books
fiction
Dear Leaves, I Miss You All
Published by Mansfield Press (Toronto, Ontario) in 2013, this collection of stories was shortlisted for the 2014 ReLit Award for Short Fiction.
A workaholic sees the natural world with new eyes when her former colleague succumbs to a botanical affliction. Three teenagers try to sort out their friendships and their looming adulthood while their parents behave like teenagers. A Chinese immigrant struggles to accept his daughter’s developing sexuality as he copes with life in Canada and the loss of his wife. A driving instructor falls for his student and then for her obsession with Glenn Gould. A neurotic environmentalist hides behind the laundry boxes in her local superstore.
Sara Heinonen’s first book of fiction is populated with characters forced to confront unusual circumstances and hostile environments. When disappointment or disaster loom, they look to nature for solace, but sometimes nature itself is the threat. This is fiction that is fascinated with the moments when life gets both stranger and more beautiful.
Available for purchase here and by special order through retail and online booksellers.
“The sweetly earnest and anxious characters in these wonderfully wry stories give me hope for the future. The bad news is, the world is ending. The good news is, Sara Heinonen’s poultry-scented apocalypse comes with bouncy castles.”
—Jessica Westhead, author of Worry“For all their queerness, levity and respect for quiet moments, there’s the ambient eeriness of coming disaster throughout these stories. It’s fixing to storm big in Dear Leaves, I Miss You All and the human animals on the cusp of it are acting weird. Love—but don’t be fooled by the daffiness or daftness of—Heinonen’s wonderful characters. Their charming quirks are hints of something devastating about to hit.” —Andrew Hood, author of The Cloaca
photography
Stelco Tower: A Love Story
This self-published book is Sara Heinonen’s ode to Hamilton, Ontario’s Stelco Tower, a steel building in Steeltown, as it turned 50 years old in 2023. The 90 colour photographs and accompanying essay explore the beauty and visual prominence of this modest modern tower at the centre of the city, as well as its personal significance to the photographer. As a relative newcomer to Hamilton who arrived alone, Heinonen found a sense of comfort in photographing this building, and also a kind of love.
This 8 x 10” linen bound hardcover, 80 pages, printed and bound in Toronto, is in a limited edition of 50 signed and numbered copies.
All 50 copies are sold but some are available in the collections of the following libraries and institutions:
Hamilton Public Library / Toronto Public Library / Burlington Public Library / Oakville Public Library
McMaster University / Waterloo University / University of Toronto / McGill University / Canadian Centre for Architecture / Columbia University / Cornell University
50 Years of Stelco Tower
What You’ve Always Wanted to Know about Hamilton’s Steel Building (But Didn’t Think to Ask!)
This lighthearted 36-page zine bursts with facts, highlights, and musings about Hamilton, Ontario’s modern steel tower spanning the five decades since its 1973 completion.
Packed with photos and fun, it’s available for borrowing at the Hamilton Public Library. Copies can be purchased for $18 CAD each plus tax and shipping. Get in touch through the contact form here.
5.5” x 8.5” / stapled with colour cover and b+w pages / Limited Edition of 500 copies.
My Year with a GIANT TIGER
This self-published photography book documents the exterior of a beloved GIANT TIGER in downtown Hamilton, Ontario, Canada over the course of one year: from summer 2019 to spring 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. Media coverage included a mini-feature in the Jan/Feb 2022 print issue of AZURE Magazine and CBC Arts Online.
Available through the Hamilton Public Library. Fifteen copies are still available for sale at $20 CAD each + taxes and shipping. Get in touch through the contact form here.
8” x 10” / soft cover perfect bound / 36 colour pages / Limited Edition of 250 copies.
