Gwendolyn Heasley

My family is from New York, but we moved to Minnesota when I was four. I loved growing up the frozen tundra (using the word "pop" and eating "bars). I attended the same school (in the same building) for fourteen years before heading south to warmer weather at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. There, I grew to love southerners, hush puppies, and NASCAR. I did this all while studying English.

After writing and then peddling greeting cards for a year, I went back to the Midwest for a graduate degree in Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I grew to love the small college town, the Mizzou Tigers, and spending weekends in the library.

In my Devil Wears Prada moment, I moved to NYC to get my start in journalism. This is what happened instead: the recession hit, I couldn't find a paying job, and I had to live with my parents. It was then that I wrote Where I Belong, which is about the recession.

A Long Way From You is the companion novel to Where I Belong and The Art of Goodbye is a digital sequel.

Don't Call Me Baby is my most recent novel.

I now live in Naples, Florida with my husband and baby daughter Arrietty, who is named after the main character in The Borrowers.