The novel draws from the first written account of a female Buddha from the 8th century Tibet: Yeshe Tsogyal. Where does your interest in historic female prophet stories come from?

I started by asking myself if I knew of any female prophet stories. Do they even exist? The fact that they do, yet most of us don’t know about them, is something I’d like to address. I also start each chapter with a quote from a female poet from across cultures and times—Syria, Japan, Greece, France, India–going back as far as 2285–2250 BCE. I wanted to share with readers a glimpse into the tremendous archive of female spiritual philosophy, because we don’t have many commonly known sources to guide a spiritual journey that is particular and specific to the realities women face. If we don’t know about these writings, it is easy to assume women never wrote about this stuff. But they did, and we can follow today in the path they left for us. 

Why do you think this novel is important for women today?

I became close friends with a smart, young woman who was attending college and just starting out in life. I admired her for her grit, intellect, integrity and strength. But I realized that our culture today doesn’t really offer women who don’t attend a church or follow an organized religion any guidance for cultivating their spiritual growth. In pop culture, we have Barbie, Princess Leia, Sarah Connor and Wonder Woman as iconic powerful women to idolize. But none of them are spiritual guides and only Sarah Connor is a mother. Obviously, the spiritual side of us needs attention just like the other facets of our lives. So that’s where my book comes in.

The novel loosely follows the framework of Hermann Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha. What inspired you about that work to write your own novel?

There are many novels I read and love in the category of “wisdom literature” or hero’s journey. In addition to Siddhartha, I love books like The Alchemist, The Celestine Prophecy, The Prophet, Eat Pray Love, Wild and so many more. One thing I noticed about books that center on a male protagonist, though, is that the women characters are often one dimensional—the old crone with a puzzle for the hero to solve or a temptress that distracts the hero from his goal. Siddhartha’s father is mentioned in the story but not his mother! Where is she? Where are the female characters that add depth and enrich the hero’s life? I wanted to create them. 

What changes after you change the prophet’s gender from a man to a woman?

You have to change everything about the prophet’s experience. It’s more dangerous for her to walk alone, there’s the risk of sexual assault, and the impossibility of leaving a child behind without emotional and societal consequences. In the original story of Buddha, the Prince leaves his wife and infant son to start on a path to enlightenment, which is supposed to demonstrate the required sacrifice needed to focus on the spiritual journey. Women, as both the bearer and assumed primary caretaker of children, cannot so easily walk away. Our society deems abandonment of her child one of the most harmful things a woman can do. And perhaps rightly so. But the double standard puts into question the logistical practicality of a woman reaching Nirvana by following the timeless model of the male prophet walking out alone into the wilderness. My idea is that rather than a woman trying to follow the archetypal hero’s solo journey, we can reclaim it for women by allowing the spiritual quest to include responsibilities to loved ones. In my opinion, deep relationships only increase spiritual progress, not lessen it.  

You’ve published under the pen name Alexandra Anton and call yourself a “servant author” –what do you mean by that?

I borrowed the term from the idea of “servant leadership,” a type of organizational leadership where the primary goal of the leader is to serve others. Having worked as a senior publicist at big 5 book publishers, I learned that a book’s success is created through the efforts of a whole team of people and wider community of readers, booksellers and news media, not by a lone author working in isolation. I like very much the idea that my writing is meant to serve others, to help people, and I’m not looking for personal recognition. That is why I’m publishing anonymously and without an author photo. I hope people think about the ideas in the book and build communities around it that is untethered from any notions about me as the author. 

Does the novel suggest that women should be allowed to leave their families in pursuit of enlightenment?

No, the novel isn’t arguing that mothers should abandon their children. Instead, it is questioning why parental devotion to a child has traditionally (Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, etc.) been portrayed as incompatible with a spiritual journey. I am offering a guidebook that I think is long past due for how a woman can strive to reach enlightenment, if she so chooses, while also being a mother.