Robin writes fiction - literary, contemporary, horror, weird and offbeat - and creative nonfiction. Most recently her work has appeared in WonderShift - 40th Anniversary Anthology of the Alexandra Writers Centre, Forbidden Fruit from The Seventh Terrace and Very Much Alive, stories of resilience from The Selkie UK. Her work has also appeared in, LampLight Magazine, Woven Tales Press, Waiting Anthology (UofA Press, 2018), FreeFall Magazine, Freshwater Pearls Anthology (Recliner Books, 2011), Prairie Journal, Crack the Spine, Maudlin House, Minerva Rising, Alberta Views and various other online and print publications both in Canada and internationally.
Her first novel, Rough, was released in November 2020, with Stonehouse Publishing and she is into the third draft of her second novel. Robin lives in Calgary with her daughter and acts as the emotional support human for her very anxious dog.
Robin is represented by Stacey Kondla at The Rights Factory.
Follow her on Instagram @robinvan_eck or Twitter @Robin_van_Eck
Robin is available for book club visits, interviews, speaker/panelists events, festivals, readings and more - virtual or in person. Please use the contact page to reach out.
Her first novel, Rough, was released in November 2020, with Stonehouse Publishing and she is into the third draft of her second novel. Robin lives in Calgary with her daughter and acts as the emotional support human for her very anxious dog.
Robin is represented by Stacey Kondla at The Rights Factory.
Follow her on Instagram @robinvan_eck or Twitter @Robin_van_Eck
Robin is available for book club visits, interviews, speaker/panelists events, festivals, readings and more - virtual or in person. Please use the contact page to reach out.
Artist Statement
My writing takes an eclectic look at all the things that fascinate, inspire, anger, amuse and scare. From the different faces of mental illness, how to live in ones own skin, the realities of death from the morbid to the most sentimental, to the fragile strings that hold families together in my creative nonfiction, exploring life’s many brilliant patterns has helped me to connect to a world that is often confusing and scary. The characters I create are both beautifully flawed and annoyingly lovable.
My first novel, Rough, published by Stonehouse Publishing in Fall 2020, started with the question, why would someone choose to be homeless? and emerged into a story about the father/daughter bond and how the decisions we make, situations we find ourselves in don’t define us. Deep down we are ALL the same no matter social status, the size of house or bank account or the number of shoes in our closets.
Choices are flexible, life an ever-changing kaleidoscope of challenges and outcomes and correcting, refocusing and correcting again. We don’t have to swallow the guilt and shame; we don’t have to allow it to erode us from the inside out. Families can survive.
We must be the change we want to see.
Social, economic, cultural, gender, sexuality are issues at the root of our divisiveness as a society. But how do we break down that divide? How do we open our hearts and minds and see each other as equals? Through story.
My current project, what feels like a mega-novel compared to the last, explores the complex emotions surrounding death and the fragile fabric in which memories are made of while also dipping into the current social issues around Medical Assistance in Dying and how it affects those around us as much as the one choosing how and when they will end their life.
I won’t solve the world’s problems through my stories. But if even one person takes something away, views their own life or someone else’s in a different way, opens their heart and offers a smile or a handshake or a hug to a stranger, says “I understand”, then I have succeeded.
My writing takes an eclectic look at all the things that fascinate, inspire, anger, amuse and scare. From the different faces of mental illness, how to live in ones own skin, the realities of death from the morbid to the most sentimental, to the fragile strings that hold families together in my creative nonfiction, exploring life’s many brilliant patterns has helped me to connect to a world that is often confusing and scary. The characters I create are both beautifully flawed and annoyingly lovable.
My first novel, Rough, published by Stonehouse Publishing in Fall 2020, started with the question, why would someone choose to be homeless? and emerged into a story about the father/daughter bond and how the decisions we make, situations we find ourselves in don’t define us. Deep down we are ALL the same no matter social status, the size of house or bank account or the number of shoes in our closets.
Choices are flexible, life an ever-changing kaleidoscope of challenges and outcomes and correcting, refocusing and correcting again. We don’t have to swallow the guilt and shame; we don’t have to allow it to erode us from the inside out. Families can survive.
We must be the change we want to see.
Social, economic, cultural, gender, sexuality are issues at the root of our divisiveness as a society. But how do we break down that divide? How do we open our hearts and minds and see each other as equals? Through story.
My current project, what feels like a mega-novel compared to the last, explores the complex emotions surrounding death and the fragile fabric in which memories are made of while also dipping into the current social issues around Medical Assistance in Dying and how it affects those around us as much as the one choosing how and when they will end their life.
I won’t solve the world’s problems through my stories. But if even one person takes something away, views their own life or someone else’s in a different way, opens their heart and offers a smile or a handshake or a hug to a stranger, says “I understand”, then I have succeeded.
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