Lin Van Hek

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2014}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Lin Van Hek

| image = linvanhek2011.jpg

| alt =

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| origin =

| genre =

| occupation = Artist, musician

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| associated_acts = Difficult Women

| website = {{URL|http://www.linvanhek.com}}

}}

Lin Van Hek (aka Lyn van Hecke, born Lyn Whitehead) is an Australian writer, singer, painter, designer and artist. She was a vice-president of the Society of Women Writers and co-founder of the literary-music group Difficult Women.

Early life

Van Hek was born in Melbourne and lived in Europe and India while she was growing up.

Career

Van Hek co-wrote and sang the song "Intimacy" for the soundtrack of the film The Terminator (1984).{{cite news |last1=Sommerlad |first1=Joe |title=SONY WALKMAN AT 40: HOW THE MILLION-SELLING GADGET TOOK MUSIC PORTABLE AND INSPIRED THE MIXTAPE |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/sony-walkman-40-years-mixtapes-cassettes-portable-music-tech-a8983036.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/sony-walkman-40-years-mixtapes-cassettes-portable-music-tech-a8983036.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=5 November 2020 |work=The Independent |date=July 1, 2019}} She later recorded a solo CD River of Life featuring songs of New Zealand writer Kath Tait. More recently, she has performed with her partner, Joe Dolce in Difficult Women, that began with a series of feminist literary salons van Hek held in the 1980s.{{cite news |last1=Talbot |first1=Danielle |title=Difficult Women Have Their Day |work=The Age |date=February 17, 1995 |location=Melbourne, Australia |page=18}}

Van Hek also worked for over two decades with a group of women in North Vietnam designing, manufacturing and trading in hand-embroidered silk garments and textiles with a focus on fair trade and worker ethics.{{cite web |last1=staff |title=Lin van Hek profile |url=http://www.swwvic.org.au/members-achievements/lin-van-hek/ |website=Society of Women Writers: Victoria |access-date=5 November 2020}}

Van Hek is a prolific painter and writer. She is described by Booker Prize-winning author Keri Hulme as writing "like an angel giving the devil her due."{{cite journal |last1=staff |title=The Ballad of Siddy Church |journal=Feminist Bookstore News |date=1997 |volume=20 |page=104 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3oTgAAAAMAAJ&q=lin%20van%20hek}}

Awards

  • 1988 winner of the Melbourne The Age Short Story Award
  • 2015 Best Australian Poems, edited by Geoff Page.
  • 2016 & 2017 winner of the Society of Women Writers short story contest.

Bibliography

=Novels=

  • The Hanging Girl (Misfit Books, 1988)
  • The Ballad of Siddy Church (Spinifex, 1997)
  • Katherine Mansfield's Black Paper Fan (Difficult Women, 2010)

=Short fiction=

;Collections

  • ''The Slain Lamb Stories (Independent, 1979)
  • Anna's Box : selected short stories (Difficult Women, 2006)

;Stories

class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'
width=25%|Title

!|Year

!|First published

!|Reprinted/collected

!|Notes

Mrs Black

|2003

|{{cite journal |author=Van Hek, Lin |date=2003 |title=Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives|journal=Spinifex Press }}

|

|

The Goddess Paddock

|2004

|{{cite journal |author=Van Hek, Lin |date=2004 |title=Horse Dreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women's Lives|journal=Spinifex Press }}

|

|

This Most Privileged of Madnesses

|2013

|{{cite journal |author=Van Hek, Lin |date=May 2013 |title=This Most Privileged of Madnesses|journal=Quadrant }}

|

|

Mikel's Christmas

|2017

|{{cite journal |author=Van Hek, Lin |date=June 2017 |title=Mikel's Christmas | journal=Quadrant }}

|

|

Mrs Black

|2017

|{{cite journal |author=Van Hek, Lin |date=Dec 2017 |title=Mrs Black |journal=Quadrant }}

|

|

Herman and Manning

|2019

|{{cite journal |author=Van Hek, Lin |date=June 2019 |title=Herman and Manning|journal=Quadrant }}

|

|

= Selected book reviews=

class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'
|Year

!class='unsortable'|Review article

!class='unsortable'|Work(s) reviewed

2020

|{{cite journal |author=Van Hek, Lin |date=Jan–Feb 2018 |title=Poetry of wildness |journal=Quadrant |volume=62 |issue=1–2 [543] |pages=85–86}}

|{{cite book |author=Petit, Pascale |title=Mama Amazonica |publisher=Bloodaxe |year=2017 }}

References

{{reflist}}