Wicker, Christine

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Wicker, Christine

PERSONAL: Married Philip Seib.

ADDRESSES: Home—P.O. Box 1151, Brookfield, WI 53008-1151. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX, worked seventeen years as a feature writer, columnist, and religion reporter.

AWARDS, HONORS: Winner of numerous awards, including the Clarion Award, Wilbur Award, the Sunday Magazine Editors' first place for feature writing, and first prize from the Dallas Press Club on seven occasions.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With John Matthews) The Eyeball Killer, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1996.

God Knows My Heart (autobiography), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town That Talks to the Dead, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic Is Transforming America, HarperSanFrancisco (New York, NY), 2005.

WORK IN PROGRESS: "A book about Christian life within American megachurches," for HarperCollins.

SIDELIGHTS: Christine Wicker was raised primarily in the American South, including Oklahoma and Texas. The great-granddaughter of a Baptist preacher and the granddaughter of a coal miner, she was the first in her family to become a journalist. Her work took her away from her roots and exposed her to travel, politics, and cultures vastly different from her childhood experiences. As a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, Wicker found herself covering demonstrations in Nairobi, Pope John II's trip to Cuba, and Lady Diana Spencer's funeral in London, among other important events. Her first book, The Eyeball Killer, which she wrote with Dallas police officer John Matthews, is a true-crime story based on a gruesome serial murderer who removed the eyes of his prostitute victims. Matthews and his partner were able to break the case because they were willing to talk to other prostitutes and listen to their stories, details that Wicker describes in the book.

God Knows My Heart, Wicker's next book, addresses a very different subject. Here she examines her relationship with religion, from her upbringing as a Southern Baptist to her divergence from the church of her childhood, and to her search for a way to combine faith with her adult viewpoint of the world. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called the book "a record of a spiritual search that is by turns both painful and exhilarating." Sandra Collins remarked in Library Journal that "as a catalog of religion in the world, Wicker's insights prove intriguing."

Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town That Talks to the Dead examines the way of life in a small town in upstate New York that was settled by Spiritualists—sometimes known as mediums. Wicker recounts the town's history, but she also uses it as a focus to discuss various types of faith and the motivations behind a person's need to communicate with those who have passed away. "Wicker's jaunty pacing and humor keep the work from growing too dark and leave the reader with a feeling of tenderness, rather than pity, toward her subjects," observed a Publishers Weekly critic.

Wicker's next work, Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic Is Transforming America, continues her theme of other-worldly subjects. Included here are stories and theories that Wicker collected as she traveled across the country in search of all things related to magic. She includes witchcraft, vampirism, and all forms of the occult in her study, reflecting on the many ways in which various types of faiths have resisted scientific reasoning. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews referred to Wicker's book as "entertaining adventures in esoterica, with some serious side effects." Library Journal contributor Heather McCormack described it as "more a spiritual memoir than a journalistic study, wherein Wicker reaffirms her right to find meaning in everyday life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Wicker, Christine, God Knows My Heart, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2005, Patricia Monaghan, review of Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic Is Transforming America, p. 7.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2005, review of Not in Kansas Anymore, p. 840.

Library Journal, March 1, 1999, Sandra Collins, review of God Knows My Heart, p. 90; January, 2003, May Prokop, review of Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town That Talks to the Dead, p. 120; September 1, 2005, Heather McCormack, review of Not in Kansas Anymore, p. 149.

Mother Jones, December, 2005, April Dembosky, review of Not in Kansas Anymore, p. 73.

Publishers Weekly, February 22, 1999, review of God Knows My Heart, p. 84; January 20, 2003, review of Lily Dale, p. 69; September 8, 2003, John F. Baker, "A Magical Mystery Tour," p. 14; July 25, 2005, review of Not in Kansas Anymore, p. 71; August 29, 2005, Heather Grennan Gary, "In Profile: Journalists Tackle Religion's Connects and Disconnects," p. S14.