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. 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. Her works explore aspects of American culture, such as the connections between power, drugs, sex, violence, love and justice. Through these themes, Heather Lewis draws the reader into questioning the nature of love and relationships, the character of human nature or motivation and, most challengingly, the boundary between pleasure and pain. Significantly, the novels present strong, yet vulnerable female characters offering an alternative to more typical American narrative constructions driven by male protagonists within male-dominated scenes.

Heather 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).

Heather Lewis returned to New York in the fall of 2001, after a year in Arizona. She ended her life in May of 2002, in New York.

Sources:

The Guide to the Heather Lewis Papers (The Fales Library);

Memorial service program: St. Mark's Church, New York, NY, June 12, 2002;

"Pain and Perfection" (Allan Gurganus), The Advocate; Los Angeles, June 11, 2002.

  

Heather Lewis started riding horses at the age of four and showing them at six, and continued riding through high school. While she attended Sarah Lawrence College, her writing caught the attention of Allan Gurganus, with whom she subsequently studied creative writing. A recipient of the New Voice Award from the Writer's Voice Project, she has supported her writing by working as a bookseller, a freelance copy editor, and an advertising copywriter.

Source:

Author description taken from House Rules

(DoubleDay, 1994, 1st edition)

A recent search turned up two personal accounts by people who knew Heather Lewis at some point. Read them here. (click link)

If you're looking for more info, and for those who haven't read it yet, I recommend Allan Gurganus' Terror, Eros and Animal postscript. (click link)

Another valuable read is Dale Peck's article A Lost Generation. (click link)

For the more adamant admirers, the Heather Lewis Papers are interesting to browse through: here. (click link)

A transcript and voice recording of a telephone conversation between Hobart Lewis (Heather's father) and Richard Nixon: here. (click link)