Heather Lewis (writer)

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

She is 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 that year's Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT 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. An out lesbian, 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.

• NYU's Fales Library and Special Collections Guide to the Heather Lewis Papers
• Heather Lewis tribute page