Sparkle Hayter (born 1958) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. In 1995 she received the

Arthur Ellis Award The Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence, formerly known as the Arthur Ellis Awards, are a group of Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the Crime Writers of Canada for the best Canadian crime and mystery writing published in th ...

(Best First Crime Novel) of the

Crime Writers of Canada {{primary sources, date=January 2015 Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) is a national, non-profit organization, founded in 1982 by Derrick Murdock and other professional crime writers. Its mandate is to promote crime writing in Canada and to raise the p ...

for her novel ''What's A Girl Gotta Do?'' (1995). In 1998, she became the first winner of the UK's Sherlock award for "Best Comic Detective." Hayter has also performed as a

stand-up Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories ...

comedian.

Early life and education

Hayter was born in

Pouce Coupe The Village of Pouce Coupe (; French for "cut thumb") is a small town in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Peace River Regional District. It was originally named 'Pouskapie's Prairie', after the name of the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

and grew up in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. Her father was Ron Hayter, the longest-serving city councillor of Edmonton, Alberta. In 1982, she graduated in film and television production from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

Career

Among other things, she worked for CNN in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

, New York, and Washington, for WABC in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and

CIII-TV CIII-DT (channel 41) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, CIII-DT maintains studios at 81 Barber Greene ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

. At the time of the

Afghan civil war War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) *Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...

, she moved to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and then went along with the

Mujahedin ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

, reporting for the

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

. After this, she decided to give up journalism as a career. After her return to the U.S. she married and began a career as a comic and a writer. She moved briefly to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, then on her return to New York divorced and went to live in the famous Chelsea Hotel. In 1993, she published her first novel, ''What's a Girl Gotta Do?'', the first in the Robin Hudson series, which proved her breakthrough. In a starred review, ''Publishers Weekly'' called it "flat-out funny, audacious, and a little bit weird, Hayter stakes out territory all her own." She wrote pieces for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Op-Ed Page, ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's ''The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'' and '' The Globe and Mail'', was a regular participant on CNN's talk show "CNN & Company" and 'also appeared on

Good Day New York ''Good Day New York'' is a morning show airing on WNYW Fox 5 (channel 5), hosted by Rosanna Scotto and Bianca Peters. It is a Fox owned-and-operated television station in New York City, owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox C ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, CBC,

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

and

Paris Premiere Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Sin ...

. In late 2001 she moved to Paris, where she joined the Kilometer Zero arts cooperative and lived in the In Fact

art squat An art squat is a name used to describe the action of artists to occupy (or squat in) an abandoned building, thereby creating studio space to create art. Art squats often have a semi-legal or illegal status. Tacheles, in Berlin, Germany, was o ...

. In 2007-2008, she began working in Bollywood, where she bought Indian films for a Canadian movie network and produced video promos and interviews to support the programming for "Bollywood Saturday Night." In 1995, she received the

(Best First Crime Novel) of the

for her novel ''What's A Girl Gotta Do?''. In 1998, she became the first winner of the UK's Sherlock Award for "Best Comic Detective." She went on publish two more novels and numerous stories and essays. Hayter has also performed as a

Works

Robin Hudson series

* 1994: ''What's A Girl Gotta Do?'' * 1996: ''Nice Girls Finish Last'' * 1997: ''Revenge of the Cootie Girls'' * 1998: ''The Last Manly Man'' * 2000: ''The Chelsea Girl Murders'' * 2005: ''Last Girl Standing''

Other novels

* 2002: ''Naked Brunch'' * 2004: ''Bandit Queen Boogie''

References