Lyn Whitehead (born 4 October 1944), known professionally as Lin Van Hek Lyn van Hecke, is an Australian writer, singer, painter, designer and artist. She was a vice-president of the Society of Women Writers and co-founder of the literary-music group Difficult Women.
Early life Van Hek was born in Melbourne and lived in Europe and India while she was growing up.
Career Van Hek co-wrote and sang the song "Intimacy" for the soundtrack of the film The Terminator (1984). She later recorded a solo CD River of Life featuring songs of New Zealand writer Kath Tait. More recently, she has performed with her partner, Joe Dolce in Difficult Women, that began with a series of feminist literary salons van Hek held in the 1980s.
Van Hek also worked for over two decades with a group of women in North Vietnam designing, manufacturing and trading in hand-embroidered silk garments and textiles with a focus on fair trade and worker ethics.
Van Hek is a prolific painter and writer. She is described by Booker Prize-winning author Keri Hulme as writing "like an angel giving the devil her due."
Bibliography Novels The Hanging Girl (Misfit Books, 1988) The Ballad of Siddy Church (Spinifex, 1997) Katherine Mansfield's Black Paper Fan (Difficult Women, 2010)
Short fiction Collections The Slain Lamb Stories (Independent, 1979) Anna's Box : selected short stories (Difficult Women, 2006) Stories TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedNotesMrs Black2003The Goddess Paddock2004This Most Privileged of Madnesses2013Mikel's Christmas2017Mrs Black2017Herman and Manning2019
Selected book reviews YearReview articleWork(s) reviewed2020
Awards 1988 winner of the Melbourne The Age Short Story Award 2015 Best Australian Poems, edited by Geoff Page. 2016 & 2017 winner of the Society of Women Writers short story contest.
References
External links
Weekend Notes Review Give It Mouth Interview Difficult Women Website