Kim Heacox is an American writer and photographer living in Gustavus, Alaska, next to Glacier Bay National Park.[1][2] He was born in Lewiston, Idaho and grew up in Spokane, Washington.[1]
Heacox first arrived in Alaska in 1979 as a new park ranger in Glacier Bay National Monument (today Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve).[3] His memoir, The Only Kayak (2006, a PEN USA Western Book Award finalist),[4] describes that first summer in Alaska. Heacox has authored 15 books, including five published by National Geographic.[5][6] His novel, Jimmy Bluefeather (2015), is the only work of fiction in over 20 years to win the National Outdoor Book Award.[7][8] He has written opinion-editorials for The Guardian,[9] the Los Angeles Times,[10] and the Anchorage Daily News.[11] He appears in the 2009 Ken Burns film The National Parks[12] and has been featured on NPR’s Living on Earth (discussing his biography, John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire).[13]