Author Bio
• Birth—July, 1954
• Where—Lititz, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., Bellamine College
• Awards—Christy Award (see "Published works")
• Currently—lives in Louisville, Kentucky
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 thirty books, with more than three million copies in print, and is the recipient of several literary awards.
Early years
The youngest of six children, Higgs is a native of Lititz in eastern Pennsylvania. An avid reader even as a child, she started with Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames then moved on to Newberry medal winners. Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time was also an influence on her early reading.
At the age of 10, Liz hand wrote her first novel in a Marble notebook—a Nancy Drew spinpoff she called Mountain Cabin Mystery. She continued writing mysteries and romances up through her high school years.
Higgs attended Bellarmine College, graduating in with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Struggling with weight and self-confidencer as a teenager, Higgs refers to herself a "Former Bad Girl" in Bad Girls of the Bible series. As she admits, she "spent a decade immersed in a sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle," finding it easier to identify with some of the wild women of the Bible when she first became a Christian.
After college, Higgs worked in Detroit, Mich. as a rock-radio DJ along with Howard Stern; then in 1981 she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she continued her work as a DJ. It was a career she pursued for 10 years and which inspired much of 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 she spent her childhood.
Christianity and marriage
By 1982 Christiaity had become a life changing force for Higgs, and though she remained in secular radio, her show began to reflect her strong faith. Churches began inviting Higgs to share her testimony with her message of humor and hope—until by 1986 she was speaking ninety times a year, on top of her six-day-a-week radio job.
In 1986 Higgs also married Bill, a broadcasting engineer with a Ph.D. in Old Testament languages. She left the radio world the next year when she learned she was expecting her first child. Matthew was born in 1987. The couple's second child Lillian was born in 1989. 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.
Writing carreer
Higgs's historical fiction is set in Scotland, a country that has fascinated her since the 1980s, at least. She had developed love for Scottish folk music and calendars featuring Scottish scenery. Then in 1996 she and her husband spent their 10th anniversary in Scotland where her "love affair with all things Caledonian began in earnest."
Her desire to write fiction came long before she began focusing on the women of the Bible. It wasn't until 1995 that she was introduced to Christian fiction through a bookseller who had a booth at one of the conferences where she was speaking.
For ten years Higgs was a columnist for Today’s Christian Woman magazine. Her articles have also appeared in Faith & Friends in Canada, Woman Alive in Great Britain, and Enhance in Australia. And more than 4,500 churches nationwide use her video Bible study series, Loved by God.
Published works
1. Nonfiction books for women:
Rise and Shine
Embrace Grace
My Heart's in the Lowlands
The Girl's Still Got It
2. Bad Girls of the Bible series:
Bad Girls of the Bible
Really Bad Girls of the Bible—ECPA Gold Medallion Finalist
Unveiling Mary Magdalene
Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible—Retailers Choice Award
Companion workbooks for all the above
3. Contemporary novels
Mixed Signals—RITA Award Finalist
Bookends—Christy Award Finalist
Three Weddings and a Giggle (coauthored with Karen Ball and Carolyn Zane)
4. Scottish Historical fiction:
Thorn in My Heart
Fair Is the Rose
Whence Came a Prince—Christy Award for Best Historical Fiction
Grace in Thine Eyes
Here Burns My Candle
Mine is the Night
A Wreath of Snow
5. Children's books: Parable series was awarded the ECPA Gold Medallion for Excellence
The Pumpkin Patch Parable
The Sunflower Parable
The Parable of the Lily
The Pine Tree Parable
Go Away, Dark Night
Public speaking
Since 1986, Liz Curtis Higgs has presented more than 1,700 inspirational programs for audiences in all 50 states as well as 14 foreign countries. In 1995, Higgs 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 CPAE-Speaker Hall of Fame by the National Speakers Association. (Bio adapted from Wikipedia and with gracious input from the author.)
To find out more about Liz's Scottish historical fiction...
Here Burns My Candle (Higgs) - Author Bio
Article Index
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