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About the Author
Heidi W. Durrow is the New York Times best-selling author of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, winner of the 2008 Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change. She was named a Power 100 Leader 2010 by Ebony Magazine and received an NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Literary Debut. She was the recipient of a Fellowship in Fiction from the New York Foundation of the Arts as well as grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Norman Mailer Writers' Colony, and the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, among others. Her writing has appeared in such publications as The Literary Review, Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Essence and Newsday. She is also an occasional essay contributor to NPR.
Durrow explores the themes around being biracial as co-host of the award-winning weekly podcast Mixed Chicks Chat and blogs at Light-skinned-ed Girl. In addition, she is the co-founder and co-producer of the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival, an annual free public event that celebrates stories of the mixed experience.
Durrow's father is African American and her mother is Danish and the family lived overseas for many years while her father was in the Air Force. The family moved to Portland, Oregon, when Heidi was 11. After attending Jefferson High School, Heidi went on to graduate from Stanford University, Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and Yale Law School. Heidi has worked as a corporate litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and as a Life Skills trainer for the National Football League and National Basketball Association.
