Rachel Held Evans

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Rachel Held Evans
Rachel-held-evans.jpg
Rachel Held Evans
Born Rachel Grace Held
(1981-06-08) June 8, 1981 (age 31)
Occupation Columnist, author
Genres Christian
rachelheldevans.com

Rachel Held Evans (born June 8, 1981) is an American Christian columnist, blogger and author.[1][2][3]

Contents

Biography [edit]

 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2012)

Rachel was born to Peter and Robin Held. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. At age 14, she and her family moved to Dayton, Tennessee where her father took an administrative position at Bryan College. She attended Rhea County High School and then went to Bryan College where she majored in English Literature. She received her Bachelor of Arts in 2003, and then married her college sweetheart, Dan Evans, that fall. They moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee where she worked as an intern for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.[citation needed]

In 2004, Evans returned to Dayton where she worked full-time for the local paper, The Herald-News. In 2006, she transitioned from full-time to writing pro bono as the paper's humor columnist; in 2007, she won an award for "Best Personal Humor Column" from the Tennessee Press Association.[4] She continued to write freelance articles for national publications and started a blog.[5] She also hosts a business in layout, design, and public relations.[citation needed]

In September 2008, Evans signed with Zondervan for her first book, Evolving in Monkey Town.[6] The book explores her journey from religious certainty to a faith which accepts doubt and questioning; the title is based on the Scopes Monkey Trial that occurred in Dayton.[7] Her second book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master was released in October 2012.[8][9] She recounts how she spent an entire year of living a Biblical lifestyle literally.[5] The book also gathered media attention because the publisher, Thomas Nelson, removed the term "vagina"[10] to appease Christian bookstores such as Lifeway Christian Stores.[11][12] The decision was later reversed.[13]

Books [edit]

  • Evans, Rachel Held (2010). Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions. Zondervan. 240pp. ISBN 978-0310293996. 
  • Evans, Rachel Held (2012). A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master. Thomas Nelson. 352pp. ISBN 978-1595553676. 

Awards [edit]

  • Best Personal Humor Column, Group II - Non-Dailies (2007) - Tennessee Press Association[4]
  • 2010 INSPY award winner,[note 1] Creative Nonfiction for Evolving in Monkey Town[14]

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ The INSPY awards started in 2010 to select the best Christian faith-inspired literature and blogs.

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Rachel Held Evans". Zondervan. Retrieved 2012-07-05. 
  2. ^ Evans, Rachel Held (2010-03-24). "Rachel Held Evans from HarperCollins Publishers". HarperCollins.com. Retrieved 2012-07-05. 
  3. ^ "Blog Directory - Rachel Held Evans". Technorati. 2012-07-01. Retrieved 2012-07-05. 
  4. ^ a b "2007 University of Tennessee - Tennessee Press Association - State Press Contests Awards" (PDF (press clippings)). July 19, 2006 (article) August 2007 (press clippings). p. 14. Retrieved 2012-06-06. 
  5. ^ a b Evans, Rachel Held (2012-10-22). "Living through 'A Year of Biblical Womanhood'". Today Books. NBCUniversal Media. Retrieved 2012-11-06. 
  6. ^ "Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions (9780310293996): Rachel Held Evans: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-07-05. 
  7. ^ "Evolving in Monkey Town". RachelHeldEvans.com. Retrieved 2012-11-06. 
  8. ^ Krauss, Lawrence. "An evangelical blogger is spending 12 months following the Bible's instructions for women—and she's doing it for egalitarian reasons. - Slate Magazine". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2012-07-05. 
  9. ^ Compton, Allie (2012-10-23). "Rachel Held Evans, Author Of "A Year of Biblical Womanhood," Spent A Year Living The Bible Literally". Huffington Post. 
  10. ^ Evans, Rachel. "On keeping vaginas out of Christian bookstores". RachelHeldEvans.com. Retrieved 2012-09-21. 
  11. ^ Toth, Katie (2012-08-06). "Christian Publishing v. the Vagina". ReligionDispatches.org. Retrieved 2012-09-21. 
  12. ^ "Controversy Swirls around "Biblical Womanhood"". Leadership Journal. Christianity Today. 2012-11-05. Retrieved 2012-11-07. 
  13. ^ Evans, Rachel. "A small, strange victory for vaginas everywhere...". RachelHeldEvans.com. Retrieved 2012-09-21. 
  14. ^ "INSPY Winners". inspys.com. 2010-12-13. Retrieved 2012-11-14. 

External links [edit]

Authority control
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