IVP's women authors are expert practitioners, gifted writers, and leading voices in the most important conversations happening today. On this page, you'll learn more about our women authors and their books. You'll also find articles, videos, and podcasts where you can hear directly from women's voices as they share more about their books and the impact that they are having in the church and the world.
March is when we recognize women authors during Women's History Month. Looking for even more voices to learn from? Discover our authors of color or browse all of IVP's authors. You can also hear from a wide variety of diverse voices on IVP's Every Voice Now podcast.
Juliet Benner is an international retreat and workshop leader who speaks frequently in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. She is a trained spiritual director and has served as a consultant in art and spirituality at the Carey Centre on the campus of the University of British Columbia (Vancouver). She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, with her husband, David, who shares her passion for hiking, nature, art and music.
Erin Bennett Banks is an illustrator with a passion for rich narratives and culturally distinct storytelling. Banks has illustrated seven children's books, earning recognition by The New York Times, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. She has created artwork for Highlights for Children Magazine, Candlewick Press, McGraw-Hill, The Weekly Reader, and Harvard Business Review. Banks lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her illustrator husband and three creative girls.
Carol A. Berry is an artist, art educator, and lecturer. She is also the author of Vincent Van Gogh: His Spiritual Vision in Life and Art. She has been studying Vincent van Gogh since 1979, and spent years under the instruction of Henri J. M. Nouwen. She has traveled throughout Europe retracing van Gogh's life, visiting the towns and villages in The Netherlands, Belgium, and France, where van Gogh lived and worked.
Tracey Bianchi (MDiv, Denver Seminary) is a freelance writer, speaker and pastor. She serves as Pastor for Worship and Women at Christ Church of Oak Brook, where she leads a team that creates contemporary worship each week. She is the author of Mom Connection: Creating Vibrant Relationships in the Midst of Motherhood, the featured MOPS International book of the year, and Green Mama: The Guilt-Free Guide to Saving the Planet .
Tracey has been serving in ministry ever since college and is a featured author and speaker for MOPS International and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board at Christianity Today?s Gifted for Leadership. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of publications including Leadership Journal, The Washington Post, MOPS International's MomSense, Proverbs 31 Magazine, FullFill Magazine and more. In 2012, Christianity Today noted Tracey as one of "50 Women to Watch, Those Most Shaping the Church and Culture."
An active participant in faith-based environmental conversations, Tracey serves on the Synergy National Advisory Council as well as the Board of Directors for the Evangelical Environmental Network. Her hope is to engage in the hard but good conversations about grace, peace and all that is possible if we let God lead the way. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three kids.
Beth Birmingham is an NGO leadership and organizational consultant, development researcher, trainer, and former tenured professor (Eastern University). She is cofounder of BE Development Partners, a consulting firm that trains organizations to develop belonging cultures. Beth holds a PhD in leadership and change and an MBA in economic development, and she currently serves as a member of Wheaton’s Consortium on Gender, Development, and Christianity.
Beth A. Booram is the cofounder and director of Fall Creek Abbey, an urban retreat center in Indianapolis, where she and her husband David lead The School of Spiritual Direction and offer individual and group spiritual direction. She is the coauthor of Awaken Your Senses and the author of several books including Starting Something New.
Lacy Finn Borgo teaches and provides spiritual direction with adults and children through Renovaré, Mercy Center Burlingame, and the Companioning Center. She especially loves meeting with children at Haven House, a transitional facility for families without homes. She holds a doctor of ministry degree in leadership and spiritual formation and a certificate in spiritual direction from Portland Seminary. Borgo is also the author of Spiritual Conversations with Children.
Dale Hanson Bourke is president of PDI, a marketing and communications strategy firm. The author of ten books and numerous magazine articles, she often speaks and writes on international development and women's issues. Previously president of the CIDRZ Foundation and SVP at World Relief, Bourke has also served as publisher of Religion News Service and editor of Today's Christian Woman, and was a nationally syndicated columnist.
Dale holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and has served on the boards of World Vision US, World Vision International, International Justice Mission, Sojourners, ECFA and Opportunity International. She currently serves on the board of MAP International and the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA).
Katy Bowser Hutson is a forming member of the children's band Rain for Roots. She is the coauthor with Tish Harrison Warren and Flo Paris Oakes of Little Prayers for Ordinary Days, and a contributing author to It Was Good: Making Music to the Glory of God and Wild Things and Castles in the Sky. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, Kenny, and their two children.
Marjean Brooks is a writer based in Birmingham, Alabama. She is a member of St. Peter's Anglican Church, where she met and connected with reverend Glandion Carney and his wife, Marion, eventually being asked to partner with him in writing The Way of Grace, his spiritual story of walking through the devastation of Parkinson's disease. She was honored for her work on this book as Writer of the Year at the Write-to-Publish Conference in 2015. Writing poetry, stories and articles on faith have been a lifelong interest and pursuit for Brooks, who has published poems, devotionals and articles in many ministry publications including Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Trinity Counseling and Wales Goebel Ministry. She has written personal memoir pieces in a monthly column in Senior Living newspaper and she serves on the board of InSpero, an organization that seeks to inspire the creative community in Birmingham. For twenty-five years Brooks has been leading hundreds of women in in-depth Bible study (mostly through Precept Ministries) and uses her writings to supplement the courses. Her hope is to combine her teaching/writing skills and her life experiences with divorce, being a single mom while pursuing a teaching career, re-marrying and gaining three step-children and caring for elderly parents in a way that can impact a greater audience and illuminate spiritual truth.
