Sue Monk Kidd is the bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and of the acclaimed memoirs When the Heart Waits and Dance of the Dissident Daughter. The New York Times bestseller, The Secret Life of Bees 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 Quill award, Poets & Writers Exchange Program in Fiction. Kidd lives near Charleston, SC.