Constance Emmett was born in Brooklyn, New York, where her mother’s family landed after leaving Belfast, Northern Ireland. Raised in the New York City area by a family of great readers, she became a writer as a child. After completing a M.S. in Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, she worked as a biologist in biotech/pharma for nearly thirty years. Constance returned to writing after viewing a televised interview of novelist Sarah Waters. Waters explained that she’d written Tipping the Velvet because she wanted to write what she wanted to read. Struck to the core by that explanation, Constance began writing again. She’s spent the last eighteen years writing steadily, producing two novels and several short stories.
Next Chapter published her debut novel, Heroine of Her Own Life, in August 2019, and its sequel, Everything Will Be All Right, in January 2022. Both novels are available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.UK, https://www.nextchapter.pub/series/finding-their-way-home, through brick and online chain and independent bookstores, and libraries. She is working on two novels currently.
Constance’s fiction incorporates her love of origins as well as journeys taken at a walking pace. The Irish family stories found a lifelong home in Constance, and formed her as a writer. She creates characters who feel dislocation and regret, but have the resilience common to all survivors.
She lives with her wife and their dog in the foothills of the Berkshires, where they love almost everything about country life. Constance holds dual American and Republic of Ireland citizenship.
A member of the Historical Novel Society, The Irish Writers’ Union and The Irish Writers Centre, she is a fan of all things DIY MFA and Writer’s Digest. Constance also is a member of the Belfast Titanic Society, in honor of her Great-Aunt Peg’s career at Harland and Wolff Shipyard.