About

Heather Thompson-Brenner (she/her) is an emerging writer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Electric Literature, North Dakota Quarterly, and Fiction On The Web.

Ms. Thompson-Brenner graduated from the MFA program in creative writing at Boston University in 2024, where she received the Saul Bellow Award and the Leslie Epstein Travel Fellowship for fiction. Her recent work has received support from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. She recently completed her debut novel, The Book of Revelation(s), for which she is seeking representation. 

Heidi Rivers loves the commune in Cambridge where she grew up, called Common Ground, careening through the open doors to eight apartments and carpooling to demonstrations with her friends. As a teenager in 1981, however, she starts to feel her home is less like a never-ending slumber party and more like a crowded fishbowl—one where the fish have to be polite, cooperative, and ethical all the time. On the morning of her first Sex Ed class, Heidi pledges to speak her mind and pursue her desires, and despite mounting consequences, sets out to seduce the commune’s new Bible Study teacher, Christopher. Her mother, Jean, the president of Common Ground, has more pressing problems than Heidi’s rebellion: After ten years of cooperative living, her cherished community is in turmoil over the rise of conservatism, and faces a crisis over whether to disband. Not only is Jean too distracted to confront Heidi, she also misses the fact that Christopher, the mysterious Evangelical and object of Heidi’s affection, is informing on Common Ground to the F.B.I. Christopher’s misguided and bumbling investigation uncovers secrets with the power to destroy everything that Heidi and Jean love.

Told over the course of ten days during the Reagan administration, THE BOOK OF REVELATION(S) is a coming-of-age story set in an activist community consumed with tension over personal and social change. The novel investigates the passionate complexity of female relationships, the challenge of growth beyond traditional gender and sexual identities, and the dilemma of preserving a society that is both moral and tolerant. Witness to the rise of the conservative Christian right, the birth of the Sanctuary movement, and the screwball theatrics of 1980s pop culture, the novel describes a historical moment with direct relevance to the crises we face today, holding out hope against the odds for the power of sympathy, sanctity, and love.

Dr. Thompson-Brenner works as a clinical psychologist in Cambridge and spends her spare time in the Berkshires. She has an unusual number of children and dachshunds. A passionate fan of Boston sports teams, she reserves a special place in her heart for Ultimate Frisbee everywhere.