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Liz Curtis Higgs is an award-winning author of both fiction and non-fiction books, as well as children's books. She is also a veteran public speaker and former radio personality. To date, Higgs has written twenty-seven books, with more than three million copies in print, and is the recipient of several literary awards.

Revealed in interview with C.J. Darlington, "my name growing up was Ruth Elizabeth. I’m still Ruthie to my family, but Lizzie to my dearest friends."

Personal life

The youngest of six children. A native of Lititz, eastern Pennsylvania, Higgs was an avid reader even as a child, starting with Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames, and moving on to Newberry medal winners. Higgs also recalls that Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time had a huge impact on her early reading.

Attempted her first novel at age 10, handwritten in a marble notebook

Troubled teen/early adulthood years, struggled with weight, self-confidence, calls herself a "Former Bad Girl" in Bad Girls of the Bible series. As Higgs herself explains it, she "spent a decade immersed in a sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, I found it easier to identify with some of the wild women of the Bible when I first became a Christian."

While working in Detroit, Mich., at WWWW as a rock radio DJ, Higgs worked with Howard Stern, who confronted her about her wild, off-air lifestyle (poptop article) Higgs moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1981 as a radio DJ, a career she pursued for 10 years and which offer much of the inspiration for her first novel "Mixed Signals" (1999). Her second book, "Bookends," also includes some autobiographical information; the novel is set in the Moravian community in Pennsylvania, where Higgs spent her childhood.

She attended Bellarmine College, graduating in 19?? with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

In 1986, at age 32, she married Bill, a broadcasting engineer with a Ph.D. in Old Testament languages and 2 years her senior. (Focus on Fiction interview) Higgs left the radio world the next year when she learned she was expecting her first child, Matthew, born in 1987.

"My desire to write fiction came long before I began focusing on the women of the Bible. In 1995 I was introduced to Christian fiction by a bookseller who’d set up a booth at one of the conferences where I was speaking." - Focus on Fiction interview

"It started two dozen years ago with a love for Scottish folk music and calendars featuring Scottish scenery on my walls. When my husband and I spent our 10th anniversary in Scotland in 1996, my love affair with all things Caledonian began in earnest."

Today, Higgs and her husband live in Louisville, Kentucky. Bill Higgs supports his wife as the Director of Operations for her speaking and writing enterprises. They have two grown children, Matthew (born August 1987) and Lillian (born in 1989).

"Despite my protestations, WaterBrook Press wanted my face on the cover of Bad Girls of the Bible. Which meant, of course, that I ended up on the cover of Really Bad Girls of the Bible and Unveiling Mary Magdalene, too." - Focus on Fiction interview

Published works

For ten years Liz was a columnist for Today’s Christian Woman magazine. Articles by Liz have also appeared in Faith&Friends in Canada, WomanAlive in Great Britain, and Enhance in Australia. And more than 4,000 churches nationwide are using her video Bible study series, Loved by God.

Non-fiction publications

And her nonfiction book, Embrace Grace, winner of a 2007 Retailers Choice Award, presents her message of hope in an engaging and personal way, speaking directly to the hearts of her readers.

Her nonfiction books for women include...

Rise and Shine, 2004 ("One hundred of the best of Liz’s early writings collected into a simple devotional format")
Embrace Grace
My Heart's in the Lowlands, Scottish armchair travel guide
One Size Fits All and Other Fables (out of print)
Forty Reasons Why Life Is More Fun After the Big 4-0 (1997, out of print)

"Bad Girls of the Bible" series

In her best-selling series of Bad Girls of the Bible books, workbooks, and videos, Liz Curtis Higgs breathes new life into ancient tales about the most infamous—and intriguing—women in scriptural history, from Jezebel to Mary Magdalene. Biblically sound and cutting-edge fresh, these popular titles have helped more than one million women around the world experience God's grace anew. Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible received a 2008 Retailers Choice Award.

