Heather Rose

Heather was first published at 16 in the Hobart Mercury when she won the Junior Division of the Tasmanian Short Story competition. At 17 she had a regular sailing column.After leaving Tasmania at 19, Heather spent two years living and working in Asia and Europe before returning to Australia and settling in Melbourne where she slipped into the world of advertising as a copywriter creating major national campaigns for some of Australia’s best known brands.In 1996 Heather together with her husband, musician and creative director, Rowan Smith and their young family moved back to Tasmania where she began the novel, White Heart.White Heart was published in 1999 by Transworld under the Anchor imprint. It received generous reviews both in Australia and the United States and was instantly a local success staying on the Tasmanian bestseller list for more than four months.Also in 1999 Heather and Rowan co-founded advertising agency Coo’ee Tasmania and throughout the following years built it into the state’s most highly awarded agency responsible for the leading community and social education campaigns. In 2004 Heather won the Telstra Tasmanian Business Woman of the Year. In 2004 Heather also completed The Butterfly Man and it was published in November 2005 by University of Queensland Press.In August 2006 The Butterfly Man was voted by Tasmanians as their favourite book of all time about Tasmania. This was the first time an on-line poll had ever been undertaken for both fiction or non-fiction books. In the 2007 Angus and Robertson national TOP 100 Reader’s Poll Tasmanians voted The Butterfly Man their 6th favourite novel of all time behind JK Rowling’s Harry Potter Series and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.The Butterfly Man was also chosen for the Books Alive Program in 2007. (www.booksalive.com)Together with Rowan in 2007, Heather founded Australia’s first green advertising and communication agency Green Team Australia Pty. Ltd. (www.greenteamaus.com) partnered with Green Team USA which specializes in working with brands, organizations and communities embracing sustainability. The business has won more than 25 international creative awards. Heather is Chairman of the Festival of Voices.Heather continues to live and write in Tasmania. She is a sought after speaker on business and creativity. Together she and Rowan continue to delight in their three children Alex, Byron and Isabelle, pursue music, writing and art, and inspire new thinking to support the well-being of future generations.