Heather Lewis (writer)
{{short description|American novelist}}
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| name = Heather Lewis
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| birth_date = 02/28/1961
| birth_place = Bedford, New York, United States
| death_date = May 2002
| death_place = New York
| occupation = Novelist
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Heather Lewis ({{circa}}1962–2002){{Cite web|title=THE GRASP AND THE GRAPPLE|url=https://sites.google.com/site/thegraspandthegrapple/Home|access-date=2021-06-27|website=sites.google.com}}{{Cite news|last=Gurganus|first=Allan|date=11 June 2002|title=Pain and Perfection|work=Advocate|issue=865|url=|access-date=}} was an American writer.
Biography
Heather Lewis was born in Bedford, New York. She attended Sarah Lawrence College.{{Cite web|date=2008-09-07|title=Guide to the Heather Lewis Papers 1965-2002 (Bulk 1980-1999) MSS 132|url=http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/lewis.html|access-date=2021-06-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907001905/http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/lewis.html|archive-date=2008-09-07}}
She was the author of three published novels. The first, House Rules (1994), details the experiences of a fifteen-year-old girl working as a show rider of horses—an experience the author herself had in her teenage years. The novel won the 1995 Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction.{{Cite web|title=The Ferro-Grumley Awards|url=https://publishingtriangle.org/awards/ferro-grumley-awards/|access-date=2021-06-27|website=The Publishing Triangle|language=en-US}} Lewis's second novel, The Second Suspect (1998), follows the struggles of a female police investigator trying to prove the guilt of a powerful and influential businessman responsible for the rape and murder of several young women. The third, posthumously published novel, Notice (2004), describes the experiences of a young prostitute, Nina and her involvement with a sadist and his wife. Lewis' former teacher, Allan Gurganus wrote an afterword for Notice.{{Cite web|title=Terror, Eros, and Animal: The Fiction of Heather Lewis by Allan Gurganus - BOMB Magazine|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/terror-eros-and-animal-the-fiction-of-heather-lewis/|access-date=2021-06-27|website=bombmagazine.org}} The book is essentially a re-writing of The Second Suspect from the point of view of one of the victims.
Lewis was an out lesbian,{{Cite web|last=Bendix|first=Trish|date=2017-03-16|title=Queer Women History Forgot: Heather Lewis|url=http://gomag.com/article/queer-women-history-forgot-heather-lewis/|access-date=2021-06-27|website=GO Magazine|language=en-US}} and her works explore aspects of American culture, such as the connections between power, drugs, sex, violence, love and justice.
Lewis taught at the Writer's Voice and contributed to various anthologies of literature including Best Lesbian Erotica (1996, 1997), Once Upon a Time: Erotic Fairy Tales for Women (1996), and A Woman Like That: Lesbian and Bisexual Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories (1999). Lewis returned to New York in the fall of 2001, after a year in Arizona. She ended her life in May 2002, in New York.
References
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Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:LGBTQ people who died by suicide
Category:American women novelists
Category:American lesbian writers
Category:American LGBTQ novelists
Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state)
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:Sarah Lawrence College alumni