FSU - Page Title

"Sue Monk Kidd was born and raised in small-town Georgia. Drawn to writing as an adolescent, she pursued an education and career in nursing before returning to writing. After writing the spiritual memoirs God's Joyful Surprise and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, she turned to fiction. Her first novel was The Secret Life of Bees, published in 2002." from the Chancellor's Reading Club.

To Access the Articles from the Literature Resource Center Database, You Will Need to Be Affiliated With Fayetteville State University.

Sue Monk Kidd. Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2008. From Literature Resource Center.

Title: All Abuzz About the Black Madonna: An Interview with Sue Monk Kidd.

Author(s): Sue Monk Kidd and Heidi Schlumpf

Publication Details: U.S. Catholic 68.11 (Nov. 2003): p26-30.

Source: Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 267. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center.

Document Type: Critical essay, Interview

[(interview date November 2003) In the following interview, Kidd explains the historical precedents for the motif of the Black Madonna in The Secret Life of Bees, the religious connotations of the novel, and the link between her fiction and nonfiction.]

Sue Monk Kidd was happily writing inspirational essays for Christian magazines, driving carpool for her two kids, and generally being a good Southern Baptist wife and mother when she found herself in the midst of a feminist awakening. That spiritual journey led her to join the Episcopal Church and affected nearly every aspect of her life, including her writing. But she could have never imagined where she would end up--on the bestseller list. After chronicling her transformation in two spiritual memoirs--When the Heart Waits (1990) and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (1996), both by HarperSanFrancisco--she turned to her first love: fiction.

Her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, published last year by Viking, has sold more than 1 million copies and been on the bestseller list for the better part of a year. Although ostensibly about a young girl's coming of age in the South in the 1960s, it also has been called "one of the more interesting books about Mary" by Publishers Weekly. To Read More, Click on the Article Title

Review of The Secret Life of Bees. Kristine Huntley. Booklist 98.7 (Dec. 1, 2001): p628. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 267. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center.

Review of The Secret Life of Bees. Jeff Zaleski. Publishers Weekly 248.46 (Nov. 12, 2001): p33. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 267. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center.

Review of The Secret Life of Bees. Ann-Janine Morey. Christian Century 120.4 (Feb. 22, 2003): p68-70. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 267. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center.

Honey child. Rosellen Brown. The Women's Review of Books. 19.7 (Apr. 2002) p11. From Literature Resource Center.

Religious Imagery in The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair. Judith Hebb. Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference. p1-9. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 267. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center.

Charles W. Chesnutt Library, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, N.C. 28301
Page Maintained By: Jan S. Whitfield jwhitfield@uncfsu.edu
Last Updated: 3/8/10