Jennifer Kavanagh

Jennifer Kavanagh worked in publishing for nearly thirty years, the last fourteen as an independent literary agent. In the past twenty years she has run a community centre in London's East End, worked with street homeless people and refugees, and set up microcredit programmes in London, and in Africa. She has also worked as a research associate for the Prison Reform Trust and facilitated workshops for conflict resolution both in prison and in the community. Jennifer contributes regularly to the Quaker press, and is an associate tutor at Woodbrooke Quaker study centre. She is a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of a community of fools. She has written twelve books of non-fiction on the Spirit-led life, most recently "Let Me Take You by the Hand", in 2021, and three novels, most recently (due to be published in July 2023) "And this shall be my dancing day". Balancing an active life with a pull towards contemplation is a continuing and fruitful challenge. As she writes, “Life in the world is about a series of balances: of the life within and the outside world; inner experience and outward witness, plenitude and the void”. "Jennifer is one of the most interesting writers of our generation on spirituality." Derek A. Collins, London Centre for Spirituality. www.jenniferkavanagh.co.uk