Jamie Langston Turner
Bio
Jamie Langston Turner has been a teacher for forty years. After graduating from Bob Jones University with an education degree, she began teaching at the elementary level. She later completed a master’s degree in Teaching English and, before her son was born, took further graduate work in English Literature.
During the summers and during a year when she and her husband lived in Urbana, Illinois, Jamie began writing stories, plays, poems, and articles and submitting them to magazines. Her work appeared in a variety of publications including Faith for the Family, Moody, Living With Children, Plays, The Christian Reader, and Kids.
Her first novel, Suncatchers, was published in 1995, followed by six others: Some Wildflower in My Heart, By the Light of a Thousand Stars, and A Garden to Keep, and No Dark Valley. Her novels have been Christy finalists three times, and A Garden to Keep in 2002 and Winter Birds in 2007 both won Christy Awards for best general fiction title. She is currently working on another novel to be published in 2012.
Born in Mississippi, she now lives in South Carolina, where she teaches Creative Writing and Poetry Writing at Bob Jones University. Her husband, Daniel, is Director of Instrument Activities and they have a grown son.
In her own words, Jamie describes her writing as, "a journey into God’s truth using the wonderful vehicle of fiction." To those who scoff a the idea of presenting truth through means of such a nonfactual medium, she cites the precedent set by Jesus as He pointed men to God’s law and grace through New Testament parables. She has had a lifelong interest in promoting God’s kingdom through the written word and works from credo that, "A story can get its toe in the door where a sermon often can’t."
