about

Heidi Fettig Parton was once an 11-year-old who wanted to be an author 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. Currently, Heidi serves as a publishing manager at Publish Her Press.

In addition to her work at Publish Her, Heidi is writing a novel about a woman who clears a path out from the messy haze of a husband’s ambivalence, and a mother’s needy disregard, to step into the agency of her own life. She anticipates/visualizes this novel publishing in 2024. She’s also gradually assembling a collection of essays loosely organized around an examination of loss (the agony, the ecstasy).

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

In time set aside for self-nurturance, Heidi studies Irish mandolin and the Bodhrán at the Center for Irish Music. As an INELDA-trained end-of-life doula, she volunteers with a local hospice. Heidi frequently walks outdoor labyrinths and hikes the dedicated natural spaces in and around the Twin Cities metro. She listens for the ancient wisdom of trees.

%d bloggers like this: