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Barbara Mahany is an author and freelance journalist in Chicago, who writes these days about stumbling on the sacred amid the cacophony of the modern-day domestic melee, and the quietudes of nature. She was a reporter and feature writer at the Chicago Tribune for nearly 30 years, and before that a pediatric oncology nurse at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Her first book, "Slowing Time: Seeing the Sacred Outside Your Kitchen Door," has been called “a field guide into the depths of your holiest hours;” Publishers Weekly named it one of their Top 10 religion books for Fall 2014. She has since written four other books, including "The Stillness of Winter: Sacred Blessings of the Season" (October 2020), a compendium of meditations, essays, recipes, and prayers rooted in the depths of winter’s months, from Abingdon Press.
Her newest book, "The Book of Nature: The Astonishing Beauty of God's First Sacred Text," was published in March 2023, from Broadleaf Books. It's a deep-dive into an ancient and timeless theology that sees all creation as "theophany," a lens through which to catch a glimpse of the sacred, be it in the dapplings of sunlight, the percussions of storm, or the susurrations of prairie grasses playing with the wind. At its core, it’s a book about seeing, and a book about reading. And it weaves threads from all religions, drawing especially from ancient Celtic and Jewish traditions where the natural world is the lens through which the sacred is perceived and illuminated. It's been written that her "Book of Nature" is "a field guide into the depths of your holiest places."
In her second book, "Motherprayer: Lessons in Loving" (April 2017), Mahany turned her attention to the sacred mysteries of mothering. Publishers Weekly gave "Motherprayer" a starred review, writing: “[Mahany] beautifully captures how mothering—loving deeply day in and day out, even when stretched to emotional and physical limits—can itself be sacramental.” And her third book, "The Blessings of Motherprayer: Sacred Whispers of Mothering" (April 2018), is a distillation of "Motherprayer" and "Slowing Time," and weaves in new essays, meditations, and blessings, all unfolding across the year.
Mahany is married to Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic, Blair Kamin, (formerly with the Chicago Tribune), and together they've raised their two sons in both their Catholic and Jewish traditions and faiths. Their older son, Will, graduated from Yale Law School in May 2020, and is now a law professor in Washington, DC, and their younger son, Teddy, graduated from Kenyon College, and works as a line cook at Chicago's famed eatery, Girl + The Goat.
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