Heather Lende

Heather Lende’s most recent publications and honors include a poem about mountain goats and  Chilkat blankets in the forthcoming Literary Field Guide to Alaska, the 2025 Alaska Press Club Award for Best Outdoor Reporting in all media for her blog on moose hunting, and an essay on her father, truth and memory in Alaska Quarterly Review.  She was Alaska Writer Laureate from 2021-2024. In the fall of 2024 Heather received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Alaska Anchorage. In 2020 she received the Middlebury College distinguished alumni award. Her four memoirs include New York Times bestseller, If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name and Find the Good: Life Lessons from a Small-town Obituary Writer, Take Care of the Garden and the Dogs, Find the Good, and Of Bears and Ballots. She has written numerous columns for publications large and small, hundreds of obituaries, and a few poems. She taught writing workshops at the Haines Borough Public Library, Haines High School, the Dermott O’Toole Memorial Library in Tenakee Springs, Kodiak Community College, Alaska Pacific University, and for Tongass Mist Writing in Tenakee. Heather has a BA from Middlebury in history and an MFA in creative writing from UAA. She lives with her husband, extended family, dogs, and friends in Haines and Tenakee Springs. She blogs and is working on two essay collections and an auto-fiction novel.