Sheila Heti

Sheila Heti is a Canadian author and editor whose work blurs the boundaries between fiction, autofiction, and philosophy. Her novel Pure Colour (2022) won the Governor General's Literary Award for English-language fiction. The novel is a metaphysical meditation on grief, colour, and what it means to be a soul moving through the world — structured as a creation myth in which God is an artist making a rough draft of existence. Heti is best known internationally for How Should a Person Be? (2012), a groundbreaking hybrid novel that incorporates real conversations recorded with friends, and for Motherhood (2018), an autofictional work about the decision whether or not to have children. Both works were widely discussed and translated internationally. She was editor-at-large at The Believer magazine for many years and has collaborated with artists across disciplines. Heti's work is consistently preoccupied with questions of creativity, freedom, identity, and ethical living. She lives in Toronto.