Winston, Kimberly 1964-

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Winston, Kimberly 1964-

PERSONAL:

Born 1964, in Dayton, OH; married; children: two sons. Education: University of Texas at Austin, B.A., 1986; Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, M.S., 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Home—CA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Freelance journalist.

MEMBER:

Religion Newswriters Association

AWARDS, HONORS:

American Academy of Religion award, 2005, for excellence in reporting on religion in media; Louis Cassels Memorial Award, Religion Newswriters Association, 1996, for excellence in religion reporting.

WRITINGS:

Faith beyond Faith Healing: Finding Hope after Shattered Dreams, Paraclete Press (Brewster, MA), 2002.

Fabric of Faith: A Guide to the Prayer Quilt Ministry, Morehouse (Harrisburg, PA), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals and Web sites, including Religion News Service, Washington Post, USA Today, San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, Newsday, Publishers Weekly, San Diego Union-Tribune, Dallas Morning News, and Beliefnet.com.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kimberly Winston is a freelance journalist who contributes religion reporting regularly to a number of periodicals and Web sites. Winston honed her journalism skills at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she studied with Ari Goldman, a former religion reporter for the New York Times. It was here that she took a strong interest in religion reporting.

While writing a story about people who were not successful in their search for faith healing for the Dallas Morning News, Winston began the process which resulted in her first published book, Faith beyond Faith Healing: Finding Hope after Shattered Dreams. The book covers personal stories of people of varied backgrounds and their unsuccessful wait for their faith to provide a miracle for them. The stories do offer, however, an alternative perspective on faith and are open to interpretation,´ as Winston does not make any judgment on the individual stories. A contributor to Publishers Weekly thought that the chapters about the individual people and their personal stories were "well-written," but noted that the transitions between the stories and the background information on faith healing were not smooth, stating: "The book begins to feel like an attempt to synthesize fairly disparate material into a monograph." June Sawyers, writing in Booklist, was inspired by the stories, saying that "this slim volume is an inspirational triumph, powerfully appealing to those who have experienced sorrow and tragedy."

Several years later, Winston published Fabric of Faith: A Guide to the Prayer Quilt Ministry. The book models itself as a how-to guide in creating a prayer quilt. In addition to covering the history and methodology, Winston also covers the spiritual aspect of the craft. A contributor to the Midwest Book Review found particular enjoyment from the book's sidebars scattered throughout the text, noting that they "enhance this superb introduction to expressing one's faith through needlecraft." Writing in Ascent magazine, Sara Torrie found the book's attempt to show how all world religions share enough of the same tenets to benefit from making prayer quilts "confusing and contradictory to read," as constant references to the Christian God are made throughout the text. Torrie concluded, however, that the book "can be an inspiring and hopeful read."