Sue Monk Kidd was raised in the small town of Sylvester, Georgia, a place that deeply influenced the writing of her first novel The Secret Life of Bees. An award-winning and international bestselling author, Kidd also authored The Mermaid Chair (2005), The Invention of Wings (2014) and The Book of Longings (2020) as well as several acclaimed memoirs, including Traveling with Pomegranates and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter.
Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees
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Sue Monk Kidd
On the Social Landscape of the American South
Collage
Inspiration for The Secret Life of Bees
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Sue Monk Kidd
On Bees and the Novel
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Black Madonna
Inspiration for The Secret Life of Bees
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Helen Jukes
On the Lessons She Learned From Beekeeping
Bees and Beekeeping
Bee Hives at Highgrove
The Secret Life of Bees
Script Written by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
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The Secret Life of Bees
Musical Adaptation
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Abiona Omonua
Reads The Secret Life of Bees
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Sue Monk Kidd
On the Symbolism of Bees
The Secret Life of Bees
Film Adaptation
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Sue Monk Kidd
On the Character of Lily
Online Exclusives
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Sue Monk Kidd
On the Film Adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees
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Sue Monk Kidd
On Exploring Mental Health
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Sue Monk Kidd
On the Future of Her Characters
Featured book by Sue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees
Set in South Carolina during 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of a fourteen year old white girl, Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three racists in town, they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily finds refuge in their mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna. Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother. The Secret Life of Bees is a major literary triumph about the search for love and belonging, a novel that possesses a rare wisdom about life and the power and divinity of the female spirit.
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