Daughters of the Desert

How would the most cherished stories of Christianity, Judaism and Islam be different if women were the active central figures?

This ground-breaking collection of short stories brings to life the women―daring, brave, thoughtful and wise―who played important and exciting roles in the early days of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Join Esther as she stands against injustice and her king to save her people, Aisha as she leads hundreds of men into terrifying battle and Mary as she and Elizabeth dream of the new lives growing inside them. How must Sarah have felt, turning Hagar out into the desert? And how must Hagar have felt, traveling from the safety and security of Abraham's land toward an uncertain future? These stories invite us to come to know and appreciate the struggles and triumphs of these women―mothers, daughters, believers and seekers.

Claire Rudolf Murphy is the award-winning author of several books for children and young adults, including Children of the Gold Rush (winner of the 2000 Willa Cather Award), Gold Rush Women and Free Radical. She is coauthored of Daughters of the Desert: Stories of Remarkable Women
from Christian, Jewish and Muslim Traditions (SkyLight Paths).

Meghan Nuttall Sayres is atapestry weaver and the author of The Shape of Betts Meadow: A Wetlands Story and Anahita's Woven Riddle and coauthor of Daughters of the Desert: Tales of Remarkable Women from Christian, Jewish and Muslim Traditions (SkyLight Paths).

Mary Cronk Farrell,formerly an award-winning television journalist, is now a children's author and syndicated columnist on family spirituality.

Sarah Conover is the author of Kindness: Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents, winner of the Skipping Stones Multicultural Award, and is currently writing a children's reader on Islam. She is also coauthor of Daughters of the Desert: Stories of Remarkable Women from Christian, Jewish and Muslim Traditions (SkyLight Paths).

Betsy Wharton is a writer and nurse whose work has taken her to a Navajo Indian reservation, an AIDS hospice, and a refugee camp on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.