The Secret Life of Bees: A wonderful book, by turns sad, full of incident and shot through with grown-up magic reminiscent of Joanne Harris * * Daily Telegraph * * Charming, funny, moving and unmistakeably from the American South . . . a story that whips together heat, violence, eccentricity, madness and the Gothic * * The Times * * Moving, original, and accomplished . . . wonderfully written, powerful, poignant, and humorous, and takes a line which is - refreshingly - strongly female without being cliche-feminist. It is also deliciously eccentric, which lifts it out of the usual category of a rite-of-passage novel into the realms of real distinction. Do read it -- JOANNA TROLLOPE Eccentric, inventive, and ultimately forgiving . . . a truly original Southern voice -- ANITA SHREVE Monk Kidd has created a narrative as skilful and sweet as a honeycomb. Uplifting and warm-hearted, this is a moving novel and Lily is a fascinating, funny and clever narrator * * Literary Review * * Lily is a wonderfully petulant and self-absorbed adolescent, and Kidd deftly portrays her sense of injustice as it expands to accomodate broader social evils...August and her sisters, June and May, are no mere vehicles for Lily's salvation; they are individuals as fully imagined as the sweltering, kudzu-carpeted landscape that surrounds them * * New York Times Book Review * *