Christine Cohen Park

I am a freelance writer, novelist, and book group facilitator living in Sussex. An underlying thread in my fiction is the fragility and power of familial ties, and the impact of political and cultural dynamics on individual lives.

 

While I was working in publishing in London and bringing up my daughter, my first two novels, Joining the Grown-ups and The Househusband were published by Heinemann. Around the same time I co-edited the prize-winning anthology collections, Close Company and Caught in a Story. I then moved to British Columbia, and lived on a remote island on the approach to Desolation Sound for much of the next decade. As well as teaching and giving workshops, I became immersed in protecting the island’s fragile eco-system, which I wrote about in A Key to Lock Out Cougars.

 

Returning to England at the millennium, I subsequently taught at Bath Spa and Sussex universities, published articles and short stories, and have recently completed a new novel set against the background of the Israel/Palestine conflict. 

 

When We Change Our Minds follows the unlikely friendship of two women of opposing political beliefs who learn from each other in surprising ways on an ill-fated trip to the West Bank. An early extract from the book was a runner-up in the Telos Apeirogon Book Club Competition 2020