Dark Side Fantasy

Meet two premier voices in Canadian dark fantasy fiction. Three-time Aurora Award-winner Kate Heartfield brings her 13th-century historical fantasy, Mercutio, a poetic myth exploring love and loyalty under all the wrong stars. Joining her is award-winning political journalist Amanda Connolly, who debuts her darkly atmospheric, Irish lore-infused romantasy, The Lure of Wolves and Whispers. 

Kate Heartfield is the author of several fantasy novels, including The Tapestry of Time (2024), about four clairvoyant sisters in WWII; The Valkyrie (2023), a retelling of old Norse and Germanic legends; and the Sunday Times bestseller The Embroidered Book (2022), about Marie Antoinette and her sister Maria Carolina. She has also written interactive fiction through Choice of Games, and Assassin’s Creed tie-in novels. She has won the Aurora Award for Best Novel three times, and was a co-winner of the Nebula Award for Game Writing. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy, Nebula, Locus, Aurora, Sunburst, Scribe and Crawford awards, as well as the Ottawa Book Award, and her journalism for a National Newspaper Award. Kate grew up in Manitoba and now lives in Ottawa.

Amanda Connolly is a Canadian political journalist and editor. A winner of the EU-Canada Young Journalist Fellowship, she is a dual citizen of Canada and Ireland. The Lure of Wolves and Whispers is Amanda’s debut novel.