Tara Isabella Burton

Tara Isabella Burton writes fiction and nonfiction about belief, identity, aspiration, and the stories people use to shape themselves. Trained as a scholar of theology, she has reported on religion and culture for National Geographic, The Washington Post, and other publications. The World Cannot Give, published by Simon & Schuster, places those interests within the intense community of a Maine boarding school and its chapel choir. The novel examines longing for transcendence, the appeal of charismatic certainty, and the strain between private devotion and group belonging. Her bibliography also contains the novels Social Creature and Here in Avalon and the nonfiction studies Strange Rites and Self-Made. Across those forms, Burton treats modern self-invention and spiritual hunger as connected subjects rather than separate fields.