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Heather Lende

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Heather Lende

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Born
in New York, The United States
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February 2010

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Heather Lende and her husband Chip have five adult children and nine grandchildren. Heather is a hospice, library and radio station volunteer and served on the Haines Borough Assembly. She is the 2021-2023 Alaska State Writer Laureate, a former contributing editor at Woman's Day and a former columnist for the Anchorage Daily News. Her essays and commentary have been widely distributed. She has written over 400 obituaries for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines, AK and is the author of Of Ballots and Bears (2020) Find the Good (2015), Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs (2010), and NY Times bestseller, If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name (2005), all from Algonquin Books. She is happy to Zoom with book clubs. Heather is also the recipie ...more

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Heather Lende I am at the tail end of the Find the Good book tour and all the hoopla that comes with publication. (The let down part, actually, where I am home afte…moreI am at the tail end of the Find the Good book tour and all the hoopla that comes with publication. (The let down part, actually, where I am home after a month of traveling and the dog and the garden and the chickens and the husband and the mail and the community I live in all need my attention. As soon as the dishes and laundry are done -- tomorrow I'm cleaning the kitchen cupboards--- I will get to revising a novel I have written that I hope to publish. It's called A Hole in the Middle of a Pretty Good Heart.(less)
Heather Lende It came from an essay I was asked to write on what advice I'd give my grandchildren on my deathbed. "Find the good!" I said, surprising myself. I figu…moreIt came from an essay I was asked to write on what advice I'd give my grandchildren on my deathbed. "Find the good!" I said, surprising myself. I figured if they do that, the rest will fall into place. (less)
Average rating: 3.77 · 15,206 ratings · 2,277 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors
If You Lived Here, I'd Know...

3.73 avg rating — 6,587 ratings — published 2005 — 18 editions
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Find the Good: Unexpected L...

3.76 avg rating — 6,267 ratings — published 2015 — 11 editions
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Take Good Care of the Garde...

3.88 avg rating — 1,652 ratings — published 2010 — 13 editions
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Of Bears and Ballots: An Al...

3.86 avg rating — 701 ratings — published 2020 — 9 editions
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Substack Thank You Notes

(NOTE: This was written for my Substack  blog readers, but I figured you’d enjoy it.)

This morning I decided to multi-task, even though I really believe that it’s best to be mindful, as my friend Stephanie used to remind me before she died. She suggested counting to three before answering the phone, so I’d be “present” on the call, and I think the same should be said for responding to social media

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Published on October 13, 2026 10:53

Heather’s Recent Updates

Heather Lende wrote a new blog post

Substack Thank You Notes

(NOTE: This was written for my Substack  blog readers, but I figured you’d enjoy it.)This morning I decided to multi-task, even though I really believ Read more of this blog post »
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Quotes by Heather Lende  (?)
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“I have a friend who says we spend the first half of our life building it and the second half preventing it from falling apart. I’d rather be under construction when I die.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“People don’t gather after a death to mourn, but rather to reaffirm why life matters and to remember to exult in the only one we’ll ever have. We hold funerals, memorials, celebrations—whatever you want to call them—to seek and to find the heart of the matter of this trip we call Life.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“I wonder if to be human is to know that we can't ever banish pain and ugliness from the world, only learn from it and create something beautiful and good out of it ...”
― Heather Lende, Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: Family, Friendship, and Faith in Small-Town Alaska

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