About me – and the owl

About the Owl:
The owl is a symbol of Minerva and this beautiful medallic sculpture was created by my Great Aunt, Dora de Pédery-Hunt. 

Dora de Pedery-Hunt is one of Canada's most recognised sculptors. Her engraving of Queen Elizabeth II has graced Canadian currency for more than a generation. You likely have one of her engravings in your pocket right now! Dora received the Order of Canada for her artistic contributions.

Dora was a wonderful inspiration
​to me. She was fierce, passionate and utterly dedicated. She told me that my writing would succeed one day, and that I should keep at it. Thank you, Dora. 
​
Originally from South Africa, I have lived in Canada since 2000.
I have a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy and I have also lived and worked in the U.S.A., Australia and Britain.
I now live and write in Toronto. 

No Fury Like That, which was recently published, is my seventh novel, and has received a glowing review from the community newspaper, Beach Metro News, as well as from internationally acclaimed authors, Metroland Media, and high-profile members of the Crime Writers of Canada. No Fury Like That was a featured book on Hello! Canada magazine (next to Stephen King and Owen King's Sleeping Beauties).

Review of No Fury Like That, Beach Metro News: 
By Anna Killen

When we first meet the protagonist of local author Lisa de Nikolits’ latest novel, No Fury Like That, she’s groggy, uncomfortable, unkempt—and missing her husband, in the middle of what appears to be a bustling, bizarre airport lounge. But things are not as they appear. As the world—Purgatory, as it turns out—reveals itself to Julia, so her character is revealed to the reader, a character which, for all of her sass, stubbornness and selfishness, is actually somewhat lovable. She grows even more so as the page-turner drives along and we are wittingly bounced around the rich, twisted world, both in the afterlife and back on earth, created by de Nikolits. At once philosophical and sartorial (there’s a Satre pun there, but we’re not going to print it), de Nikolits says this book is about revenge, and while that’s certainly on the menu, that’s not all there is to eat.

The Nearly Girl writer wrote this book as a way to channel the anger she felt after she was fired from a job she’d held for six years—budget cuts—and the book is a testament to the idea that great things can grow from the ashes, if they are nurtured just so. In the credits, de Nikolits thanks her writing groups, including the local group Mesdames of Mayhem, for their edits and support while writing this novel, and it’s easy to see the influence of female empowerment and encouragement in this refreshing read.

Pevious works include:
  • The Hungry Mirror (2011 IPPY Awards Gold Medal for Women's Issues Fiction and long-listed for a ReLit Award)
  • West of Wawa (2012 IPPY Silver Medal Winner for Popular Fiction and a Chatelaine Editor's Pick)
  • A Glittering Chaos (tied to win the 2014 Silver IPPY for Popular Fiction) 
  • The Witchdoctor’s Bones launched in Spring 2014 to literary acclaim.
  • Between The Cracks She Fell  was reviewed by the Quill & Quire, was on the recommended reading lists for Open Book Toronto and 49th Shelf. Between The Cracks She Fell was also reviewed by Canadian Living magazine and called ‘a must-read book of 2015’. Between The Cracks She Fell won a Bronze IPPY Award 2016 for Contemporary Fiction.
  • The Nearly Girl received rave reviews in THIS magazine and local newspaper, the Beach Metro, among others.

Rotten Peaches will be published in 2018.
All books by Inanna Publications.
 
I have a short story in Postscripts To Darkness, Volume 6, 2015, and flash fiction and a short story in the debut issue of Maud.Lin House as well as poetry in the Canadian Women Studies Journal (Remembering, 2013, and Water, 2015). My short stories have also appeared on Lynn Crosbie’s site, Hood and in the Jellyfish Review. I have a short story in the anthology PAC’HEAT, a Ms. Pac-Man noir collection and a short story in the Sisters In Crime anthology, The Whole She-Bang 3 and I will have two short stories in 13 Claws, the Mesdames of Mayhem anthology which was published in August 2017.

Please note: due to my commitment to various projects, The Minerva Reader will be published at unspecified times. Thank you for your patience with this!