about

Heidi Fettig Parton was once an 11-year-old who wanted to be an author someday, just like Judy Blume.

Then … she grew up.

After earning a BA (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) in English, Heidi went on to get her Juris Doctorate (with distinction and Order of the Coif), both from the University of North Dakota (graduating as Heidi Hellekson). Before a midlife career shift in 2009, brought on by the birth of her third child (and second marriage), Heidi spent 15 years careering, first as a lawyer, and then in legal academic publishing.

Writing remained something Heidi hoped to do “someday.” Someday arrived sooner (and more slowly) than she imagined it would. In 2014, Heidi returned to graduate school and, three years later, earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Bay Path University, where she honed her writing craft and gained knowledge in the business side of literary publishing.

After decades wading around in poetry writing and years essaying in the creative nonfiction realm, Heidi is now writing a novel about a woman who clears a path through the destructive haze of her husband’s ambivalence and claims the agency of her own life. Expect this novel on the horizon sometime in 2024.

Heidi’s writing can be found, or is forthcoming, in many publications, including Agate Magazine, Angels Flight literary west, Brevity, Entropy, Forge Literary Magazine, The Manifest-Station, Multiplicity Magazine, St. Paul Almanac, and Sweet Lit. One of Heidi’s essays is featured in the 2021 Her Path Forward anthology, from Publish Her Press.

In her spare time, Heidi studies Irish mandolin and the Bodhrán at the Center for Irish Music. She also trained as an end-of-life doula and is honored to serve as a volunteer at Heartland Hospice. Heidi makes time for walking Minnesota’s many outdoor labyrinths and for hiking the abundant state parks surrounding the Twin Cities metro. She makes time to listen to the trees, whispering their ancient wisdom.

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