Bio
Heidi Fettig Parton is a former attorney and legal publisher. In 2017, she graduated from Bay Path University with an MFA in creative nonfiction writing. She also became a St. Croix Master Watershed Steward in 2017. Her stewardship capstone project involved profiling exceptional individuals working on behalf of the St. Croix Watershed. Those profiles were published on St. Croix 360. Heidi’s other writing can be found in many publications, including Agate Magazine, Angels Flight, literary west (AFLW), Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, Entropy, Forge Literary Magazine, Manifest-Station, and The Rumpus. Heidi lives in Stillwater, Minnesota where she is at work on her first (and a second) book.
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Lawyer Me (circa 1999): I want to be an artesian.
Friend: You mean you want to become a bubbling source of water?
Me: Oh, um–I think I meant artisan.
*Turns out, both words were hitting at some core truth I hadn’t yet discovered about myself.*
Where I once wrote legal briefs, I now write personal essay, memoir, and poetry. I care deeply about the state of our environment and grieve the compounding ecological tragedies happening in the world around us. None of us can singlehandedly save the earth (still, look at Greta Thunberg to see how much positive change one small person can ignite), but all of us can do something. My civic sensibilities have turned towards protecting sources of clean water. Being a Midwesterner, I especially love lakes and rivers. If I could go back to school one more time, I would become a limnologist. Instead, I serve on the St. Croix Master Watershed Steward’s Leadership Council.
Because I believe strongly in being a good literary citizen, I also volunteer as a reader for Hippocampus Magazine. With each week’s readings, I am certain I take away more than I give. I celebrate the huge number of fantastic writers walking on this planet right now. It is both humbling and amazingly encouraging. Words have the power to change hearts.
In addition to writing and reading essays, I am nearing completion of a 90,000-word memoir about the bad ass I became in the years surrounding my divorce. I miss that brave warrior woman. Still, one cannot exist permanently on the razor thin edge that rises up in between lives; at some point you have to move on. I am preparing to shop this book around; another new road to traverse on on my writing path.
I come from the Morning Glory League
I hold an MFA in creative nonfiction from Bay Path University (2017). In 2011, I received my 200-hour Yoga Alliance certification and a Yin Yoga teaching certification in 2012. I graduated with honors from law school in 1994. In 1991, I graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English. Both my undergraduate and law degree came from the University of North Dakota, which is located in Grand Forks, ND–the coldest location in the conterminous United States.
I’ve worked as a video clerk, research assistant, trial and appellate court law clerk, lawyer, acquisitions editor, and legal publisher. I have taught legal writing and yoga, but not at the same time.
I am available to facilitate the following Transitions: a yoga and journaling workshop and Accessing intuition: a yin yoga and writing workshop. Contact me for more information.
