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Janet Rich Edwards

Biography

Janet Rich Edwards

Janet Rich Edwards is a graduate of GrubStreet’s yearlong, MFA-level Novel Incubator program. A professor of epidemiology at Harvard, Janet had written more than 300 papers for scientific journals, but she was left wondering if she could convey more truth, or at least different truths, through story. When she’s not sneaking hours to write fiction, Janet is researching facts about women’s health. She lives outside of Boston with her husband and never more than two cats. CANTICLE is her first novel.

Janet Rich Edwards

Books by Janet Rich Edwards

Canticle
by Janet Rich Edwards - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Aleys is 16 years old and prone to religious visions. She and her only friend, Finn, have been learning Latin together in secret. But just as she thinks their connection might become something more, everything unravels. When her father promises her in marriage to a merchant she doesn’t love, she runs away from home, finding shelter among the beguines, a fiercely independent community of religious women who refuse to answer to the Church. Among these hardworking and strong-willed women, Aleys glimpses for the first time the joys of belonging. But forces both mystical and political are at work. Illegal translations of scripture, the women’s independence, and a sudden rash of miracles all draw the attention of an ambitious bishop --- and bring Aleys and those around her into ever-increasing danger.