Novelist Jane Barker Wright was born in Richmond Hill, Ontario on May 6, 1953. Raised in Montreal and Ottawa, she moved to B.C. in 1975.

She spent two years in the South Pacific before returning to Vancouver and publishing her first novel, The Tasmanian Tiger, in which a Vancouver couple leave their secure lives for Tasmania. In this book about mystery and murder, the husband becomes obsessed with stalking a tiger while the pregnant wife comes to grips with darkening forces within herself.

Jane Barker Wright's second novel The Understanding arises from the personalities of Solly and Isobel, two modern idealists. Solly was an active proponent of free love and Isobel went along with it. This was 'the understanding' they had. "I became aware of how naïve and rather sweet that attitude seems today,"; said Wright. "Solly believed it was harmless, even beneficial. It turned out to be tremendously harmful, resulting in two deaths. I can't give away more than that!"; There's a scandal involving a missing baby-and suddenly they all find themselves in the tabloids, trying to appear as 'normal' as possible.

Educated at Queen's University and married to a metallurgist, Jane lived in Trail; Sydney, Australia; Tumbler Ridge,B.C.; and Greymouth, New Zealand with intervals spent in Vancouver. She died on December 1, 2014 at age 61.

BOOKS

The Tasmanian Tiger (Polestar Press, 1988)
The Understanding (The Porcupine's Quill, 2002)

[BCBW 2014] "Fiction" "Interview"