Barbara Becker
Barbara Becker's HEARTWOOD was selected by Katie Couric's list "Books That Will Change Your Life." It is the recipient of a Nautilus Gold Award. Through writing, she explores what it means to live a life of meaning. Her essay "Simplify, Simplify!" is featured in Suleika Jaouad's latest book, THE BOOK OF ALCHEMY.
Barbara has dedicated over twenty-five years to partnering with human rights advocates around the world in pursuit of peace and interreligious understanding. She has worked with the United Nations, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, and has participated in a delegation of Zen Peacemakers and Lakota elders in the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota.
PRAISE FOR HEARTWOOD
Gloria Steinem, Author & Activist:
If you like author Barbara Becker here is the list of authors you may also like
Buy books on AmazonTotal similar authors (25)
-
Marina Keegan
Marina Evelyn Keegan was an American author, playwright, journalist, actress and poet. She is best known for her essay ‘The Opposite of Loneliness’, which went viral and was viewed over 1.4 million times in ninety-eight different countries after her death in a car crash just five days after she graduated magna cum laude from Yale University.
Buy books on Amazon -
Claire Bidwell Smith
Claire Bidwell Smith lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of the books The Rules of Inheritance (Penguin 2012), and After This (Penguin, 2015). Claire works in private practice as a therapist specializing in grief.
Buy books on Amazon
The Rules of Inheritance, a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and a Books for a Better Life nominee, has been published in 17 countries and is currently being turned into a film.
Claire received a BA in creative writing from The New School and a MA in clinical psychology from Antioch University. She has written for many publications including The Huffington Post, Salon.com, Slate, BlackBook Magazine and Chicago Public Radio. Her background includes travel and food writing, working for nonprofits like Dave Eggers’ literacy center 826L -
Judith Viorst
Judith Viorst is an American writer, newspaper journalist, and psychoanalysis researcher. She is known for her humorous observational poetry and for her children's literature. This includes The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (about the death of a pet) and the Alexander series of short picture books, which includes Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972), which has sold over two million copies.
Buy books on Amazon
Viorst is a 1952 graduate of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. In 1968, she signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In the latter part of the 1970s, after two decades of writing for children and -
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Buy books on Amazon
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program i -
Richard Rohr
Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fr. Richard's teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy—practices of contemplation and expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.
Buy books on Amazon
Fr. Richard is author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, Adam’s Return, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, Immortal Diamond, Eager to Love, and The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (with Mike Morrell).
Fr. Ric -
Elizabeth Gilbert
Buy books on Amazon
Elizabeth Gilbert is an award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction. Her short story collection Pilgrims was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award, and her novel Stern Men was a New York Times notable book. Her 2002 book The Last American Man was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critic’s Circle Award.
Her memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, spent 57 weeks in the #1 spot on the New York Times paperback bestseller list. It has shipped over 6 million copies in the US and has been published in over thirty languages. A film adaptation of the book was released by Columbia Pictures with an all star cast: Julia Roberts as Gilbert, Javier Bardem as Felipe, James Franco as David, Billy Crudup as her ex-husband and Rich -
Laura Lippman
Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.
Buy books on Amazon -
Susan Choi
Susan Choi was born in South Bend, Indiana and was raised there and in Houston, Texas. She studied literature at Yale and writing at Cornell, and worked for several years as a fact-checker for The New Yorker.
Buy books on Amazon
Her latest novel, Trust Exercise, was the winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, and was a national bestseller. Trust Exercise was also named a best book of 2019 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times, ELLE, Bustle, Town & Country, Publishers Weekly, The Millions, The Chicago Tribune, and TIME.
Her first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, and her second novel, American Woman, was a finali -
Sarah L. Thomson
Sarah L. Thomson has written over thirty books for young readers, including poetry, prose, fiction and nonfiction. Her recent books include Cub's BIG World, which School Library Journal called “a big must-have" and Deadly Flowers: A Ninja's Tale, which Booklist called “genuinely thrilling." She lives in Portland, Maine.
