Christine Lehner is an American novelist and short story writer. She earned a bachelor's degree (1974) from the College of Creative Studies

College of Creative Studies

The College of Creative Studies is one of the three undergraduate colleges at the University of California, Santa Barbara, unique within the University of California system in terms of structure and philosophy...

 at UC Santa Barbara and a master's in English (1977) at Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

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She published the novel Expecting in 1981. After raising her two children, she returned to the literary circuit in 2000 with short story publications in several journals. She then published What to Wear to see the Pope in 2004. In this collection of short stories, she focuses on themes of family, idiosyncrasy and hagiography

Hagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...

. Her most recent publication is Absent a Miracle, a novel about a woman's quest to save her marriage and the beatify a friend's aunt. Her literary influences include Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....

, Isak Dinesen and Herman Melville

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....

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