The Path to Getting The Secret Life of Bees Published

The novel began as a short story, which I wrote in 1993, and Nimrod published in 1994. At the time I wrote it, I wanted to develop the story into a novel, but I’d only just begun to write fiction after many years of writing non-fiction, and I knew that I needed more time as an apprentice before taking on a novel. I put the story aside and went on to write other pieces of short fiction, take classes, and try to grow as a fiction writer.

In 1996 I was fortunate to be selected by Poets & Writers as the fiction representative from South Carolina in the Poets & Writers Exchange Program. Poets & Writers brought me to New York in October of that year to give a reading at the National Arts Club. I dug out my short story, The Secret Life of Bees. After the reading, I was once again filled with the desire to turn it into a novel. I still didn’t feel ready, but I figured I might never feel ready, and meanwhile I wasn’t getting any younger.