Breakout literary star Catherine Hernandez describes herself as “a proud queer woman who is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian descent and married into the Navajo Nation.” But it was her home town of Scarborough, Ontario that provided the title and setting for her debut novel, which she later adapted into a screenplay for an award-winning film. Scarborough was the first runner up for the coveted People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival and won eight Canadian Screen Awards, including those for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Hernandez’ latest novel, The Story of Us, shares the extraordinary journey of a Filipina migrant caregiver and the friendship that grows between her and her elderly client, all narrated by an infant observer. The novel is “dazzling,” according to the Toronto Star, “at once bold and ambitious, while simultaneously hushed and intimate.”
Hernandez currently lives in Napanee, ON.