Sharon Blackie

Sharon Blackie on Wise Women

This autumn, we are excited to welcome If Women Rose Rooted author Sharon Blackie to St Andrews! In Wise Women, Sharon explores folklore archetypes to unearth the important knowledge and wisdom of women approaching midlife and beyond.

Ungainly giantesses. Sequin-strewn fairy godmothers. Misunderstood witches. Fierce grandmothers. Hairy-chinned hags. Craggy crones.

From early childhood, we learn about the world and its possibilities through myths and fairy tales. The heroines, though, tend to be golden-haired princesses, and the evil-doers often older women.

But women today are searching for positive versions of themselves from midlife onwards, and this dazzling array of not-to-be-messed-with characters provides them. They outwit monsters, test and mentor younger heroines, embody the cycles and seasons of the earth, weave the world into being - and almost always have the last laugh.

These women manifest their wisdom in different ways, and so offer us inspiration for how we too can walk boldly and live authentically in the second half of life.

Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning writer, psychologist and mythologist, and an internationally recognised teacher and lecturer in the field of the mythic imagination.

Wise Women follows her transformative If Women Rose Rooted and Hagitude: Reclaiming the Second Half of Life, both solid St Andrews favourites.

Sharon's awards include the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors (2022), and a Creative Scotland Writer's Award (2009). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has taught and lectured around the world.