Crane, Dede

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CRANE, Dede

PERSONAL:

Female. Education: Attended the Washington Academy of the Ballet, Skidmore College, and the Naropa Institute and the Body-Mind Institute.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Agent—Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency, W.R.P.O. Box 39588, White Rock, British Columbia V4B 5L6, Canada.

CAREER:

Ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Former Artistic Director of Dance Fredericton, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Shortlist, CBC literary prize for fiction.

WRITINGS:

Sympathy (novel), Raincoast Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2005.

The 25 Pains of Kennedy Baines (young adult novel), Raincoast Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Dede Crane is a former ballerina whose protagonist in her debut novel, Sympathy, is also a newly retired dancer. After Kerry Taylor's husband and son are killed in an automobile accident near their home on Vancouver Island, she enters an experimental treatment program designed for victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Her doctor, Michael Myatt, uses sympathy-based therapy in treating his patients at Rosewood Clinic in Washington, DC, where Kerry's mother places her after traditional approaches fail. Michael struggles to gain acceptance of the therapy he calls "Sympathetic Exchange" within the psychiatric community, while everyone who enters and leaves the clinic is concerned with the threat of the beltway snipers.

Globe & Mail reviewer Michelle Berry felt that all of Crane's characters "are deeply drawn. In fact, Crane juggles a lot of personalities and does it with great control." Michael is haunted by an affair, while other patients are suffering from abuses and losses. His use of mind-body techniques is skillfully described by Crane, who has studied psychokinetics and Buddhist psychology. Berry wrote, "Sympathy is a beautifully crafted book," adding that the author "has managed to translate the energetic skills of dance into the sedate act of writing, and shows that dance and writing have much in common. Crane moves around the characters and setting and situation with such finesse and confidence, ties everything up so nicely, that at times it feels as if you are reading a ballet."