Buy books on Amazon -
Michelle Huneven
I am the author of four novels.
Buy books on Amazon
I was born in Altadena, California just a mile from where I live now. I college-hopped (Scripps, Grinnell, EWU) and landed at the Iowa Writer¹s Workshop where I received my MFA.
My first two books, Round Rock (Knopf 1997) and Jamesland (Knopf 2003), were both New York Times notable books and also finalists for the LA Times Book Award. My third novel, Blame, (Sarah Crichton Books, FSG, 2009), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and also a finalist for the LA Times Book Award. My fourth novel, Off Course, (Sarah Crichton Books, FSG, 2014), is coming out April 1, 2014.
Along the way, I’ve received a GE Younger Writers Award and a Whiting Award for Fiction. For many years my “day job” was revi -
Geraldine Brooks
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Buy books on Amazon
Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, and attended Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues.
In 1982 she won the Greg Shackleton Australian News Correspondents scholarship to the journalism master’s program at Columbia University in New York City. Later she worked for The Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans.
She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March -
Amity Gaige
Amity Gaige is the author of four previous novels, O My Darling, The Folded World, Schroder, and Sea Wife. Sea Wife was a 2020 New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Mark Twain American Voice Award. Her previous novel, Schroder, was named one of Best Books of 2013 by The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among others, and was shortlisted for UK’s Folio Prize (now Writers’ Prize) in 2014. Her work has been translated into 18 languages. Amity is the winner of a Fulbright Fellowship, fellowships at the MacDowell and Yaddo colonies, and in 2016, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction. She lives in West Hartford, CT, with her family, and teaches creative writing at Yale.
Buy books on Amazon
Follow her on I -
Lidia Yuknavitch
Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the National Bestselling novels The Book of Joan and The Small Backs of Children, winner of the 2016 Oregon Book Award's Ken Kesey Award for Fiction as well as the Reader's Choice Award, and the novel Dora: A Headcase, Her widely acclaimed memoir The Chronology of Water was a finalist for a PEN Center USA award for creative nonfiction and winner of a PNBA Award and the Oregon Book Award Reader's Choice. Her nonfiction book based on her TED Talk, The Misfit's Manifesto, is forthcoming from TED Books.
Buy books on Amazon
She founded the workshop series Corporeal Writing in Portland Oregon, where she teaches both in person and online. She received her doctorate in Literature from the University of Oregon. She lives in Oregon with -
Henry Fersko-Weiss
Henry Fersko-Weiss is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, who in 2003, created the first end of life doula program in the United States at a hospice in New York City. That program, which adapted approaches from the work of birth doulas, focused on helping a dying person and family prepare for the end of life, working alongside them in the last days, and supporting them in their early grief.
Buy books on Amazon
Following the publication of an extensive front-page article on Henry’s work in the New York Times in 2006, he began teaching the end of life doula approach publicly. In 2015, along with Meredith Lawida and Janie Rakow, Henry cofounded the International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA) to bring his model of end-of-life doula care to organizations, co -
Claire Bidwell Smith
Claire Bidwell Smith lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of the books The Rules of Inheritance (Penguin 2012), and After This (Penguin, 2015). Claire works in private practice as a therapist specializing in grief.
Buy books on Amazon
The Rules of Inheritance, a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and a Books for a Better Life nominee, has been published in 17 countries and is currently being turned into a film.
Claire received a BA in creative writing from The New School and a MA in clinical psychology from Antioch University. She has written for many publications including The Huffington Post, Salon.com, Slate, BlackBook Magazine and Chicago Public Radio. Her background includes travel and food writing, working for nonprofits like Dave Eggers’ literacy center 826L -
Kashana Cauley
Kashana Cauley is the author of THE PAYBACK, which will be released by Atria/Simon & Schuster in Summer 2025, and THE SURVIVALISTS, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and named a best book of 2023 by many outlets, including Vogue, The Today Show, and the BBC. She is also a television writer (The Great North, Pod Save America on HBO, The Daily Show) and a former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.
