Kim Heacox is an American writer and photographer living in Gustavus, Alaska, next to Glacier Bay National Park. He was born in Lewiston, Idaho and grew up in Spokane, Washington.
Heacox first arrived in Alaska in 1979 as a new park ranger in Glacier Bay National Monument (today Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve). His memoir, The Only Kayak (2006, a PEN USA Western Book Award finalist), describes that first summer in Alaska. Heacox has authored 15 books, including five published by National Geographic.[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]