Wendy Thomas Russell

Wendy Thomas Russell is an award-winning journalist and author. She hosts a blog at Patheos.com called Natural Wonderers, fast becoming the web's go-to place for secular parents looking for news, information and advice on raising children outside religious belief systems. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times' Sixth Floor Blog and Psychology Today. Her first book, Relax, It's Just God: How and Why to Talk to Kids About Religion When You're Not Religious is due out this winter.

Russell received her journalism degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has, over the course of 20 years, worked for a variety of publications in Colorado and California. She spent the longest stint of her news career at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, covering criminal justice and special projects; it was work that earned her many awards and accolades, including being named Journalist of the Year by the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Since leaving newspapers in 2008, Russell has focused her time almost exclusively on writing for and about children. She lives in Southern California with her husband and daughter.