Sue Monk Kidd & Ann Kidd Taylor Authors kick off national book tour at Wesleyan Sue Monk Kidd became a household name with her New York Times bestselling novel, The Secret Life of Bees, which has sold over six million copies to date. Since then, Fox Searchlight Pictures released a box-office hit movie based on the novel, featuring a star-studded cast, and her second novel, The Mermaid Chair, reached the number one spot on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list. But before this whirlwind, from 1998 to 2000, when Sue had recently published Dance of the Dissident Daughter and the idea for Bees was just an image in her head, she traveled around the world with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. Each woman was at a crossroads in her life, and together they undertook a journey to redefine and rediscover themselves, which they share in their new poignant and compelling memoir. Both Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor began a seven-city book tour at Wesleyan College this fall. The event, held in the College’s Porter Auditorium, was the official launch of the paperback version of the New York Times bestselling memoir of pilgrimage and metamorphosis, Traveling with Pomegranates. Hundreds of fans
attended the event, which included a special presentation and dual book signing. Part travel story, part spiritual quest, and part induction into feminine passages, Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Journey to the Sacred Places of Greece, Turkey, and France is a memoir told in two voices. Set against the awe-inspiring backdrops of France and Greece, this intersecting autobiography chronicles an intimate mapping of these two fascinating women as well as the moving metamorphosis of their motherdaughter relationship. Attendees of the Wesleyan College event enjoyed photographs and personal stories from the authors’ travels to sacred sites in Greece and France. Set in the age old grandeur of these inspiring and deeply symbolic places, from Athens and Eleusis to Paris and Rocomador, and places in between, Sue and Ann’s presentation chronicled an intimate mapping of two women—a fifty something and a twenty something, a mother and a daughter. Photographs captured the authors traveling as pilgrims, exploring sacred sites, and pondering myths and symbols.
Traveling with Pomegranates is a truly distinctive book, featuring alternating chapters from both authors. Mothers and daughters will see themselves on every page, as Sue and Ann offer insights into the intricacies and bonds of this powerful relationship. The book imparts vivid portrayals of the places they visit and how those places changed them, as well as illuminating often unexplored passages into young and older womanhood, and revealing inside glimpses into Sue’s and Ann’s pursuits of writing and creativity. Candid, deeply personal and mindful of the symbolism all around them, Sue and Ann’s account is moving and unique, and universally resonant. Sue Monk Kidd’s first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, has spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. She is also the author of several acclaimed memoirs and the recipient of numerous literary awards. Sue’s daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor, is a graduate of Columbia College. She has written personal essays for Skirt! magazine. Traveling with Pomegranates is her first book. It also is Sue Monk Kidd’s first book since her last blockbuster novel, The Mermaid Chair.
Wesleyan Magazine Winter 2010