Steven Heighton

Steven Heighton (August 14, 1961 – April 19, 2022) was a Canadian fiction writer, poet, and singer-songwriter. He is the author of eighteen books, including three short story collections, four novels, and seven poetry collections. His last work was Selected Poems 1983-2020 (House of Anansi Press) and an album, The Devil's Share.

Life and work Heighton was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up there and in Red Lake, in northern Ontario. He travelled and worked in western Canada and Australia after high school, got a BA and MA from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and then travelled and worked for two years in Asia before settling back in Kingston and starting to write, at first part-time and eventually full-time.

Heighton's most recent books are the novel The Nightingale Won't Let You Sleep (2017), the Governor General's Award-winning poetry collection The Waking Comes Late (2016), and the Trillium Award finalist The Dead Are More Visible (May 2012). Heighton is also the author of the novel Afterlands (2006), which appeared in six countries and was cited on best of year lists in ten publications in Canada, the US, and Britain. His books have been nominated for the Governor General's Award, the Trillium Award (twice), the Journey Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and Britain's W.H. Smith Award (best book of the year).

In April 2021, Heighton released an album of eleven original songs with Wolfe Island Records/CRS Europe. The Devil's Share emerges from "an alchemical bath of blues, rock, folk, country, soul, and Americana." It was recorded at the Post Office Studio, Wolfe Island, Ontario, and produced by Hugh Christopher Brown.

Heighton died on April 19, 2022, at the age of 60 of cancer. He lived in Kingston, Ontario.