Tamara (L) and Haley in the apple orchards

Tamara (L) and Haley in the apple orchards

 

About the Authors

Throughout their childhood and adolescence, co-authors Tamara Southward and Haley Crawford grew up across the ocean from one another. When apart during the school year, the pair wrote novels and shared them upon reuniting each summer on the shores of the lake that sparked the idea to co-write The Wasp’s Nest.

When Haley set off to New York University and Tamara to McGill University, they continued to share chapters with each other – only this time, they were working on the same story. The two finished writing their novel in late 2019, while Haley was working as an editor at Assouline Publishing and Tamara was completing the Columbia Publishing Course at the University of Oxford.

Haley (L) and Tamara co-writing ‘Secrets of Friendship’ (2005)

Haley (L) and Tamara co-writing ‘Secrets of Friendship’ (2005)

 
Tamara Southward is a third-culture kid presently based in London, where her windows remain open in the spirit of Peter Pan, the novel that first sparked her curiosity in what it means to grow up. Her childhood spent in Switzerland involved playing film scores at the conservatory, writing novels, and traveling throughout Europe and Africa with her brother and Montreal-born parents, who are chiefly responsible for her education in books, film, music, and the outdoors. Born a month after her co-author, Tamara has never known a day without her best friend, and their sisterhood is bound by a mutual love of storytelling and dancing to the Ballroom Blitz after family dinners. Tamara has been drawn to coming-of-age stories throughout her life, hence her obsession with authors Kazuo Ishiguro, Stephen King, and Donna Tartt, who each depict the transition to adulthood in ways that have never left her. In film, her love for Quentin Tarantino stems from his wildly gripping stories that refuse to fit into one genre; she also holds John Hughes as somewhat of an idol, for the ways in which he reminds us what it’s like to be sixteen. Tamara has held a lifelong interest in the unique ways in which stories are told, and finds herself enthralled by the ways in which genres inform one another, writing one of her last university essays on the pursuit of the American Dream, as told by Karl Marx and her very favourite F. Scott Fitzgerald. Aside from the YA novels and children’s books written throughout her life, Tamara equally enjoys writing creative nonfiction and short stories, such as her latest collection Friends in Cars, which describes her bonds with friends through hours on the road together. While Tamara is no stranger to moving, the shores of Lake Memphremagog are forever her home. There, her family cottage sits at the bottom of a ludicrously steep hill, whose inaccessibility in the Canadian winter is but a reminder of the life that promises to return with every summer.

Tamara Southward is a third-culture kid presently based in London, where her windows remain open in the spirit of Peter Pan, the novel that first sparked her curiosity in what it means to grow up. Her childhood spent in Switzerland involved playing film scores at the conservatory, writing novels, and traveling throughout Europe and Africa with her brother and Montreal-born parents, who are chiefly responsible for her education in books, film, music, and the outdoors.

Born a month after her co-author, Tamara has never known a day without her best friend, and their sisterhood is bound by a mutual love of storytelling and dancing to the Ballroom Blitz after family dinners. Tamara has been drawn to coming-of-age stories throughout her life, hence her obsession with authors Kazuo Ishiguro, Stephen King, and Donna Tartt, who each depict the transition to adulthood in ways that have never left her.

In film, her love for Quentin Tarantino stems from his wildly gripping stories that refuse to fit into one genre; she also holds John Hughes as somewhat of an idol, for the ways in which he reminds us what it’s like to be sixteen. Tamara has held a lifelong interest in the unique ways in which stories are told, and finds herself enthralled by the ways in which genres inform one another, writing one of her last university essays on the pursuit of the American Dream, as told by Karl Marx and her very favourite F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Aside from the YA novels and children’s books written throughout her life, Tamara equally enjoys writing creative nonfiction and short stories, such as her latest collection Friends in Cars, which describes her bonds with friends through hours on the road together. While Tamara is no stranger to moving, the shores of Lake Memphremagog are forever her home. There, her family cottage sits at the bottom of a ludicrously steep hill, whose inaccessibility in the Canadian winter is but a reminder of the life that promises to return with every summer.

Haley Crawford has been creatively inspired by her environment since her childhood spent in Frelighsburg, a village in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Throughout her years in the countryside, she wrote ten young adult novels and an assortment of short stories, including her first, The Panacake [sic] Breakfast, which she dictated to her grandmother, who helped transcribe and illustrate it at a lakeside picnic table.When Haley moved abroad during her university years, literature was a binding force to each of her new homes. During her first trans-Atlantic move to Florence, she found new meaning in her surroundings through the words of Dante Alighieri, and had similar experiences in Paris with Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, and when reading Washington Square by Henry James in the literary heart of New York City. Between various apartments, Haley has always returned home to the apple orchard where she grew up, reuniting with her best friend to share stories and endless laughs on walks down country roads and midnight swims in the lake. Haley has always been enamoured with tales that are deeply intertwined with the locations where they take place, and she has carried this passion through to her travel writing for SUITCASE Magazine and as the editor of books highlighting different versions of summer, such as Assouline’s Capri Dolce Vita and Tulum Gypset. Haley’s bookshelves are lined with memoirs such as Jeannette Walls’ tale of her nomadic childhood, The Glass Castle, and Fitzgerald’s classic novels that have long inspired her in their ability to transport readers to a given era and place. She has also been taken by the representations of young women’s coming-of-age by authors including Ottessa Moshfegh, Leïla Slimani, and Brit Bennett.

Haley Crawford has been creatively inspired by her environment since her childhood spent in Frelighsburg, a village in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Throughout her years in the countryside, she wrote ten young adult novels and an assortment of short stories, including her first, The Panacake [sic] Breakfast, which she dictated to her grandmother, who helped transcribe and illustrate it at a lakeside picnic table.

When Haley moved abroad during her university years, literature was a binding force to each of her new homes. During her first trans-Atlantic move to Florence, she found new meaning in her surroundings through the words of Dante Alighieri, and had similar experiences in Paris with Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, and when reading Washington Square by Henry James in the literary heart of New York City.

Between various apartments, Haley has always returned home to the apple orchard where she grew up, reuniting with her best friend to share stories and endless laughs on walks down country roads and midnight swims in the lake. Haley has always been enamoured with tales that are deeply intertwined with the locations where they take place, and she has carried this passion through to her travel writing for SUITCASE Magazine and as the editor of books highlighting different versions of summer, such as Assouline’s Capri Dolce Vita and Tulum Gypset.

Haley’s bookshelves are lined with memoirs such as Jeannette Walls’ tale of her nomadic childhood, The Glass Castle, and Fitzgerald’s classic novels that have long inspired her in their ability to transport readers to a given era and place. She has also been taken by the representations of young women’s coming-of-age by authors including Ottessa Moshfegh, Leïla Slimani, and Brit Bennett.

Say hello at info@thewaspsnest.ca