What was your favorite picture book as a kid?
As the fourth of five kids, I loved it when my parents would read Pepito’s Story to me. It had dramatic pictures with the deepest blues and yellows, and its lyric prose carried an important message:

If every child were like every other,
You wouldn’t know who was your sister or brother.
If every flower looked just the same,
“Flower” would have to be each flower’s name.

Pepito loved to dance; I loved to write. Petito differed from other kids; so did I. When my mom gifted me with my own copy of the book, she dedicated it with love to her daughter “who is not like any other flower.”

What was the first “real” book (with chapters and without pictures) you remember reading?
Every week, Mom would take us to the public library, where we would each get a stack of books. My most memorable choice was The Pink Maple House, which I read and reread. Years later, I hunted for it without success. In the days before Amazon, we had a hard time finding out-of-print books. But one Christmas, my husband scored me a copy. You can imagine my joy when I opened that present.

What was your most favorite book in high school?
I loved Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott throughout junior high and high school. I once read that many women writers point to Jo March’s vocation as their inspiration. Count me in that group.

What was your least favorite book in high school?
Dislike a book?  I wasn’t aware that was something a person could do.

What was the last novel you read?
A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles—a sensory feast.

What was the last nonfiction book you read?
An obscure academic book titled Dress in Mediterranean Antiquity, which I read for research purposes. Now then, for pleasure I read Bono’s autobiography, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. The man can write. Someone told me to listen to him on Audible, so I did both—I read some and I listened some. Excellent advice. His inflection in places had me laughing out loud. Okay, and crying too.

Which book lived up to the hype (from the past 1-2 years)?
Women and the Gender of God, by Amy Peeler.

Which book do you love that needs more hype?
Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels, by Richard Bauckham. I do a lot of work academically relating to women and gender. Both of these books make important contributions.

Next novels on your TBR?
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Ordinary Light by Yaa Gyasi
Unsettling Truths by Mark Charles and Soong-ChanRah

Calvin University has a Festival of Faith and Writing, and the outstanding authors of these three books are slated to keynote.

Next nonfiction on your TBR?
Pivot by Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer
The Man Born to be King by Dorothy Sayers (Audible version).

For years, people had to go to the British Library to hear the radio plays Sayers wrote. But in the past year, they have become available on Audible. Score!

Tell us about your newest release/upcoming release.

Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament (IVP Academic)  launched this week—October 10, 2023. It’s a work of academic narrative in which I look at first-century Ephesus, which is the cultural backdrop for the apostle Paul’s statement, “She will be saved through childbearing” (1 Tim. 2:15). That’s one of the most confusing phrases in the New Testament! The Book of Acts tells readers that Artemis of the Ephesians had a deep hold on the city of Ephesus at the time of the earliest Christians (see Acts 19), and Timothy was in Ephesus when the apostle Paul wrote him what we know as 1 Timothy. My book explores who Artemis was in Paul and Timothy’s context and how she is probably on Paul’s mind as he writes the book of Ephesians and the pastoral epistles.

Dr. Sandra Glahn is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and the author of more than 20 books, including the Coffee Cup Bible Study series. She is president of the Evangelical Press Association, which has an audience reach of more than 22 million readers.

www.sandraglahn.com
I have a section especially for writers that’s full of free resources: www.sandraglahn.com/writing
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