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Tidal Flats wins the Gold Medal in Literary Fiction at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

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Tidal Flats wins the 14th Annual National Indie Excellence® Award for Fiction

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Tidal Flats wins the 14th Annual National Indie Excellence® Award for Book Cover Design: Fiction — Jack Martin, Designer

“A Woolfian talent for taking the full measure of small moments.”

—Rebecca Makkai author of THE GREAT BELIEVERS

“TIDAL FLATS is written out of the rough wisdom that knows that love is a peculiar, dynamic force, and all we can do against it is to be alert and open and awake.”

—Paul Lisicky, author of LATER and THE NARROW DOOR

“A gorgeously observed account of one woman’s life, lived in our era of global reach, of international obligations…”

—Robin Black, author of LIFE DRAWING

“A universe of betrayal, compassion, and regret in which two people’s love for
each other is surpassed only by their loyalty to their convictions.”

—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN

“The novel swirls with light and love.”

—Joshua Mohr, author of SIRENS and
DAMASCUS

“Cynthia Newberry Martin shows us to ourselves: our penchant for choosing lives that will crack us open… This book is a stunning, heart-expanding debut.”

—Pam Houston, author of DEEP CREEK: FINDING HOPE IN THE HIGH COUNTRY

Catching Days

For over ten years, I’ve written about reading and writing and life at Catching Days. I’ve also invited other writers to share days in their lives—an essay series that includes over a hundred writers.

You will now find Catching Days and the How We Spend Our Days series here on my website.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.

—Anne Dillard, The Writing Life

how we spend our days: heath hardage lee

May 1, 2022 | How We Spend Our Days

Catching Days…

About Me

I write novels about marriage.

About how characters navigate between separateness and togetherness. About how they balance the need for both time to themselves and time together. About what compromise does to a person’s sense of self.

Reading and books and language–I’ve always loved how the story is told as much as what the story is.

I’ve been on this planet for 65 years, and I keep needing to prove to myself that that’s true. It feels as if I’ve lived my life mostly on the inside and for the past decade, I’ve been trying to get the inside out. I feel tremendous gratitude to have been allowed all these years, and what I’m doing now is the best of the best.

Let’s stay in touch! I write once a month about my days, about the days of other writers, and about the days of readers. You can sign up in the box to the left, and you can find past letters here.

More about Me