The Uxbridge Writers' Circle members are delighted to welcome Heather Tucker, a Canadian author, to our meeting on March 3.
Throughout a long and varied career in the health sciences, Heather has gathered stories - from working as a nurse in Ethiopia, Columbia, France, Belgium and Northern Ontario, to her experience as a teacher, a public health and psychiatric nurse and bereavement counsellor.
She worked extensively as a professional writer, developing educational resources, policy and curricula...until discovering that 'playing with words' is more fun than working with them.
Her stories have appeared in literary publications, anthologies, including Wicked Words, From the Cottage Porch and Wild Words as well as online.
She is the winner of New York's Literal Latte Fiction Award and the Writers' Union of Canada short prose competition, a four time winner of Writers' Community of Durham Region short story contests, as well as a finalist in the Australian Book Review Elizabeth Jolley Prize, Writers' Union of Canada Short Prose contest, PRISM International Non Fiction 'Prize', Malahat Novella 'Prize', the Constance Rooke Creative Non-Fiction 'Prize', the Malahat Open Season Award and Far Horizons competitions.
Her debut novel, The Clay Girl, released October 2016 by ECW Press was the Amercian Bpooksellers Association debut pick, a finalist for the Atlantic Book and the Kobo Emerging Author Award and was voted by readers into the top ten on the Canada 150 best books list.
She is a graduate of the University of Toronto, The Humber School for Writers, the Institute of Children's Literature, and is a member of The Writers' Union of Canada and the Writers' Community of Durham Region.
Heather and her imaginary friends can be found in Ajax, Ontario.
Description of The Clay Girl:
Vincent Appleton smiles at his daughters, raises a gun, and blows off his head. For the Appleton sisters, life had unravelled many times before. This time it explodes.
Eight-year-old Hariet, know to all as Ari, is dispatched to Cape Breton and her Aunt Mary, who is purported to eat little girls...With Ari on the journey is her steadfast companion, Jasper, an imaginary seahorse. But when they arrive at Pleasant Cove, they instead find refuge with Mary and her partner Nia.
As the tumultuous '60s ramp up in Toronto, Ari is torn from her aunts and forced back to her twisted mother and fractured sisters. Her new stepfather Len and his family offer hope, but as Ari grows to adore them, she's severed violently from them too, when her mother moves in with the brutal Dick Irwin.
Through the sexual revolution and drug culture of the 1960s, Ari struggles with her father's legacy and her mother's addictions - testing limits with substances that numb and men who show her kindness. She spins through a chaotic decade of loss and love, the devilish and the divine, with wit, tenacity, and the astonishing balance unique to seahorses.
We are so fortunate that Heather is joining us on March 3!