Born and raised in New Jersey, Heather earned her BA from Ramapo College in Literature and Creative Writing and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. There she was awarded the Jack Salamanca Thesis Award for her collection The Hunting Ground and Other Stories. Her short story, "Listening to Birds" won honorable mention in the AWP Intro Journals Project and second place in Salamander's 2018 Fiction Contest. Her short story, "Junkyard in Passaic County" won first prize in New South's ​prose contest. She has been nominated for Sundress' Best of the Net competition and was included in the Wigleaf 50. Her collection of short stories What We Were Looking For was a semi-finalist in Black Lawrence Press' St. Lawrence Book Award and longlisted for the Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize. Heather attended Skidmore's New York State Summer Writers Institute in 2013 and in 2014.
 

Heather's work explores themes of love, loss and addiction. Heather is interested in the things that haunt her characters, the things that there are no words for. Her stories explore the landscapes of New Jersey, Alaska and the Adirondacks. 

​Heather has worked as a travel writer, a research assistant, an assistant to a raw vegan coach, a tutor, a babysitter and a coffee server. She now teaches creative and academic writing courses. 

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