Heather Kirk

Readings

The following descriptions of Heather’s talks are brief sketches only. Please see Heather’s website for more details about her books and talks.

Talk 1: Discovering Mazo de la Roche
This one-hour talk, illustrated with overhead transparencies, describes the extensive research involved in writing a biography of Mazo de la Roche, a Canadian author who lived from 1879 to 1961. It also provides an introduction to de la Roche. De la Roche was one of Canada’s most successful authors. Her Jalna novels were international bestsellers that represented Canada to the world for a generation. Yet, until recently, no one knew who and what had inspired de la Roche’s 16 wildly popular novels about a family named Whiteoak that lived in a mansion called “Jalna” somewhere in southern Ontario. Now, Heather reveals the secret!

Talk 2: Bringing Wacousta Back to Life
This one-hour talk, illustrated with overhead transparencies, is about how and why Heather rewrote a classic Canadian novel titled Wacousta, first published in 1832. Canada’s first native-born novelist, John Richardson, wrote a wonderful novel about the Pontiac Uprising of 1763. Heather explains how she helped Richardson tell his famous tale better.

Talk 3: Write about What You Don’t Know
This one-hour talk, illustrated with overhead transparencies, describes the background to Heather’s first two books, the young-adult novels Warsaw Spring and A Drop of Rain. Heather spent twenty years researching and writing these linked novels about four generations of a Polish family that immigrates to Canada. The talk also explains the background to Heather’s latest publication, Be Not Afraid, a non-fiction book about the Polish Solidarity movement. Solidarity was the greatest non-violent resistance movement in history. It helped to change the world. It involved ten million people. It took ten years. It killed precisely no one.

Special Equipment:

Overhead projector and screen.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed, if requested.

Workshops

In my creative writing classes I cover the following topics, among others:

• Writing Process and Practice: What You Need to Write Well
• Non-fiction Prose: How to Write a Newspaper or Magazine Article
• Fiction: What Makes a Good Story? Show! Don’t tell! Details, details.

Special Equipment:

Overhead projector and screen.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed, if requested.

Other Presentations

I could give any of the talks or workshops mentioned above to audiences of adults (i.e., teachers and librarians). In the past year I have given a number of talks on Mazo de la Roche to adults in historical societies and libraries.

Biography

Heather Kirk has written professionally for more than 30 years, producing newspaper and magazine articles, scholarly articles, radio scripts, poetry, and fiction. She has also taught for 25 years in universities and colleges. Heather’s writing has been published in many periodicals. These include Books in Canada, Canadian Author, Canadian Children’s Literature, Canadian Literature, Canadian Materials, Canadian Women’s Studies, Contemporary Verse II, Cross-Canada Writers’ Magazine, Essays on Canadian Writing, Grain, Literary Review of Canada, Poetry Toronto, and Wascana Review.

Heather has published six books. Heather’s young-adult novel, Warsaw Spring, came out in 2001. Its sequel, A Drop of Rain, was published in 2004. Heather’s rewrite of the classic Canadian novel, Wacousta, by John Richardson, was published in 2005. Her biography, Mazo de la Roche: Rich and Famous Writer was published in 2006. Heather’s second book about Mazo de la Roche, Who Were the Whiteoaks and Where Was Jalna?, was published in 2007. Her latest book, Be Not Afraid was published by Borealis Press in 2011.

Heather won second prize in the 1987 Brannan Memorial Essay Competition of the American literary magazine, Negative Capability. She won the 1988 Frank E. Thomas Award for “outstanding non-fiction prose appearing in Cross-Canada Writers’ Magazine.”

In 1997, one of Heather’s former students, Valerie MacMenemey, won the writing for children competition sponsored by the Writers’ Union of Canada; this prize was for a story developed and polished in Heather’s class. In 1999, Heather herself took second prize in the creative non-fiction competition sponsored by the Canadian literary magazine, Grain. In 2000, Heather was also a finalist in the writing for children competition of the Writers’ Union of Canada.

Currently Heather teaches part time at Georgian College. Previously she taught at the University of Alberta, the University of Warsaw, and Grande Prairie Regional College. Heather holds a B.A. from Dalhousie University, an M.A. from the University of Toronto, and an M.A. from York University. Heather’s M.A. thesis at the University of Toronto was on British children’s literature 1894 to 1914. Her area of specialization at York University was Canadian literature.