About

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Heather Mateus Sappenfield writes across genres. She’s published two contemporary YA novels, The View from Who I Was and Life at the Speed of Us, the latter a Colorado Book Awards finalist. Her story collection, Lyrics for Rock Stars, was featured on Colorado Public Radio,  earned a  Ben Franklin Award, an Earphones Award from AudioFile magazine, and was a finalist for the Audies. Her writing has also won the Danahy Fiction Prize and the Arthur Edelstein Prize, garnered six Pushcart Prize nominations, and was a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Award. She’s published interviews with some of the nation’s foremost poets and authors in The Writer's Chronicle, and articles about writing in School Library Journal and Writer’s Digest. Her most recent MG  novel, The River Between Hearts, was  a Moonbeam Awards  Medalist, a Nautilus Awards Medalist, and winner of the 2023 Reading the West Award.  In perhaps her greatest honor, the novel earned a letter of recognition from the Colorado General Assembly. With an MFA in writing from Pacific University, she's taught narrative workshops at Colorado Mountain College, Western Colorado University and Pacific University.

Heather lives in a tiny log cabin in Vail, Colorado, and loves adventures, especially in the Rocky Mountain landscape that’s been her lifelong home. As part of women’s teams, she’s won 24-hour mountain bike races and road bicycling’s Race Across America—San Diego, California to Atlantic City, New Jersey. She’s also competed in the Mountain Bike World Championships; ski instructed for Vail Resorts; loves backcountry ski touring; and is a wife and mom. Her toughest and bravest adventures, though, occur while writing stories!