Michelle Theall Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Michelle Theall is a general fiction novelist who is best known for her debut memoir “The Wind Will Catch You.”
She started out at “Women Sports and Fitness Magazine” in 1994 and over nearly three decades, she was a founder of one national title, editor-in-chief of three, and author of three nonfiction titles.
Over the years, she has been featured on the likes of the Fox Sports Network, NBC Today, The Travel Channel, and MSNBC and was even featured in The Oprah Magazine O.

While she had always kept a very low profile, “All That’s Left is God,” her feature essay got her a GLAAD Media Award nomination.

It was from this that Michelle pushed on and published “Teaching the Cat to Sit,” her critically acclaimed memoir that explored her life growing up Catholic and gay in the Bible Belt in Texas.
In 2023, she published “The Wind Will Catch You” her debut novel which just like her memoir has gone on to become wildly popular.

Theall spent much of her young adulthood years growing up Catholic and gay in the Texas Bible Belt. She has always maintained that her parents and the Catholic Church accepted the fake version of her since she has always been gay.
When she published “All That’s Left is God” her feature essay in “5280,” things came to a head as her parents almost disowned her for being gay. Michelle has since then gone on to become an LGBTQ+ activist.

She has said that she was forced into becoming an activist when she had to deal with her four-year-old adopted son getting expelled from his private school due to having homosexual parents.

As such, Michelle had a public battle with the church that ran the school and a private one with her mother, which challenged everything she believed about faith and family.
Together with her partner, they now attend an affirming church in Boulder Colorado where they get to be who they are.

She has often said that her memoir is not about showing people how great gay people are or convincing people to accept them and that religion is wrong.
For Michelle, it is all about living and letting people live.

In her work as an activist, Michelle Theall has also worked as a special advocate appointed by the court to work with neglected and abused teens. It was while she was working as an advocate that she and her wife decided to adopt their son.
In addition to her activism, writing, and editing, Michelle is also obsessed with photography and Alaska.

It was from this obsession that she founded her wildlife-viewing company “Wild Departures,” which specializes in photo tours in Alaska and even as far as Africa, where she has taken tourists on safari.
She also happens to be an award-winning professional photographer whose images have been featured in private collections and in media all over the world.

Her photography and writing have been on a variety of national websites and magazines such as Outdoor Photographer, National Geographic, UtneReader, Health, Backpacker, and Sierra Magazine.
She currently makes her home in Boulder Colorado where she lives with her wife, their son, and two dogs.

Michelle Theall’s memoir “Teaching the Cat to Sit” is a funny, heartrending, poignant, and nuanced work that tells a universal story of the quest for unconditional love from our children, our parents, and most critically from ourselves.
Michelle was brought up in the Texas Bible Belt which is known to be highly conservative. Growing up she was a victim of bullying by her classmates and her evangelical best friend abandoned her when she realized she was gay.
She often clashed with her mother who was often depressed, overly dramatic, volatile, and strict about how girls needed to act.

Still, both women were united in their devoutness to the Catholic faith but their relationship came apart when she finally admitted she was gay in an essay.

Michelle made peace with her mother years later at 42 years though it is still a delicate truce. But things would flare up once again when the Catholic school where her son was enrolled expelled all children of gay parents.
Suddenly, she found herself having to deal with a controversy that brought back to the surface her long-buried embarrassment and her private battle with her parents.
Ultimately, she realized that she may have to be a bad daughter so that she can be a good mother.

While the legal system, friends, society, and the Pope are swinging toward accepting gay people, Michelle still holds out hope that her mother will one day accept her.

Michelle Theall’s debut novel “The Wind Will Catch You” tells the story of a typical student named Sky Fielder.

While she looks very ordinary, she has been brought up in the foster care system, meets her caseworker every week, and calls a halfway house home.

While failing to balance her erratic social life and her grades, she gets a call from the hospital where she needs to make some critical decisions for Ben her brother who died ten years earlier.
She is convinced it is a scam and moreover, she is living a totally new life.

No one at school knows about her feral and desperate childhood in West Texas, where her elder brother used to take her on adventures along the cliffs and riverbeds to get her mind off hunger.
They also do not know of the rash decision they had once made that resulted in his death and almost killed her too.

In fact, the only person who knows her is social services employee Laura who is her caseworker which means she is not a person to be trusted.

As they work together to get to the bottom of the mysteries surrounding the call from the hospital, Sky remembers how dangerous it is to be loved and to love.

When the present and the past collide, long-held secrets will come out and Sky will have to make some tough decisions on how far she will go to have a family and home once again.