Amena Brown is a poet, speaker and event host from Atlanta, Georgia. The author
of a chapbook and two spoken word CDs, Brown performs and speaks in intimate venues and at national conferences. She and her husband, Matt (also known as DJ Opdiggy), host a local open mic and travel extensively, performing a presentation of poetry, monologue and deejaying.
Sharon Garlough Brown is a spiritual director, speaker, and cofounder of Abiding Way Ministries, providing spiritual formation retreats and resources. She is the author of the bestselling Sensible Shoes Series, which includes spiritual fiction novels Sensible Shoes, Two Steps Forward, Barefoot, An Extra Mile, and their study guides. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Sharon has served on the pastoral staff of congregations in Scotland, Oklahoma, England, and most recently in West Michigan, where she copastored with her husband, Jack, for many years. In March 2013 her book Sensible Shoes was named one of television personality Kathie Lee Gifford's "favorite things." Her most recent book is Shades of Light.
Holly Buchanan is an artist and member of the Miami Nation of Indiana. She is working on a PhD in art history. In her free time, she enjoys painting, being outside, playing in local concert bands, and spending time with family.
Hannah Buchanan is an artist and member of the Miami Nation of Indiana. Hannah is pursuing an MFA in art, and in her spare time she enjoys painting, being outside, playing in local concert bands, and spending time with family.
Luann Budd has taught writing at San Jose State University. She is the Chair of the Board of the Network of Evangelical Women in Ministry (www.NEWIM.com) and is a frequent retreat speaker for organizations like NEWIM and The Springs Retreat. She is the author of Reflective Writing (now out of print).
If you are a woman looking for a retreat that is designed specifically to help you grow deeper in your love for the Lord through the contemplative approaches IVP Formatio books describe (reflection, prayer, listening, silence, solitude, fasting, reading the Word), please join Luann at The Springs in California. See the NEWIM website (www.newim.com) for additional information.
As an editorial director with InterVarsity Press, Cindy Bunch acquires and develops Bible studies, small group books and a wide variety of general-interest books. She has been leading small groups for the past twenty years and has written numerous Bible study guides, including several in IVP's LifeGuide Bible Studies series.
Margarita R. Cabellon is the executive director of BridgeLeader Network. She coordinates training and speaking engagements on diversity issues with churches, businesses and other large organizations.
Adele Ahlberg Calhoun and her husband Doug have served on the pastoral staff of four churches and are currently copastors of spiritual formation at Highrock Covenant Church in Arlington, Massachusetts. As certified Enneagram instructors, they enjoy resourcing spiritual leaders and pastors through spiritual direction and teaching the Enneagram. Adele is the author of Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Invitations from God, and coauthor of True You.
Mindy Caliguire is founder and president of Soul Care®, a spiritual formation ministry. She serves as the director of transformation ministry for the Willow Creek Association. Mindy is a frequent speaker and retreat leader, working with groups such as the Spiritual Formation Alliance. Her books include Faith Books Spiritual Journaling (with Sharon Soneff) and Write for Your Soul: The Whys and Hows of Journaling (with Jeff Caliguire).
Diana Calvin is Connections Minister at Trinity Fellowship Church in Richardson, Texas, where she loves to help people connect in small groups and adult ministries. Formerly she served as Director of Women's Ministries at Trinity for over ten years. She is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, where she frequently serves as a resource for women's ministry students. She is an experienced international missionary and lives in Mesquite, Texas with her husband and daughter.
Suanne Camfield is women's director at Christ Church of Oak Brook as well as a writer and speaker. She previously served as development director for Caris, a pregnancy resource and counseling center. She was also an assistant editor and publicist at InterVarsity Press and the blog manager for FullFill, a nonprofit focused on mobilizing women to invest their influence in the world for God's purposes. She is a founding member of the Redbud Writers Guild.
Suanne frequently teaches to communities of all ages at her church, preaches an occasional sermon, and speaks at a variety of other women's events. She has written for Strangely Dim, Her.meneutics, Kyria, MomSense, Gifted for Leadership and was a contributor to the Every Day Matters Bible and the MOPS devotional Always There. Suanne and her husband Eric, a pastor at Christ Church of Oak Brook, live in the Chicago suburbs with their two children.
Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace and an ordained minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). She formerly served as the senior director of advocacy and outreach for World Vision US on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She is the author of Social Justice Handbook and Just Spirituality, and coeditor of Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice.
Carolyn Carney is the national director of spiritual formation for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. She has a master of arts in spiritual formation and leadership from Spring Arbor University and serves as a spiritual director and retreat leader. She has led prayer groups and intercessory prayer training for more than thirty-five years. Carolyn lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with her husband, David, and their exceptional dog, Keeley.
Sharron Carrns writes studies and training programs to accompany fiction and nonfiction books, devotionals, ministry resources, and corporate training. Her work includes the Weekend Features for the Hope in the Mourning Bible edited by Tim Beals and Shelly Beach. She is a contributing author to many books, including Faith Deployed . . . Again by Jocelyn Green.
Hear More from Our Women Authors
What good gifts has God given your children? Amy and Rob Dixon, authors of the IVP Kids book "Penny Preaches," help parents and caregivers discern, embrace, and cultivate the vocational giftings of the children in their lives.
In her book "Nobody's Mother," New Testament scholar Sandra Glahn digs deep into evidence about the ancient Greek goddess Artemis of the Ephesians from both biblical and classical sources in order to bring into focus Paul's teaching in 1 Timothy. Read this interview to learn more about her thoughts on scholarship, mentoring, and the role of story in academic writing.