Tory Henwood Hoen ’02 has worked at a communications consultancy, as a blogger, as a magazine editor, as a copywriter, and as the director of brand at a fashion startup. With all those jobs and all her other experiences, she could write a book. 

She has. Two, in fact. 

Add another job for Tory. She’s a novelist.  

“As Nora Ephron famously wrote, ‘Everything is copy.’ I’ve had jobs I hated and jobs I loved, but when you’re an aspiring writer, it all amounts to experience that can later be plumbed,” Tory said by email recently. “As I was living my way through my 20s and 30s, my career often seemed chaotic and nonsensical to me. I was plagued with worry that I would never ‘find my passion.’ In retrospect, all those positions were great training for what I do now because they all involved writing and ‘making meaning.’ To me, that’s what writing is: making meaning from an infinite amount of possible material.” 

Tory’s debut novel, The Arc, was published in 2022 by St. Martin’s Press, and her next novel, Before I Forget, is scheduled for release on December 2.  

The storyline of The Arc came from an experience many have had. 

“When I became single in my mid-30s, I tried dating apps for the first time,” Tory said. “The experience wasn’t as terrible as I expected, but I thought, ‘There must be a more sophisticated version of this.’ I began to envision a highly secretive matchmaking service, helmed by an enigmatic ‘relationship architect,’ that would psychologically profile its clients to help them find the right long-term partner. Once I had the glimmer of the idea, it took me about 18 months to complete a first draft, with many stops and starts along the way.” 

Tory said the premise of Before I Forget is “an aimless 20-something returns home to a remote lake in the Adirondacks to take care of her father who has dementia. After a series of uncanny events, she begins to think he might have psychic abilities, and before long, he becomes an unlikely oracle.” 

“Some of the ingredients of this story came from my own lived experience,” Tory continued. “My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when I was in my 20s, and though I was not his caretaker, his illness really affected my outlook and my sense of myself in the world. It made the stakes of life feel much higher, for better or worse. So, when planning this book, I started with a father-daughter relationship at the center of the story. I wanted this novel to take the reader, and the writer, on an unexpected journey that was as hopeful as it was sad. Many of the book’s zanier plot twists arose as I wrote — gifts from the literary gods, I guess.” 

Tory is from West Hartford, Conn., has lived in New York and Paris, but is settling in Vermont. 

“I’m fortunate to have been able to explore a wide range of interests and opportunities in different cities,” Tory said. “Recently, I became an SMBC (‘solo mother by choice’), and when I was pregnant with my daughter, I decided to trade my NYC life for a quieter one in the Upper Valley region of Vermont, so that I could be closer to family. I love cities, but I also love the pace and peace of small-town life. I knew I wanted to raise my daughter in a place where we could hike and ski and be in a daily dialogue with nature. So here we are.” 

Tory was editor of the yearbook, The Confluence, her senior year. She played field hockey and lacrosse and remembers the playing fields as her favorite place on campus. 

“I have fond memories of afternoons spent on the fields by the train tracks, waving at the trains as they traveled north,” Tory said. “It’s so romantic in my memory: being outside in the cool air, with my teammates, believing the outcome of a particular game was the most important thing in the world. To us, in those days, it was.” 

Back then, she didn’t yet realize what else she was absorbing.   

“Across every subject, my teachers at Loomis taught me to think critically,” Tory said. “It’s a skill I took for granted back then — ‘What’s the big deal? Can’t everyone think critically?’ — but now that I’m in my 40s, I realize just how rare and vital that skill is. Our world needs more fair-minded critical thinkers, and Loomis Chaffee helps create them.” 

Tory is one of the judges this year in the Katharine Brush Flash Fiction Contest at Loomis Chaffee, in which students are asked to write, in 1,000 words or fewer, a piece of fiction involving a public space.  

When Tory judges the contest, she will be looking for certain things. When asked what makes a good piece of flash fiction, she said, “Every word counts. I look for an interesting setting, clear stakes, compelling characters. I want to be surprised and moved — by an insight, a revelation, a mood. Flash fiction can be so powerful, but it’s challenging to write. What you leave out is just as important as what you include.” 

We tossed one more question at Tory: If you could have dinner with any person, past or present, who would it be and why?  

“I guess I’ll go big: Jesus Christ,” Tory answered.  

She said she is not religious but would love to hear what Jesus “thinks about the current state of things.” 

Sounds like a novel waiting to be written.  

Note: Photo by Frances F. Denny