“You and I only get one story. Our lives.”
Photo: Ghost River in Waiparous Alberta
Editing Projects
(M)othering, an anthology of poetry, prose and art. Co-edited with Anne Sorbie. Inanna Publications, Toronto: 2022
Word City Literary Journal. (Mothering). Guest Editor with Anne Sorbie. Online: May 2021
Cry of the Streets, Managing Editor and supervision. RESET (formerly Servants Anonymous Society of Calgary): Spring 2006, 2009, 2011
Publications
Creative Non-Fiction
“Where is the M in (M)other?” Word City Literary Journal. Online. May 2021 Where is the (M) in Mother? Memoir by Heidi Grogan – WordCityLit
“From Scar to Sacrament” in Boobs: Women Talk about What it Means to Have Breasts. Caitlin Press, Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia: 2016 (Anthology)
“Mirror Mirror on the Wall” in Boobs: Women Talk about What it Means to Have Breasts. Caitlin Press, Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia: 2016 (Anthology)
“A Sacred Seeing” in Weavings, Vol. XXXI, Number 1 The Upper Room, Nashville Tennessee: Nov/Dec 2015/Jan 2016
“A New Hunger So Vast” in Weavings, Vol. XXX Number 4 The Upper Room, Nashville Tennessee: Aug/Sept/Oct 2015
“This is My Body” in Weavings, Vol. XXIX, Number 2 The Upper Room, Nashville Tennessee: Feb/Mar/Apr 2014
“Cry of the Streets” in Weavings, Life Vol. XXVII, Number 2 “Bring Good News to the Poor” The Upper Room, Nashville Tennessee: Nov/Dec 2013/Jan 2014
“Adoption: A Kaleidoscope Community” in Weavings, Vol. XXVIII, Number 2 The Upper Room, Nashville Tennessee: Nov/Dec/Jan 2013
“Kiln-Fired Hope” in Weavings, Vol. XXVII, Number 2 The Upper Room, Nashville Tennessee: Feb/Mar/Apr 2012
“From Scar to Sacrament,” in ROOM Magazine 33.4. Vancouver: British Columbia: 2010
Fiction
“Bring Me Out in the Woods,” in The (M)othering Anthology. Inanna Publications, Toronto: 2022.
Non-Fiction
Feature Article: “Birthing Truths Into The World,” co-authored with Anne Sorbie. For the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, West Word Magazine, October – December 2020 issue
Of Note
Second Place – 2015 Brenda Strathern award: “The Shape of a Boy”
Honourable Mention – 2014 Brenda Strathern award: “Shine”
First Place– 2014 The Word Guild national award: “Cry of the Streets” in Weavings, Vol. XXVII, Number 2 The Upper Room, Nashville Tennessee: Nov/Dec 2013/Jan 2014
Second Place - 2013 Alexandra Centre short story competition: “What Took You So Long?”
Quarter-Finalist – 2013 Ruminate Magazine competition: “Climber Boy”
Short Listed– 2012 The Word Guild national award: “Adoption: A Kaleidoscope Community” in Weavings, Vol. XXVIII, Number 2 The Upper Room, Nashville Tennessee: Nov/Dec/Jan 2013
With regard to the writing projects that have found their way to print since I started writing,
my heartfelt thanks to kind, wise and generous mentors:
Marcello Di Cintio, Betty Jane Hegerat, Barb Howard, and Anne Sorbie.
Currently Writing
It’s a Fine Line
This experimental lyric autofiction is about Ciara, a young funeral celebrant whose draw to an alternative lifestyle is well outside of her parent’s expectations and plans for her. In story fragments, poetry, and images, we see Ciara leave home, become shaped by her mistakes and learnings from women exiting the sex trade, and work through experiences of need and death in her family.
Breadcrumbs
A novel for those who understand what it means to starve for food, affection, and belonging.
Set in the 1980s, Breadcrumbs is about Emily and Charlie, a brother and sister growing up in a racially charged small town in British Columbia’s interior. The story speaks to how children are the ones who need to find their way out of the woods and invites us to consider what we hunger for.
I am currently seeking representation.
“Heidi’s writing sees the good in everyone - the light that shines even in the gloomiest places. At the same time, it speaks to the messiness and struggle in a way that honours and respects people. I think it recognizes all of this in a way that isn't celebratory ("yay! we overcame!"), but rather in a way that manages to hold the complexities of good/bad, struggle/victory, pain/joy ... I think there is something deeply loving and caring about the stories she tells. I think she often chooses to write stories from places and about people that are often overlooked. She is willing to get her hands in the soil, to go to places that aren't pretty, and to find grace and dignity there. I think grace and dignity are central in her writing.”
— A reader.
“Heidi writes about the human condition with the keen eye of an astute observer, probing but never judging and always with gentle empathy. Her prose rings clear, inviting the reader to accompany her in her writing, nudging the reader along but never pushing.”
— Antoinette Bekker
Featured Work
(M)othering
In 2022, Inanna published The (M)othering Anthology, which I co-edited with Anne Sorbie.
