Lynn Coady (b. 1970) grew up on Cape Breton Island and lived in New Brunswick before moving to Vancouver. Her first novel, Strange Heaven (Goose Lane, 1998), won the Dartmouth Book Award and was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Fiction. "Batter My Heart" appeared first in The Fiddlehead and is included in her second book, the story collection Play the Monster Blind (Doubleday Canada, 2000).
