Lesley Hazleton

Lesley Hazleton (born 1945) is a British-American author whose work focuses on "the vast and volatile arena in which politics and religion intersect." Her latest book, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, a Publishers Weekly most-anticipated book of spring 2016, was praised by The New York Times as "vital and mischievous" and as "wide-ranging... yet intimately grounded in our human, day-to-day life."
Hazleton previously reported from Jerusalem for Time, and has written on the Middle East for numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Harper's, The Nation, and The New Republic.
Born in England, she was based in Jerusalem from 1966 to 1979 and in New York City from 1979 to 1992, when she moved to a floating home in Seattle, originally to get her pilot's license, and became a U.S. citizen. She has two degrees in psychology (B.A. Manchester University, M.A. Hebrew University of Jerusalem).
Hazleton has described herself as "a Jew who once seriously considered becoming a rabbi, a former convent schoolgirl who daydreamed about being a nun, an agnostic with a deep sense of religious mystery though no affinity for organized religion". "Everything is paradox," she has said. "The danger is one-dimensional thinking".
In April 2010, she launched The Accidental Theologist, a blog casting "an agnostic eye on religion, politics, and existence." In September 2011, she received The Stranger's Genius Award in Literatureand in fall 2012, she was the Inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at Town Hall Seattle.

On religion and politics:

• Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto2016 (New York Times Editors' Choice)
• The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad(New York Times Editors' Choice)
• After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split(Finalist: 2010 PEN-USA book award.)
• Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen(Finalist: 2008 Washington Book Award.)
• Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography(Winner: 2005 Washington Book Award.)
• Jerusalem, Jerusalem: A Memoir of War and Peace, Passion and Politics(Winner: 1987 American Jewish Committee/Present Tense Book Award).
• Where Mountains Roar: a Personal Report from the Sinai
• Israeli Women: The Reality Behind the Myths

Her other books include:

• England, Bloody England: An Expatriate's Return
• Confessions of a Fast Woman
• Driving to Detroit: An Automotive Odyssey

• http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318162/agnostic-by-lesley-hazleton/9781594634130/
• http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59448-728-6
• Hazleton, Lesley (2009). After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split. Doubleday. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-385-52393-6. 
• PEN-USA<http://www.penusa.org/node/149>
• Hazleton, Lesley (2007). Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen. Doubleday. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-385-51614-3. 
• Seattle Public Library<http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=about_leaders_washingtoncenter_awardwinners>
• Hazleton, Lesley (2004). Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother. Bloomsbury. p. 256. ISBN 978-1-58234-236-8. 
• Seattle Public Library<http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=about_leaders_washingtoncenter_awardwinners>
• Hazleton, Lesley (1986). Jerusalem, Jerusalem: A Memoir of War and Peace, Passion and Politics. Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-14-010244-4. 
• New York Times<http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/11/books/awards-for-books-with-jewish-themes.html>
• Hazleton, Lesley (1980). Where Mountains Roar: a Personal Report from the Sinai. Holt Rinehart and Winston. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-03-045321-2. 
• Hazleton, Lesley (1979). Israeli Women: The Reality Behind the Myths. Simon and Schuster. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-671-22531-5. 
• Hazleton, Lesley (1990). England, Bloody England: An Expatriate's Return. Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-87113-329-8. 
• Hazleton, Lesley (1990). Confessions of a Fast Woman. Addison Wesley Publishing Company. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-201-63204-0. 
• Hazleton, Lesley (1998). Driving to Detroit : An Automotive Odyssey. Free Press. p. 320. ISBN 978-0-684-83987-5. 

TEDGlobal 2013: The Doubt Essential to Faith. Thumbnail: "When Lesley Hazleton was writing a biography of Prophet Muhammad, she was struck by something: The night he received the revelation of the Koran, according to early accounts, his first reaction was doubt, awe, even fear. And yet this experience became the bedrock of his belief. Hazleton calls for a new appreciation of doubt and questioning as the foundation of faith — and an end to fundamentalism of all kinds."

TEDxRainier 2010: On Reading the Koran. Thumbnail: "Lesley Hazleton sat down one day to read the Koran. And what she found — as a non-Muslim, a self-identified "tourist" in the Islamic holy book — wasn't what she expected. With serious scholarship and warm humor, Hazleton shares the grace, flexibility and mystery she found, in this myth-debunking talk."

TEDSummit 2016: "What we talk about when we talk about soul," due for release in fall 2016.