Rachel Held Evans | |
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Rachel Held Evans
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Born | Rachel Grace Held June 8, 1981 |
Occupation | Columnist, author |
Nationality | American |
Genre | Christian |
Website | |
rachelheldevans |
Rachel Held Evans (née Rachel Grace Held, June 8, 1981) is an American Christian columnist, blogger and author. Her book A Year of Biblical Womanhood was on The New York Times' E-Book Non-fiction best-seller list.
Evans was born to Peter and Robin Held. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. At age 14, she and her family moved to Dayton, Tennessee, where her father took an administrative position at Bryan College. She attended Rhea County High School and then went to Bryan College where she majored in English literature. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2003 and then married her college boyfriend, Dan Evans, that year. They moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she worked as an intern for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
In 2004, Evans returned to Dayton where she worked full-time for the local paper, The Herald-News. In 2006, she transitioned from full-time to writing pro bono as the paper's humor columnist; in 2007, she won an award for "Best Personal Humor Column" from the Tennessee Press Association. She continued to write freelance articles for national publications and started a blog.
In September 2008, Evans signed with Zondervan for her first book, Evolving in Monkey Town. The book explores her journey from religious certainty to a faith which accepts doubt and questioning; the title is based on the Scopes Monkey Trial that occurred in Dayton. Her second book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master, was released in October 2012. She recounts how she spent an entire year of living a Biblical lifestyle literally. The book also garnered national media attention for Evans as she appeared on The Today Show. In 2014, Evans re-released Evolving in Monkey Town with the new title of Faith Unraveled.
Held Evans is an Episcopalian and attends St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Tennessee.