'Brooding over a chaos of possibilities'

 

“I never know how to give advice toa writer because there's so much you could say, and it's hard to translate yourown experience. But of course, I always try. The main thing that I usually endup saying is to read a lot. To read a great deal and to learn from that.” –Sue Monk Kidd

 

Monk Kidd is perhaps best known for her novel The Secret Life of Bees,the story of a white girl who runs away from home to live with her deceasedmother's former black nanny, who now works as an independent beekeeper andhoney maker.  A wonderful study of relationships and understanding,the book also has been made into a long-running Broadway play and award-winningmovie.

 

Born in Sylvester, GA on Aug. 12, 1948Monk Kidd’s first published work was a personal essay written for a class,published in Guideposts and then reprinted in Readers’Digest.  She went on to become a Contributing Editor at Guideposts anda regular writer for numerous magazines and journals.

 

A strong advocate for keeping dailyjournals, she keeps notes about her life and her writing process, “particularlywhen I get the ideas, and I am trying to brood over the chaos phase.  In writing a novel, you really have to broodover a lot of chaos of ideas and possibilities.”

 

Monk Kidd said she is always glad tohear that readers feel immersed in her stories.  “I want my words to opena portal through which the reader may leave the self, migrate to some otherhuman sky and return 'disposed' to otherness,” she said.