Born in Nova Scotia, Christy Ann Conlin has also travelled and
lived in France, England, Germany, Switzerland, Korea and the
United States. She has an MFA in creative writing from UBC, and
has written a screenplay. Conlin lives in Halifax.
In
Conlin's novel Heave (Doubleday, 2002)
Serrie Sullivan longs for the world, but she’s trapped,
just like Dorothy in Oz. Serrie’s got a nasty secret. It’s
festering inside her, because in the gothic Annapolis Valley you
never show and you never, ever tell. As she dashes from her wedding
altar on the run of her life, ardently wanting to understand what
has brought her to this moment, Serrie sweeps us up in an exhilarating
and poignant journey from rural Nova Scotia to London bars, to
strip clubs by the docks, through mental hospital wards and rehab
centres, back to quiet verandahs and porch swings in serene Lupin
Cove.
Along the way we meet a delightful array of off-beat characters
including Serrie’s best friends, Dearie and Elizabeth: Dearie,
the anglicized Acadian who wants to go to New Orleans to find
her Cajun relatives, and Elizabeth, who would like nothing better
than to spend the rest of her life picking strawberries.
Heave explores the joys and agonies
of family, of what one generation inherits from the next, and
of how past and present are inexorably linked. Memories weave
through the book as Serrie searches for equanimity in a life that
intoxicates her with its beauty as it knocks her to her knees.
“Conlin…has produced an
extraordinary book…that won’t soon be forgotten.”
Toronto Star
“One book I will not be passing
on is Nova Scotian writer Christy Ann Conlin’s marvellous
first novel Heave. This book prompted a whelp of excitement from
me. “
Noah Richler, National Post
Christy Ann Conlin's second novel, tentatively titled
Watermarks, a story of myth and mystery
set in the fictional fishing village Lupin Cove off the Bay of
Fundy shore in Nova Scotia, was sold to Doubleday Canada.
In
Conlin's novel Heave (Doubleday, 2002)
Serrie Sullivan longs for the world, but she’s trapped,
just like Dorothy in Oz. Serrie’s got a nasty secret. It’s
festering inside her, because in the gothic Annapolis Valley you
never show and you never, ever tell. As she dashes from her wedding
altar on the run of her life, ardently wanting to understand what
has brought her to this moment, Serrie sweeps us up in an exhilarating
and poignant journey from rural Nova Scotia to London bars, to
strip clubs by the docks, through mental hospital wards and rehab
centres, back to quiet verandahs and porch swings in serene Lupin
Cove. 