Buy books on Amazon -
Suleika Jaouad
Suleika Jaouad wrote the Emmy Award-winning New York Times column “Life, Interrupted.” Her essays and reported features have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vogue and NPR. She is the creator of the Isolation Journals, a global project cultivating creativity and community during challenging times. BETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS is her first book.
Buy books on Amazon -
Glennon Doyle
Glennon Doyle is the CEO and Founder of Treat Media, an award-winning media company that makes art for humans who want to stay human. She is an author, podcaster, producer, and philanthropist. Her books include the #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed, which has sold more than three million copies; the #1 New York Times bestseller Love Warrior, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; the New York Times bestseller Carry On, Warrior; and Get Untamed: The Journal. Glennon, named one of the “50 Most Powerful People in Podcasting,” is co-host of the chart-topping podcast We Can Do Hard Things, which has received over a half billion plays. She is an executive producer of the Sundance award-winning film Come See Me in the Good Light. Glennon was Founder a
Buy books on Amazon -
Julie McFadden
Julie McFadden, BSN, RN, is a hospice/palliative care nurse with more than fifteen years of experience. Passionate about normalizing death and dying, she has more than one million followers on TikTok as @hospicenursejulie. She has been featured in Newsweek, USA Today, the Atlantic, Business Insider, the Patient Story, and many other media outlets worldwide. McFadden lives and works (and films and edits videos for social media) in California.
Buy books on Amazon -
Megan Cummins
Megan Cummins is a writer and editor living in New York. She is the author of the novel ATOMIC HEARTS (Ballantine) and the story collection IF THE BODY ALLOWS IT (University of Nebraska Press), which was awarded the 2019 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction and longlisted for the Story Prize and the PEN/Bingham Award.
Buy books on Amazon -
Mary-Frances O'Connor
Mary-Frances O'Connor is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where she directs the Grief, Loss, and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab in investigating the effects of grief on the brain and the body.
Buy books on Amazon
O’Connor earned a doctorate from the University of Arizona in 2004 and completed a fellowship at UCLA. Following a faculty appointment at UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, she returned to the University of Arizona in 2012.
Her work has been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, and Psychological Science, and featured in Newsweek, New York Times, and Washington Post.
Having grown up in Montana, she now lives in sunny Tucson, Arizona. -
Melissa Pace
A graduate of Wesleyan University, Melissa Pace is a former editor and writer for Elle magazine, as well as a past finalist in the Humanitas New Voices fellowship for television and screenwriters. The mother of three amazing children, Pace lives with her husband in Los Angeles, and when not writing, likes to lace up her cleats and get all her ya-ya's out on its soccer fields. The Once and Future Me is her first novel. Connect with her on Instagram or Threads @melissadugganpace.
Buy books on Amazon -
Amy Griffin
Amy Griffin lives in New York City with her husband, John, and their four children. She is the founder of the investment firm G9 Ventures.
Buy books on Amazon -
Kelly Cervantes
Kelly Cervantes is a writer, speaker, and advocate best known for her blog “Inchstones” and her work with the non-profit CURE Epilepsy. She has been published in The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, and Cosmopolitan, as well as quoted in the New York Times, CNN, and People. Born and raised in the Midwest, Kelly currently resides in Maplewood, NJ, with her family and two dogs, Tabasco and Sriracha
Buy books on Amazon -
Henry Fersko-Weiss
Henry Fersko-Weiss is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, who in 2003, created the first end of life doula program in the United States at a hospice in New York City. That program, which adapted approaches from the work of birth doulas, focused on helping a dying person and family prepare for the end of life, working alongside them in the last days, and supporting them in their early grief.
Buy books on Amazon
Following the publication of an extensive front-page article on Henry’s work in the New York Times in 2006, he began teaching the end of life doula approach publicly. In 2015, along with Meredith Lawida and Janie Rakow, Henry cofounded the International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA) to bring his model of end-of-life doula care to organizations, co