Carol Lee Flinders

Carol Lee Flinders is a writer, independent scholar, educator, speaker, and former syndicated columnist. She is best known as one of the three authors of Laurel's Kitchen along with Laurel Robertson and Bronwen Godfrey. She is also the co- author of The Making of a Teacher with Tim Flinders.

Flinders was born to Gilbert H. and Jeanne Lee Ramage,^[1] and grew up on a farm in Oregon's Willamette Valley.^[2] In 1958 her family moved to Spokane.^[1] She graduated from North Central High School (Spokane, Washington) in 1961,^[3] later receiving a bachelor's degree from Stanford University, and a PhD in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley.^[4][5]

Flinders became nationally known in 1976 through her coauthorship of Laurel's Kitchen, a widely acclaimed guide to vegetarian cookery that has been described as a "renowned countercultural cookbook,"^{[6][7]: 417} and as "the Fannie Farmer of vegetarian cooking."^[8]: 142 Later, cultural historians contended that "Laurel's Kitchen was as much a lifestyle guide as it was a cookbook."^[9]: 153

Beginning in the late 1980s, Flinders published a series of books on spirituality. The first, entitled The Making of a Teacher (1989), was coauthored with her husband Timothy Flinders. It provided an oral history of the life and work of spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran, who had helped inspire the creation of Laurel's Kitchen, and who in 1968 at U.C. Berkeley had taught what was believed to be the first accredited course on meditation at a Western university.^[10]

She was a lecturer in spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland, California.^[4]

• Laurel Robertson, Carol Lee Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey (1976). Laurel's Kitchen: a handbook for vegetarian cookery & nutrition. Berkeley, CA: Nilgiri Press. ISBN 0-915132-07-9
• Laurel Robertson, Carol Lee Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey (1978). Laurel's Kitchen: a handbook for vegetarian cookery & nutrition. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-22565-0
• Laurel Robertson, Carol Lee Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey (1979). Laurel's Kitchen: a handbook for vegetarian cookery & nutrition. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. ISBN 0-7100-0281-5
• Laurel Robertson, Carol Lee Flinders, and Brian Ruppenthal (1986). The New Laurel's Kitchen: a handbook for vegetarian cookery & nutrition. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-89815-167-8

Several related books have been published by the same groups of authors. These books were based on a similar underlying philosophy, and also included the phrase "Laurel's Kitchen" in the title:

• Laurel Robertson, Carol Lee Flinders, Bronwen Godfrey (1984). The Laurel's Kitchen bread book: a guide to whole-grain breadmaking. Random House. ISBN 0-394-53700-9
• Laurel Robertson, Carol Lee Flinders, Brian Ruppenthal (1993, revised edition). Laurel's Kitchen recipes. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-89815-537-1
• Laurel Robertson, Carol Lee Flinders, Brian Ruppenthal (1997). Laurel's Kitchen caring: recipes for everyday home caregiving. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-89815-951-2

Flinders published a syndicated newspaper column for 12 years (1977—1989), focused on vegetarian cookery. Entitled Notes from Laurel's Kitchen, it appeared in 20 newspapers in 1987.^[1] The column was published in a number of newspapers including The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA),^[11] and The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR).^[12]

• Flinders, Carol (1993). Enduring grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0062502840.

• Flinders, Carol (1995). A Little Book of Women Mystics. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0060626852.

• Flinders, Carol (1998). At the root of this longing: Reconciling a spiritual hunger and a feminist thirst. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0062513141. ISBN 006251315X
• Flinders, Carol (2003). Rebalancing the world: Why women belong and men compete and how to restore the ancient equilibrium. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062517371.

• Originally published as: Flinders, Carol (2002). The values of belonging: Rediscovering balance, mutuality, intuition, and wholeness in a competitive world. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0062517368.

• Flinders, Carol (2006). Enduring Lives: Portraits of Women and Faith in Action. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. ISBN 9781585424962. ISBN 158542496X
• Flinders, Tim; Carol Flinders (1989). The Making of a Teacher: Conversations with Eknath Easwaran. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press. ISBN 9780915132546. OCLC 18983479. ISBN 0915132540 (191 pages).

• Flinders, Tim; Carol Flinders (2002). The Making of a Teacher: Conversations with Eknath Easwaran. New Delhi, India: Penguin India. ISBN 9780143028338. ISBN 0143028332 (191 pages).

• Tim Flinders, Doug Oman, and Carol Flinders (2007). The eight-point program of passage meditation: Health effects of a comprehensive program. In Thomas G. Plante, & Carl E. Thoresen (Eds.), Spirit, science and health: How the spiritual mind fuels physical wellness (pp. 72–93). Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-99506-5
• Tim Flinders, Doug Oman, and Carol Flinders (2009). Meditation as Empowerment for Healing. In J. Harold Ellens (Ed.), The Healing Power of Spirituality (Vol. I, pp. 213–240). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-36645-1
• Tim Flinders, Doug Oman, Carol Flinders, and Diane Dreher (2010). Translating Spiritual Ideals into Daily Life: The Eight Point Program of Passage Meditation. In Thomas G. Plante (Ed.), Contemplative Practices in Action: Spirituality, Meditation, and Health (foreword by Huston Smith) (pp. 35–59). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-38256-7
• Carol Flinders (2012). Mother-lines of body, mind, and spirit. In Kathe Schaaf, Kay Lindahl, Kathleen S. Hurty, Guo Cheen (Eds.), Women, spirituality, and transformative leadership: Where grace meets power (pp. 145–150). Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths. ISBN 9781594733130

• Linda Johnsen (1998). "Compassion born of rage [interview with Carol Flinders and China Galland]". Yoga Journal. 143 (143, Nov/Dec, 1998): 68–75, 135–138. ISSN 0191-0965.
• Maura Thurman (August 8, 2006). "Taking a New Path: 'Laurel's Kitchen' Co-Author Writes about Feminism, Spirituality". Marin Independent Journal. ISSN 0891-5164. OCLC 61313188.
• Hilary Groutage (March 14, 1998). "Feminism, spiritual life merge; for author, one idea strengthens the other; author mixes feminism, spirituality [profile of Carol Flinders]". The Salt Lake Tribune. pp. C1 (Religion section). ISSN 0746-3502. OCLC 137343114.
• Dan Webster (March 5, 1998). "Klaas case bolsters Flinders' theory". The Spokesman Review. pp. D1 (In Life section). OCLC 11102529.
• Jamie Neely (September 15, 1987). "Author pursues spiritual goals in 'laurel's kitchen'". Spokane Chronicle. pp. F1. OCLC 17365219. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.

• Biography
• Mystics in the Making