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The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

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Sue Monk Kidd is a writer from Southern Georgia. She is best known for her most influential piece of writing, The Secret Life of Bees, which has found its way into many classrooms across the country. Many of her fiction novels have tackled controversial and well known issues and themes of the South over the course of history.

Life Before Writing

Born in Albany, Georgia on August 12, 1948, Kidd grew up in Sylvester, Georgia specifically in Worth County. Her father and English teachers encouraged her to write, and through this, she discovered her affinity for writing nonfiction. She then graduated from Worth County High School and pursued college in Texas.

Before writing her first book, Kidd attended, and graduated from, the Texas …show more content…

But possibly her most renowned novel is The Secret Life of Bees.

The Secret Life of Bees

Viking Books published Kidd’s first fictional novel, The Secret Life of Bees, in 2002, and according to Kidd, it was “deeply influenced” by her hometown of Sylvester, Georgia, although it takes place in South Carolina. The novel has sold approximately 8 million copies worldwide, and previously remained on the New York Times’ bestseller list for more than two years. Currently, it is available in 36 different languages, and has won a multitude of awards, both in the U.S. and in other countries.

Originally adapted into play-form and performed numerous times by The American Place Theater, Fox Searchlight picked up the book in 2008 and produced it into a movie. Starring well known celebrities such as Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, and Alicia Keys, the People’s Choice Awards and NAACP awarded the movie Best Picture and Best Movie, respectfully.

Kidd’s familiarity with the South has been useful in both her writing of The Secret Life of Bees and with the subsequent movie. Interestingly enough, although Kidd herself grew up in Georgia, the book takes place in South Carolina, and production for the movie occurred in North Carolina. She was able to adapt to the various Southern environments with ease, a skill attributed to both her previous experiences in college as well as her coming-of-age in the rural South.

Inspired By Experience

As with The Secret

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