ABOUT

Vanessa R. Sasson

Is a professor of Religious Studies at Marianopolis College where she has been teaching since 1999. She is also a Research Fellow at the University of the Free State and a Research Member of CERIAS at UQAM.

Sasson is the author and editor of a number of academic books, most notably a collection entitled Little Buddhas: Children and Childhood in Buddhist Texts and Traditions (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Jewels, Jewelry, and Other Shiny Things in the Buddhist Imaginary (University of Hawaii Press, 2021). Her most recent academic book is the edited volume with Kristen Scheible, entitled The Buddha: A Storied Life (Oxford University Press, 2023).

A few years ago, Sasson tried something new and converted her research into a novel. The book, Yasodhara and the Buddha (Bloomsbury, 2021) was the outcome and it has been received with international acclaim.

Sasson has just completed the sequel to Yasodhara and the Buddha, which is focused on the first women’s request for ordination. It is titled, The Gathering: A Story of the First Buddhist Women (Equinox, 2023). More academic novels are certain to follow.