Sue Monk Kidd (born August 12, 1948) is an American writer from Sylvester, Georgia best known for her novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings. Early life and education Kidd was born and raised in Sylvester, Georgia. In 1970, she graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor of science degree in nursing. She worked as a nursing instructor at the Medical College of Georgia. Kidd was influenced by the writings of Thomas Merton. She took creative writing courses at Emory University, Anderson University, and studied at Sewanee and the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Career She got her start in writing when a personal essay she wrote for a writing class was published in Guideposts and reprinted in Reader's Digest. She went on to become a Contributing Editor at Guideposts. Her first three books were spiritual memoirs describing her experiences in contemplative Christianity, the last telling the story of her journey from traditional Christianity to feminist theology. God's Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved (Harper San Francisco, 1988) is focused on abandoning a hopeless quest for perfection and accepting one is loved as one is. When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions (Harper San Francisco, 1990) tells of her painful midlife crisis. Finally, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (Harper San Francisco, 1996), discussed her encounter with women's spirituality. Her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees (2002), is set during the American civil rights movement of 1964, telling the story of a white girl who runs away from home to live with a black woman who now works as an independent bee-keeper and honey-maker with many of her sisters. It has been adapted as an award-winning play in New York and debuted off Broadway at the Atlantic Theater. The novel was also adapted as a movie of the same name by Fox Searchlight, starring Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo. The Secret Life of Bees movie won two People's Choice Awards at the 35th annual awards ceremony, taking home Best Movie Drama and Best Independent Movie. Her second novel, The Mermaid Chair (2005), won the 2005 Quill Award for General Fiction. The story concerns a woman who upon coming home to an island off the coast of South Carolina becomes attracted to a Benedictine monk who is