April 6, 2006

Sue Monk Kidd is the author of the bestseller and book club favorite, The Secret Life of Bees, which sold more than 3.5 million copies. This first novel is a powerful story of coming-of- age, race-relations, and the ability of love to transform our lives, listed over eighty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and published in more than 20 languages. It was chosen as the BookSense Book of the Year for paperback in 2004, the 2003 SEBA Book of the Year, and was nominated for the prestigious Orange Prize in the U.K, among others.  Kidd is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Poets & Writers Exchange Program in Fiction.

Her second novel, The Mermaid Chair, is currently on the New York Times Best Seller List. The novel explores a woman's pilgrimage to self-belonging, the inner life of mid life marriage, and the little known region in the female soul where the sacred and the erotic intersect.

The book centers on a middle-aged woman struggling with her passions, spirituality and "coming-of-age" questions. The Mermaid Chair won the Quill award for General Fiction in 2005. Set on a South Carolina barrier island, it tells the beautiful and haunting story of 42 year old Jessie Sullivan, a married woman who falls in love with a Benedictine monk and the crisis and self- awakening this ignites.

Sue Monk Kidd experienced the desire to write at an early age, even writing a novel when she was 13. Sue discovered her longing to be a writer when she was a child listening to her father’s imaginative stories and began keeping prolific journals that chronicled her experiences, both internal and external, a practice she has continued throughout her life.

Two books which she read at the age of fifteen- Thoreau’s spiritual memoir, Walden and Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening- had a deep impact on her and would foreshadow the course she herself would eventually take as a writer: writing spiritual memoir and novels. Her nonfiction books, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (1996) and When the Heart Waits (1990) are also widely acclaimed.

Kidd lives near Charleston, SC. Where she serves on the board of advisors for Poets & Writers, Inc. and works to support their efforts for the literary arts and their advocacy for emerging writers. She is Writer in Residence at Phoebe Pember House in Charleston.

Kidd will be interviewed by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., at the evening forum. Bolen is a psychiatrist, a Jungian analyst in private practice and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. She is the author of numerous books, including The Tao of Psychology and Goddesses in Everywoman, a highly celebrated book which saw a 20th anniversary edition published in 2004. In all aspects of her work she emphasizes the need for a spiritual dimension in life, while taking into account the powerful effects of archetypes within individuals, family and culture.

Event & Ticket Information

Thursday, April 6, 2006

University of Louisville: Details to be announced.

The Kentucky Center
501 West Main Street
Downtown Louisville

5:00 p.m. Wine and Cheese offered by Brown-Forman, along with Carmichael's book sale in the lobby of The Kentucky Center

6:00 p.m. Interview with Sue Monk Kidd and Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., Bomhard Theatre, set and design by Bittners' (Designing for the Way You Live)

Live taping with Louisville's NPR News Station: WFPL-89.3, KET: The Kentucky Network, and "The Spoken Word," which will carry the audio version of the event to 39 public radio stations throughout the southeast and 1.1 million listeners.

Master of Ceremonies is Forum Editor Keith Runyon of The Courier-Journal

7:00 p.m. Q&A with audience. Carmichael's Bookstore will have copies of Kidd’s The Mermaid Chair for book signing on stage.

A $17 ticket includes the above three events. A limited number of discounted tickets of $5 each are available for U of L students, faculty and staff at the KCA box office --U of L photo ID is required.

8:15 p.m. Dinner with Sue Monk Kidd and Jean Shinoda Bolen, hosted by the University of Louisville. A $100 package ticket includes all evening events, including dinner (Proceeds go to the nonprofit Kentucky Author Forum; $35 is tax-deductible.)

Tickets for this event are now on sale at The Kentucky Center. They may also be purchased by calling 502-584-7777 or 800-775-7777 or online at www.kentuckycenter.org

Those who cannot attend the Kentucky Author Forum evening interview will be able to enjoy an unedited version free-of-charge at these Library locations:

• St. Matthews Eline Branch Library (574-1771) on Friday, April 7 at 2 p.m.
• Bon Air Library (574-1795) on Wednesday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m.

There is no fee involved, but those interested must sign up in advance due to limited seating. Call the libraries directly for further information.

WFPL 89.3 FM and Kentucky Educational Television (KET) will record the event for future broadcast, which will be distributed nationally to PBS affiliates nationwide, under the title: "Conversation with Gene Sue Monk Kidd."

Tapes of past Kentucky Author Forums interviews are available through KET by calling 800-945-9167.

The Kentucky Author Forum series is produced by Mary Moss Greenebaum, with Associate Producer Melissa Bernstrom, and is sponsored by the University of Louisville, Brown-Forman, and The Humana Foundation, in cooperation with Carmichael's Bookstore, The Courier-Journal, Bittners, KET, Office Furniture USA, The Kentucky Center, WFPL-89.3, and "The Spoken Word".

624 West Main, Second Floor
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Phone 502.589.2884
Fax 502.589.4334
email KYFORUM@aol.com