Heather King (b. 1952) is a Los Angeles-based writer, blogger and speaker. Raised on the coast of

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, she struggled with

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

—a period during which she made the ill-advised decision to attend law school—sobered up in 1987, quit her job as an attorney, and converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1996. She has written and recorded several slice-of-life commentaries for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

's ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'' and is the author of numerous essays and several memoirs. King is a graduate of the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

(1977) and

Suffolk University Law School Suffolk University Law School (also known as Suffolk Law School) is the private, non-sectarian law school of Suffolk University located in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, across the street from the Boston Common and the Freedom Trail, two block ...

(1984, ''cum laude''). She lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

where she maintains the blog HEATHER KING: DESIRE LINES. She contributes the monthly column "Credible Witnesses" to the Catholic magazine '' Magnificat.'' Her essays in ''Magnificat'', among them "The Sacred Heart of Jesus," have won many awards from the

Catholic Press Association The Catholic Media Association, formerly the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada, is an association of American and Canadian newspaper and media specialists specialized on reporting on the Catholic Church. Founded in 1911, it ...

PA Since May, 2014, she has written a weekly column on arts, culture, faith and life called "Desire Lines"for ''

ANGELUS The Angelus (; Latin for "angel") is a Catholic devotion commemorating the Incarnation of Christ. As with many Catholic prayers, the name ''Angelus'' is derived from its incipit—the first few words of the text: ("The Angel of the Lord ...

,'' the archdiocesan newspaper of LA. Her subjects range from ''noir'' crime novelist Raymond Chandler to classical pianist Glenn Gould,

outsider art Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates e ...

, the secret staircases of Silver Lake, obsessive gardeners, opera, ballet, tightrope walking, and coke-addicted figure-skaters. The column received First Place https://www.heather-king.com/arts-and-culture/First Place in the Best Weekly Column on Culture and the Arts from the Catholic Media Association (formerly the Catholic Press Association) in 2017, 2020, 2021, and 2022. ''Parched,'' King's memoir about addiction as spiritual thirst, was chosen as a "Most Memorable Memoir" by ''Publishers Weekly'' in their "Year in Books" 2005, and was selected b
"The Fix"
as one of their Top Ten Addiction Memoirs. Her boo
''Holy Desperation: Praying As If Your Life Depends On It''
won Book of the Year 2018 from the National Association of Catholic Publishers, as well as Third Place that same year in the "Best Spiritual Memoir" category. Her essays have appeared in the ''Best American Spiritual Writing'' series, and honored in the ''Best American Essays'' series. She has received writing fellowships from the Djerassi Center for the Arts, the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Ucross Foundation.

Bibliography

''Parched: A Memoir''
(May 31, 2005, Chamberlain Bros.; SBN, 978-1-596-09081-1/ September 5, 2006, New American Library, NAL Trade; ).
''Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding''
(February 2008, Viking Press; / January 27, 2009, Penguin Books; ).
''Shirt of Flame: A Year with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux''
(October 1, 2011
Paraclete Press
).
''Poor Baby: A Child of the 60's Looks Back on Abortion''
(August 22, 2012, Holy Hell Books; ).
''Holy Days and Gospel Reflections''
(December 9, 2013, Magnificat; ).
''Stripped: Cancer, Culture and the Cloud of Unknowing''
(January 16, 2017, Holy Hell Books; (Published from August 11, 2015 through December, 2016 by Loyola Press under the title "Stripped: At the Intersection of Cancer, Culture and Christ")).
''Stumble: Virtue, Vice, and the Space Between''
(March 6, 2015, Franciscan Media; ).
''Loaded: Money and the Spirituality of Enough''
(April 30, 2016, Franciscan Media; ).
''Holy Desperation: Praying as If Your Life Depends on It''
(April 1, 2017, Loyola Press; ).
''Ravished: Notes on Womanhood''
(April 15, 2019, Holy Hell Books; ).
''Fools for Christ: Fifty Divine Eccentric Artists, Martyrs, Stigmatists, and Unsung Saints''
(June 19, 2019, Holy Hell Books; ).
Life Lessons from the Garden''
(September 21, 2020, Holy Hell Books; ).

References

External links

* Official website
HEATHER KING

''Magnificat'': "The Sacred Heart of Jesus" by Heather King

''Magnificat'': "All Saints" by Heather King
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Heather 1952 births American essayists American women lawyers American Roman Catholic religious writers Catholics from New Hampshire Converts to Roman Catholicism Living people People from Portsmouth, New Hampshire People from Rockingham County, New Hampshire Suffolk University Law School alumni University of New Hampshire alumni 21st-century American women