Victoria Hetherington is the author of two critically acclaimed literary science-fiction novels: Amazon First Novel Award shortlisted and critically acclaimed MOONCALVES (Now or Never, 2019) and AUTONOMY (Dundurn Press, 2022). Her nonfiction book INTO THE MIST: FINDING CF-JDO (Kestrel Publications, 2022), explores a Canadian aviation tragedy in rural Saskatchewan.  FRIEND MACHINE, a nonfiction book exploring artificial companionship, is slated for publication with Sutherland House Books, tentatively 2026. 

BOOKS

Hetherington's debut novel MOONCALVES (Now or Never Publishing, April 2019), has been called a "a stunning debut," (The Globe and Mail) "A stylish puzzle of a story...both singular and absorbing" (The Toronto Star) named alongside Netflix's Wild Wild Country and Claudia Dey's Heatbreakers as a current cult narrative "filling a particular, and dark, societal need" (Quill and Quire) called "a work of great thematic depth" and whose central relationship "I completely loved and about whom I have had to restrain myself from writing paragraph after paragraph" (The Puritan). According to The Vancouver Sun, "The arrival of Hetherington’s unique narrative voice may announce the coming of a new genre. You may be tempted, if you are as impressed by this debut as this reviewer is, to see Hetherington as the millennial generation’s persuasive answer to Atwood." 

Hetherington's sophomore novel AUTONOMY was released Spring 2022 with Rare Machines/Dundurn Press. Described by Giller-winning author Michael Redhill as "a beautifully written and profoundly enthralling novel that made me wonder if Joan Didion had started writing literary fiction," the book was called "a remarkable work of fiction" in the Vancouver Sun; Liz Harmer, author of The Amateurs, said "Hetherington's vision is bleak, but their glittering prose gives even the most monstrous realities of late-capitalism an unsettling glimmer."

Noted critic Steven J. Beattie wrote that book is "a philosophical rumination on the nature of human agency in the guise of a dystopian narrative about technology and a global pandemic." From the Toronto Star: "Over punchy, effortless chapters Hetherington spins a delectably serpentine tale." The book has received additional praise in Quill and Quire, the Literary Review of Canada, CBC The Next Chapter, etc. Brought to life by Sierra Kline and OrangeSky Productions, Autonomy is available as an Audiobook on Audible.

OTHER WORK

An experiment in digitality and polyphony, Hetherington's digital fiction project I HAVE TO TELL YOU (0s&1s, 2014) was described as "lovely, liquid and accomplished" by the LA Review of Books and heralded as "the great American novel, but of course it's Canadian'' by HTML Giant. Victoria's writing has appeared or will appear in Hazlitt, Taddle Creek, EVENT, Joyland, This Magazine, Broken Pencil Magazine, The Puritan, The Trinity Review, The Toronto Quarterly, The Waterhouse Review, This Recording, The Hart House Review and others. Hetherington served as Fiction Editor at Broken Pencil Magazine.

APPEARANCES and WORKSHOPS

Victoria leads writing workshops with the Toronto Writers Collective and with acclaimed Canadian author Patricia Westerhof (see 'Workshops' section for more details.) As a panelist, interviewer and instructor, Victoria speaks at universities, libraries and festivals and conferences including Word on the Street Toronto, Fan Expo Canada, the  International Festival of Authors in Toronto, Calgary Wordfest, and the Ontario Library Association.