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

Difficult Women ''Difficult Women'' is a literary-folk music cabaret created in 1992, in Melbourne, by Lin Van Hek and Joe Dolce and has been performing internationally for 15 years. History ''Difficult Women'', a name taken from the Salem witch trials, ...

Early life

Van Hek was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and lived in Europe and India while she was growing up.

Career

Van Hek co-wrote and sang the song "Intimacy" for the film, ''

The Terminator ''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whos ...

''. 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 Joseph Dolce (born October 13, 1947) (, originally ) is an American-Italian singer/songwriter, poet and essayist. Dolce achieved international recognition with his multi-million-selling song, "Shaddap You Face", released worldwide under the n ...

in Difficult Women, that began with a series of feminist literary salons van Hek held in the 1980s. She 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 Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...

and worker ethics. She is a prolific painter and writer. She is described by

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

-winning author

Keri Hulme Keri Ann Ruhi Hulme (9 March 194727 December 2021) was a New Zealand novelist, poet and short-story writer. She also wrote under the pen name Kai Tainui. Her novel ''The Bone People'' won the Booker Prize in 1985; she was the first New Zealande ...

as writing "like an angel giving the devil her due."

Awards

* 1988 winner of the Melbourne

The Age Short Story Award ''The Age'' Short Story Award is a competition that is run in conjunction with International PEN, the international writers' association. It was established in 1979. From 1979 to 1984 it was run in conjunction with ''Tabloid Story'' and was know ...

* 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

Book reviews

References

External links

*
Weekend Notes ReviewGive It Mouth Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Hek, Lin 1944 births Living people Australian women novelists Quadrant (magazine) people Writers from Melbourne