Hazleton has described herself as "a Jew who once seriously considered becoming a rabbi, a former convent schoolgirl who daydreamed about being a nun, an agnostic with a deep sense of religious mystery though no affinity for organized religion".[3] "Everything is paradox," she has said. "The danger is one-dimensional thinking".[4]
In April 2010, she launched The Accidental Theologist,[5] a blog casting "an agnostic eye on religion, politics, and existence."[6] In September 2011, she received The Stranger's Genius Award in Literature [7] and in fall 2012, she was the Inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at
Town Hall Seattle.[8]
Her latest book, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, a Publishers Weekly most-anticipated book of spring 2016,[9][10] was praised by The New York Times as "vital and mischievous" and as "wide-ranging... yet intimately grounded in our human, day-to-day life."[11]
Books
On religion and politics:
Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto[12] 2016 (New York Times Editors' Choice)
The First Muslim: The Story of
Muhammad (2013) [13] (New York Times Editors' Choice)
After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Hero Split (2009) [14] (Finalist: 2010 PEN-USA book award.)[15]
Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen (2007) [16] (Finalist: 2008 Washington Book Award.)[17]
Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography(2008) [18] (Winner: 2005 Washington Book Award.)[19]
Jerusalem, Jerusalem: A Memoir of War and Peace, Passion and Politics[20] (Winner: 1987 American Jewish Committee/Present Tense Book Award).[21]
Where Mountains Roar: a Personal Report from the Sinai[22]
^Hazleton, Lesley (1986). Jerusalem, Jerusalem: A Memoir of War and Peace, Passion and Politics. Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 256.
ISBN978-0-14-010244-4.