About

I write stuff, mostly books. I earned tenure as a professor of religious studies, and I love teaching. I write full-time now. Most of my publishing reflects my academic background in religious studies, particularly biblical studies, and most particularly the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. I’m also writing quite a bit of fiction – some historical, set in the ancient world out of which the Bible came; some contemporary; and some screenplays, too (including an award-winning bio-pic of Harriet Tubman). If you’re interested in having me talk with your group, please click the “contact” link. I welcome opportunities to speak with all sorts of people, not only out of my academic interests but also about writing and the creative life, in general. (Here’s a link to my podcast, The Writer’s Story.) I’m passionate about food and environmental issues, too. (Here’s a link to my Pretty Good Kitchen blog.)

I was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota among the chosen frozen, as we like to say. I studied biology at St. Olaf College — a small, liberal arts Lutheran college in the warmer climes of southern Minnesota. After traveling to the Middle East one semester, I added a religious studies major; but I continued to focus on the sciences. I worked with a paleo-pathologist for a couple of summers, and later for a semester in a Univ. of MN pathology lab, studying wound healing. After graduation, the personal got professional, and I shifted to religious studies, earning my Masters and Ph.D. degrees at Boston University in “the history and literature of ancient Israel.” I taught religious studies for nearly fifteen years at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where I earned tenure… and resigned.

Teaching is an amazing experience — humbling and invigorating in equal measure, with an occasional dash of exasperation or flash of elation. I loved my students and find it a privilege to be with them in learning. Working as employee-for-life at one place is heady, too. I took very seriously the responsibility to contribute to the shape and direction of an institution devoted to learning. Along the way, I also discovered that writing suits me — not that I find it easy (I don’t). Writing is part of the job of university faculty, a critically important part. In 2010, VCU offered me a semester fellowship for research and writing at Virginia Humanities in Charlottesville. During that time, besides working beside amazing scholars of all sorts, I met a guy, fell in love, and soon after got married. I moved and spent a year commuting to Richmond, all the while, wishing that I could write more. That’s when I resigned from my position. I’m delighted to be able to stay connected to VCU, though, retaining an affiliate status that keeps me in the loop.

Holed up in the solitude of my office can be a lonely thing, but on good days, the writing transports me. Even on not so productive days, there is pleasure in the work. I also deeply enjoy what is social about this business — in my research and imagination, I learn from and about people past and present, and meeting readers near and far is a real delight.

I love stories. I’ve spent a good bit of time immersed in facts; but it’s the stories in and about them that most excite me. Studying the ancient world, religion, and especially the Bible has allowed me to live and work between categories. Fact and fiction dance together in truth’s arena. Moving into historical fiction has been an organic sort of evolution.

Following the curve from academia to life at large, my writing took a turn. Investigating the dynamic development of the Bible, the Persian empire, and Cyrus the Great introduced me to some fascinating women, deeply attractive men, a few villains, and a lot of fuzzy facts. In an effort to bring it all together, I found myself making things up. Voila! historical fiction. And so I am beginning again… I’m thrilled to have Howl of the Golden Jackal championed by the wonderful 3Arts agent, Richard Abate. Based on oodles of research, it tells the story of a bastard girl who takes on Babylon in an effort to save the wild wonder of her native land. Between you and me, I wonder if without this historical woman we may never have had a Bible. More on that to come.

A Most Peculiar Book: The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible (Oxford, 2021) is about how the Bible is a lot weirder than most people think – both the book itself, and what’s inside. This book is an effort to show how a person can take the Bible seriously, even “believe in it,” while acknowledging that it’s a mighty messy tome. God of Earth: Discovering a Radically Ecological Christianity is the most person of the books I’ve written so far. It’s a slim volume in which I track through the seasons of the Christian church year this question: What happens if we imagine the Jesus of Christian theology to be real-ized (that hyphen is intentional) also in the nonhuman natural world? Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About Book of All Time (Harper, 2010; Harper Perennial, 2011) attempts to make some of what I’ve had the privilege to learn about the Bible available to general readers, no matter what they (or don’t) believe… and to have some fun along the way. I wrote Living through Pain: Psalms and the Search for Wholeness (2005) for Baylor University Press, and my translations of Isaiah, Lamentations, and Numbers appear in The Voice: Old Testament (Thomas Nelson). My fabulous colleague, Esther Nelson, and I wrote a brief introduction to the academic study of religion, What is Religious Studies? (Kendall Hunt). Besides academic journal articles, contributions to edited volumes, and brief pieces for news outlets, my writing has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Christian Century, Beliefnet, The Huffington Post,The Washington Post‘s “On Faith,” Good Morning America‘s “Spirituality” webpage.

Thanks for visiting me here!

Thus Far

For decades, I focused most of my creative energy in learning, teaching, and writing within the wonderfully interdisciplinary field of religious studies. I earned tenure as university professor, and would have been happy to continue in that way for the rest of my life. But life is full of surprises, and I’m thrilled that it’s given me opportunity to write without restriction, full-time and across genres.

For the Future

I’m excited to have enthusiastic representation for both my fiction and nonfiction writing. I aim to continue to write across genres in ways that reflect both the specialized learning I’ve had rare opportunity to gain and other things about which I’m passionate or simply curious. These span everything from the environment to aging to music to dinner.

About

Thus Far

For the Future

Always