Cynthia Coe

Welcome—and thank you for visiting my Author Page. I’m delighted you stopped by.

I am the author of historical fiction and women’s fiction that explore how women’s lives, creativity, faith, and resilience weave together across time. Much of my work is rooted in history, textiles, and the quiet ways women shape communities—often through craft, care, and spiritual practice.

I am also the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles, a series of interconnected novels set in and around a fictional Episcopal church in Tennessee. These stories center on prayer shawls—handmade gifts created with love, intention, and prayer—and the women whose lives intersect through this ministry. The series is sometimes humorous, sometimes tender, and often reflective, inviting readers to think about faith, belonging, and purpose in new ways.

My historical fiction expands beyond contemporary settings in a new series that begins with Knitting Through Time, the first novel in my historical fiction collection. This book imagines how knitting—and the knowledge passed hand to hand—may have traveled across centuries and continents. Interwoven storylines are set in fourth-century Egypt, seventeenth-century Amsterdam and New Amsterdam, and the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in places including Tennessee, Woodstock, and Bruges. A trio of stories set in Toledo, Spain links these narratives, creating a bridge across time through women’s work, faith, and lived experience.

My most recent novel, Knitting Under the Orange Trees, continues this historical fiction journey. Set primarily in Spain and Peru, the novel follows women forging new lives in unfamiliar worlds, carrying their skills, beliefs, and creativity across oceans and generations. Like my other work, it blends careful historical research with intimate, character-driven storytelling rooted in women’s experience.

I live and write in Knoxville, Tennessee. I am a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, where I studied Christian formation and church history—an academic background that deeply informs my historical fiction. I previously served as a Justice & Advocacy Fellow and Environmental Stewardship Fellow for The Episcopal Church, writing Christian formation curricula and resources. I am also an honors graduate of The University of Tennessee College of Law and a College Scholar in Honors History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

In addition to fiction, I write nonfiction focused on spirituality and the natural world. My book Considering Birds & Lilies: Finding Peace & Harmony in the Everyday World Around Us grew out of my daily walks on my Tennessee farm and my study of early Christian spirituality. Saints and spiritual leaders throughout Christian history often encountered God most deeply in nature, and this book explores that tradition in a warm, accessible, conversational way. It is intentionally non-academic and written for everyday readers seeking stillness, insight, and hope.

Thank you for being here—and for reading.

Blessings,

Cindy