Rebecca Wells

Rebecca Wells’ novels features unforgettable characters who share her deep connection to her native Louisiana. She is the author of the #1 New York Times-Bestselling literary phenomenon, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, a story that follows the lives of a tribe of wild, funny, (sometimes outrageous) group of four women in Louisiana as they come of age and raise daughters of their own over the course of the 20th century. Firmly establishing her in the tradition of charming, funny and beloved southern writers, she he has been called “a love child of Flannery O’Connor and Roy Blount, Jr.,” Wells’ testament to female friendship and the bonds between mothers and daughters has sold 6 million copies and resonated with readers around the world. It was adapted into a film of the same name starring Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, James Garnder and Maggie Smith.

Her other titles include Little Altars Everywhere, and Ya-Yas in Bloom, which continue the stories of the characters in Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Her most recent novel, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, introduces a new cast of characters in the same Louisisana backdrop. Like her other works, “The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder will remind you of your first love and power of friendship. As the saying goes, ‘You’ll laugh, you’ll cry.’ But, really, you will.” (Real Simple)

Rebecca’s style is warm, intimate and very funny as she seamlessly combines readings from her aclaimed novels as well as personal stories which she refers to as “the secrets behind the Divine Secrets.” They include talks about growing up as a child of alcoholics. About growing up racist in Jim Crow Louisiana. Her struggle with Lyme disease. She discusses how we might choose authenticity over hipness, of embracing the sisterhood of suffering as well as the joy; aging out of an addiction to perfection and prettiness to imperfection and deep inner beauty. She talks about the complex relationship between mothers and daughters and how acceptance can build a bridge. She discusses the difference between needs and wants in a consumer culture.

Rebecca has been a finalist for the Orange Prize and winner of the American Booksellers Book of the Year Award, and the Western States Book Award. She is also an accomplished actress, and he one woman show “Splittin’ Hairs” was produced by the Seattle Repertory Theater and won the HBO Excellence in Theatre Award. She lives on a farm in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Thomas Schowerer, and her dog, Mercy.