Welcome!
You may have found your way here because of interest in my new book titled The Fiction of Our Lives: Creating Our Stories Over a Lifetime (Cascade Books, 2016), or my other recent books: Flourishing Life (Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2012), and Imagination and the Journey of Faith (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008).
In this latest work, the target audience for this non-fiction writing is the Boomer generation – those now approaching retirement or just entering into it – who are thinking about what is next in their lives and how to age well (or better yet, not at all). As in my previous books, I blend my own dual background in science (psychology & neuroscience) and theology, focusing on how we narrate our lives with our marvelous brains – wired for song and story. In part, the work is memoir (I am an early Boomer), and in part a cultural analysis of the '60s and '70s – those turbulent decades that shaped us as we, in part, shaped the times. If you follow my bi-weekly blog, you will find references to this work in many of them. This new work and my other books are available for purchase and can be viewed by hovering over Books in the menu bar and selecting them in the drop-down menu. You can also download and read the first chapter of my new book by visiting its page or clicking here.
At the last annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Antonio, where The Fiction of our Lives was on display, I celebrated the book's release with my editor and had time to reflect on my life as a writer. This is the third book I have published since 2008, and each has taken about four years to complete. But writing – including my blog – is a deeply satisfying and creative experience that is an essential part of who I am. As readers, I hope you will join with me as co-creators of the works I write and those you read. I create meaning in the writing, and you create your own meaning out of the reading. We in fact are bonded in that process.
I hope you'll explore my website, where I have information about my books, a bit more about me, and copies of my sermons and other publications. You can also contact me or book me for events by clicking here. And please check out my blog!
Dr. Sandra M. Levy-Achtemeier
I am a clinical psychologist, Episcopal priest and author of several books. I have a dual background in Psychology and Religion, with a Ph.D granted from Indiana University - Bloomington, and a Masters of Divinity (M.Div) degree granted from Virginia Theological Seminary. I held the academic rank of Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh before attending seminary, and I have been an ordained Episcopal Priest since 1996. I currently serve as Priest Associate at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia.