Heather Tosteson

HEATHER TOSTESON, a writer and visual artist, is the author, most recently, of The Philosophical Transactions of Maria van Leeuwenhoek, Antoni's Dochter (1668-1696). Focusing on the twin discoveries of sperm and egg that took place in Delft, Holland in the seventeenth century and set off a centuries-long debate about the nature of sexual generation, the novel follows Maria van Leeuwenhoek's own emotional and intellectual development as she observes her father in his work and also explores, as a young unmarried woman, the personal consequences of his theories. This the story of a woman who never left the home she was born in but who learned to reason boldly for her self, who understood that you can never sever science—observation or theory—from its experiential context, in this case the tumultuous events of the second half of the seventeenth century, and more specifically, those of the Leeuwenhoek household, including not only Maria and her father Antoni but also his second wife Cornelia and Maria's ward Grietje.

She is also the author of the novel Visible Signs, set in Antigua, Guatemala, which tells the story of Mikela, a ten-year-old indigenous girl determined to save her pregnant, severely traumatized older sister with the help of an unlikely assortment of American women and of two short story collections, Germs of Truth and Hearts as Big as Fists. Her poetry collections earlier include Breathing in Portuguese, Living in English (2014) and The Sanctity of the Moment: Poems from Four Decades. Her non-fiction book, God Speaks My Language, Can You? explores unique spiritual journeys across many faith traditions.

She has co-edited fourteen Wising Up anthologies, most recently Crossing Class: The Invisible Wall, Surprised by Joy, and The Kindness of Strangers. She has received a Nation/Discovery prize for her poetry and fellowships for poetry, fiction, and photography from MacDowell, Yaddo, VCCA and Hambidge. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (UNC-Greensboro) and Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing (Ohio University).