Heather King
Heather King (born 1952) is a writer, blogger and speaker. Raised on the coast of New Hampshire, she struggled with alcoholism—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 in 1996. She has written and recorded several slice-of-life commentaries for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" and is the author of numerous essays and several memoirs. King is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire (1977) and Suffolk University Law School (1984, "cum laude ). She lives in Los Angeles 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 [CPA]. Since May, 2014, she has written a weekly column on arts, culture, faith and life called "The Crux," for "ANGELUS," the archdiocesan newspaper of Los Angeles. Her subjects range from "noir" crime novelist Raymond Chandler to classical pianist Glenn Gould, outsider art, the secret staircases of Silver Lake, obsessive gardeners, opera, ballet, tightrope  walking, and coke-addicted figure-skaters. The column received an Honorable Mention in 2016 from the CPA for "Best Regular Column: Culture, the Arts and Leisure." In 2017, "The Crux" was awarded First Place by the CPA in the category "Best Regular Column: Spiritual Life." Also in 2017, King was awarded a First Place CPA award for her National Catholic Reporter essay "Soul Seeing" — "Learning to Soul-see the Hard Way." The column was also awarded First Place for "Best Regular Arts and Culture Column" from the CPA in 2020. "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 by "The Fix" as one of their Top Ten Addiction Memoirs. Her book "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 2002, 2005, and 2008. She was the recipient of a "Notable Essay" citation in the "Best American Essays" series 2000, 2008 , 2013, and 2015. 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.