Bad Girls of the Bible (Aug 17, 1999), ECPA Gold Medallion Finalist and CBA Bestseller for 8 Years
Really Bad Girls of the Bible (September 19, 2000)
Unveiling Mary Magdalene, Previously released as Mad Mary (May 18, 2004), workbook (August 17, 2004)
Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible (September 11, 2007)
Companion workbooks for all the above

Fiction books

Her fiction includes two contemporary novels, one novella, and five historical novels.

Mixed Signals 1999 - Contemporary Novel, RITA Award Finalist
Bookends 2005 - Contemporary Novel, Christy Award Finalist
"Fine Print" (novella) in Three Weddings and a Giggle (2006) (with Karen Ball and Carolyn Zane)

Historical fiction

When working on a fictional book, Higgs prefers to do her research on location and has visited Scotland many times in the process of writing her Lowlands series (Heather Ivestor interview).

Her best-selling historical novels, which transport the stories of Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, Dinah, Naomi, and Ruth to eighteenth-century Scotland, have also helped her readers view these familiar characters in a new light. her Scottish historical novel, Whence Came a Prince, won the 2006 Christy Award for Best Historical Fiction,

Thorn in My Heart 2001 - Jacob steals Esau's birthright (Lowlands of Scotland #1) (trilogy covers Genesis 25-35)
Fair Is the Rose 2004 - Laban tricks Jacob into marrying Leah instead of Rachel (Lowlands of Scotland #2)
Whence Came a Prince 2005 - Jacob returns home with wives & sheep, Laban gets his comeuppance (Lowlands of Scotland #3)
Grace in Thine Eyes (March 21, 2006) - Dinah (Lowlands of Scotland #4), Genesis 34
Here Burns My Candle (March 16, 2010) - Naomi and Ruth
Mine is the Night (coming March 15, 2011) - Ruth & Boaz (sequel to Here Burns My Candle)

Children's books

Higgs has written five books intended for children ages 3-7. In 1998, her Parable series was awarded the ECPA Gold Medallion for Excellence

The Pumpkin Patch Parable, 1995
The Sunflower Parable, 1997
Go Away, Dark Night 1998
The Parable of the Lily, 1998
The Pine Tree Parable, 2006

Out of Print

(work into above sections) Does Dinner in a Bucket Count? (1993), “One Size Fits All” and Other Fables (1993), Only Angels Can Wing It, the Rest of Us Have to Practice (1995), Reflecting His Image (1996), its re-titled paperback version, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Have I Got News for You! (1997), Help! I’m Laughing and I Can’t Get Up (1998), and the small gift book, While Shepherds Washed Their Flocks and Other Funny Things Kids Say and Do (1998) are all officially out of print

Public speaking

Since 1986, Liz Curtis Higgs has presented more than 1,600 inspirational programs for audiences in all 50 states as well as Germany, England, Canada, Ecuador, France, and Scotland. In 1995, Liz received the highest award for speaking excellence, the “Council of Peers Award for Excellence,” becoming one of only forty women in the world named to the Speaker Hall of Fame by the National Speakers Association. (ref: Amazon)

A member of the National Speakers Association, in 1993 she earned the title Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), and in 1995 she was awarded their highest honor, the Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE). She is also a member of the fun-loving organizations Fellowship of Merry Christians and the American Association for Therapeutic Humor (Christianbook.com)

Awards

children’s Parable Series was awarded the ECPA Gold Medallion for Excellence in 1998
Whence Came a Prince, won the 2006 Christy Award for Best Historical Fiction
Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible received a 2008 Retailers Choice Award.

References

External links

Other possible sources/references:

Salon.com, Beliefnet.com and Spirituality.com
Guest appearances on PBS, A&E, MSNBC, NPR, TBN with Kirk Cameron, CBC Canada, BBC Radio Scotland, Rhema Broadcasting New Zealand, Radio Pulpit South Africa, LifeToday with James Robison, Focus on the Family, Janet Parshall's America, 100 Huntley Street and Midday Connection
Amazon.com
YouTube, interview videos