Heather Lewis (1962–2002) was an American writer.

Biography

Heather Lewis was born in Bedford, New York. She attended

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

. 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 The Ferro-Grumley Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle and the Ferro-Grumley Foundation to a book deemed the year's best work of LGBT fiction. The award is presented in memory of writers Robert Ferro and Michael Grum ...

for Lesbian Fiction. 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 Allan may refer to: People * Allan (name), a given name and surname, including list of people and characters with this name * Allan (footballer, born 1984) (Allan Barreto da Silva), Brazilian football striker * Allan (footballer, born 1989) ( ...

wrote an afterword for ''Notice''. 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 A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

, 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Heather 1962 births 2002 suicides 2002 deaths 20th-century American novelists American women novelists American lesbian writers American LGBT novelists LGBT people from New York (state) 20th-century American women writers Sarah Lawrence College alumni 20th-century American LGBT people