Fiona Givens

Fiona Givens has been a longtime collaborator in her husband, Terryl’s books. Together they authored The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life, The Crucible of Doubt: Reflections on the Quest for Faith, and The Christ Who Heals: How God Restored the Truth That Saves Us.

She was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and educated in British convent schools. While living in Germany at the age of nineteen, she became friends with a woman who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The pair spoke about God in depth, and Fiona attended church with her, studied the gospel, and was baptized. Fiona later met her husband at Brigham Young University.

She has undergraduate degrees in French and German and earned her master’s degree in European History. She directed the French language program at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Virginia, from which she retired. She has also worked in translation services, as a lobbyist, and as communications director for a nonprofit organization.

Besides her books with her husband, she has written for Exponent II, LDS Living, and Journal of Mormon History. She frequently speaks at Time Out for Women.

She is the mother of six children.

In an interview with the Deseret News, she recalled meeting Mother Teresa at a cathedral she was touring with friends.

“It was really the most extraordinary thing,” Fiona Givens said. “She was particularly little and frail. I wondered, 'How is it humanly possible for you to be doing what you are doing because looking at your physical frame, there is no strength there?' But her face was full of light. It radiated. That really impressed me. She was God-touched.”[1]