For anyone who has come to life or been torn apart as they conceived, birthed, lost, nurtured, grieved a person, or laboured over the person of their heart or over an ideal that burns in their very bones… The contributors to (M)othering speak to raw and transformative “othering” in words and in art.
“The (M)othering anthology is as varied, complex, heart wrenching, joyful, poignant, warm, fraught, funny, whimsical, tragic, contradictory, and lovely as the experience of motherhood itself. I highly recommend the beautiful literary and visual offerings of this outstanding group of wise artists.”
—Angie Abdou, author of This One Wild Life: A Mother-Daughter Wilderness Memoir
Mirror Mirror
Caitlin Press published two of my creative nonfiction stories in this 2016 anthology, Boobs: Women Talk about What it Means to Have Breasts. Or not have breasts, in my case.
“From Scar to Sacrament”, previously published by ROOM in 2011, is about mastectomy. “There is a psychology of scars. A wound is not a scar until the skin has healed completely.”
“Mirror Mirror on the Wall” is about breast reconstruction surgery. “Even the witch knew she needed reconstruction. She just never booked the appointment.”
Weavings
Six pieces attending to issues inclusive of sexual exploitation, adoption, and hunger are explored through the lens of spirituality in the U.S. publication, Weavings. Women mystics of the 12th to 14th centuries, particularly Clare of Assisi, Catherine of Sienna, and Hadewijch of Brabant, speak to contemporary issues in these pieces.
Weavings is beautiful and thoughtful journal of spirituality; these articles were penned between 2011 and 2015. “Adoption: A Kaleidoscope Community”, was recognized by The Word Guild in their national awards for spiritual writing.
(M)othering:
Reviews, Readings, Playlist
(M)othering is on CBC’s list of non-fiction to read
“M)othering is a universally understood phenomenon that speaks to the act of becoming something unexpected and entirely outside ourselves. And this book is a collection of writing and art about that. 56 contributors illuminate the kind of gritty, body mind soul transformations that only the mothering myth can evoke. Their work will take you to wonder and wildness, kindness, beauty, grief, love.”
CJSW: Writer’s Block Interview on all-things (M)othering Anthology
When the (M)othering Anthology came out in May of 2022, I had the honour of interviewing with CJSW radio host Jeanne Kwong alongside Calgary’s 2020-22 Poet Laureate and (M)othering contributor, Natalie Meisner.
Given our respective stories, I’m not the least bit surprised that our conversation inevitably turned to talking about mothers on the margins. As in queer mothers, birth mothers, mothers who do not have their children with them, and those who mother others… people who are othered as a result of life on life’s terms. Jeanne did a tremendous job of facilitating our riffing about what matters, topics not generally the focus Mother’s Day as we know it. Take a listen.
Motherhood, Literature and Art: (M)othering reviewed by Mom Egg Review.
When our (M)othering anthology was released, Anne (co-editor ) and I were thrilled when Kimberly Lee let us know she’d reviewed the anthology in the journal “Mothering, Literature and Art” journal. (Is that not right up there with the best of journal focuses?)
Here’s an excerpt of her review:
“In the rich compendium that is (M)othering, no stone is left unturned, no experience left hidden. As the editors conclude, the contributors’ “…truths, words, and images attest to how mothering shatters and shapes us oh-so-dreadfully and oh-so-wondrously.” The experience is more than a role, it’s an inner journey that molds us, hopefully leading us—through trials, tribulation, and triumphs—to wholeness.”
See the link to Kimberly Lee’s deep dive into (M)othering. She so gets it. https://merliterary.com/2022/09/27/mothering-annie-sorbie-and-heidi-grogan-editors/
Single Onion
It was an honour to host the Single Onion’s (M)othering event at Shelf Life in September, 2022. This good night featured Calgary and area poets whose work helped to shape and give depth and richness to the (M)othering anthology. For a treat of a replay, here are readings from Joan Shillington, Vivian Hansen, Anne Sorbie, Josephine Lorie, Dorothy Bentley, Adrienne Adams, Yvonne Trainer, and Joan Crate.
Kudos to Shelf Life Books for making such a welcoming space for customers who took a seat and engaged what the (M)othering readers shared on that good night.
THE (UN)EXPECTED PASSION IN STORIES OF M)OTHERING
Free fall
An Interview with Anne Sorbie and Heidi Grogan
by Sharon Berg, April 9, 2023
An excerpt:
SB: What social context or movement was the inspiration for you to work on this book?
HG: We are concerned with people who mother, especially from the margins. There are women for whom this important part of their identity is not acknowledged because their children are not part of their everyday lives… Their stories are shared in (M)othering. [T]hey are seen, respected, and understood, alongside those others who have stood alone before a rack of Mother’s Day cards.
The (Un)expected Passion in Stories of (M)othering – FreeFall Magazine
A Mothering Playlist
My muse often presents herself in music. After the (M)othering anthology came out, I wondered what songs I’d include on a playlist about mothering. I share it with you here, with gratitude to the artists.
