Heather Hunter

Readings

I describe the life and works of my mother, Bernice Thurman Hunter, author of the Booky triology and many more novels and stories. I explain how I came to “inherit” her work, how I am promoting her books and finishing her unfinished works, as well as doing my own writing. I have a “meet the author video” as well as other artefacts to show.

I prefer to talk to students who have read at least one of her novels. I will provide (upon request) a study guide for teachers who wish to use the historical novel, The Girls They Left Behind, as a core novel in their English or history curriculum which is adaptable for Grades 7 to 10.

I am also available to do a PowerPoint presentation on Bernice Thurman Hunter's life and works.

Special Equipment:

A microphone in a large room; a television with a VCR or DVD player; PowerPoint projector.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.

Workshops

I do a writer's workshop involving oral participation with students and sometimes small writing exercises.

It is best if the audience has read at least one of Bernice Thurman Hunter's books, but I do talk about the writing process in general and the life of a Canadian author. As well, I work with the kids on developing their writing skills for story writing.

For more details, please visit www.hunterbooks.ca.

Special Equipment:

PowerPoint projector with TV monitor or screen. A microphone helps in a large setting.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.

Biography

Born in Toronto on July 23, 1949, the second daughter of Lloyd Hunter and Bernice Thurman Hunter, I was raised in Scarborough and graduated from David and Mary Thompson Collegiate and University of Toronto with an Honors B.A. in English in 1971. I married, moved to Montreal, and graduated from McGill University’s Faculty of Education, beginning my teaching career at Montreal High as an English/Drama teacher. Political tension in Quebec prompted me to move back to Toronto in 1979 with my husband and son (Hunter Berthelet), where my daughter, (Franceline) was born in 1980.

While in Montreal, I published an essay, “Women of the Seventies”, in the Quebec Federation of Women’s journal. In 1980, my stage play, Ginny’s Grandmaman, which I later directed at Bethune Collegiate, won the National Multicultural Theatre Association’s competition.

For the next 25 years, I focused on raising my children and teaching full time for the Toronto (Scarborough) District School Board, writing curricula and occasionally, some fiction. In 2005, I wrote the teacher/student Resource Guide for Out of The Darkness, the biography of Spider Jones and worked with Jones writing his next book, KO Low Self-Esteem and Achieve Success.

I am presently teaching English full time at Albert Campbell Collegiate. After my mother’s death, (at her request) I finished her last novel, The Girls They Left Behind, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Red Maple Award. I have just completed a re-write of my mother’s very first manuscript, Kimberley of Millpond, her first attempt at writing a novel. Using her tone and idiom (as I did in The Girls They Left Behind), I blended my own childhood memories of living in Millbrook, Ontario with her storyline in this historical, fiction novel set in the early 1950’s.

Approaching retirement from teaching, I am passionately pursuing my writing career, my lifelong dream. My inspiration is my mother, Bernice Thurman Hunter, who published her first book, now the renowned Booky trilogy, at my age.