Heather is an award-winning children’s author, journalist, editor, and translator. Her two middle-grade novels, Clutch and The Other Side, received Skipping Stones Honor Awards and nominations for Forest of Reading, among other honors. Clutch was also named a 2017 Best Book from Kirkus Reviews and a finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People.
Heather is also an accomplished nonfiction writer. She is the author of the award-winning middle-grade What If Soldiers Fought with Pillows? True Stories of Imagination and Determination, I Can’t Do What? Strange Laws and Rules from Around the World, Secret Schools: True Stories of the Determination to Learn, and The Prisoner and the Writer, the story of wrongly imprisoned Captain Alfred Dreyfus and author Emile Zola’s fight to have him set free. Her next nonfiction book, Becoming Bionic and Other Ways Science is Making Us Super, will be released April 2023.
Although she dabbled in fiction as a teenager, she went on to study communications at Concordia University and then journalism at New York University. After 15 years in journalism — writing, editing, and translating for various publications, including Quill & Quire, Owl, TV Guide Canada, and Style at Home — she longed to get back to fiction. This need became even stronger after reading Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, a novel that showed her she could write the kind of story she wanted to – and possibly get published!
She immersed herself in the Canadian children’s literature scene, working at Mabel’s Fables Bookstore in Toronto and volunteering with the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (CANSCAIP).
Her short story, The Boys of Summer, won the 17th Annual Writing for Children Competition held by CANSCAIP and The Writers’ Union of Canada. That story turned into Clutch.
Born and raised in Montreal, Heather lives in Toronto with her husband and two kids.
Heather is happy to tailor presentations to your needs and audience, including educators and the general public. Her interests and writings range from history (World War 2, the Holocaust, 19th century France) to social justice (anti-Semitism, racism, advocacy, law, war) to sports (baseball, soccer) and media (bias, media literacy, fake news, arts and entertainment). Please contact Heather for more details.
- Look no further: A simple moment can kickstart the writing process. Students choose a moment in their own lives or family history and turn into a work of fiction or nonfiction.
- What’s news?: Bias in the media is difficult to spot. This session will delve into media literacy and how to determine if what you’re reading is fact…or fiction.
- A single object: A single object can inspire an entire world. Students will begin with an “item of interest” and learn how to add different layers — setting, storyline, character, big reveal — to build a short story.
Customized topic: Heather is happy to tailor workshops to your needs and audience, including educators and the general public. Her interests and writings range from history (World War 2, the Holocaust, 19th century France) to social justice (anti-Semitism, racism, advocacy, law, war) to sports (baseball, soccer) and media (bias, media literacy, fake news, arts and entertainment). Please contact Heather for more details.
Heather engages students with a fun and interactive presentation. She shares the inspiration for her books and the challenges of writing works that delve into history. She also discusses the basic elements of writing fiction and/or nonfiction, how to give stories life through research and why bringing the past to the present is so important. Q&A session and reading are included.
Please contact Heather to discuss adapting her presentation to audience and interest.
