Peter Heller

Peter Heller is a Colorado-based best-selling author of several books, a freelance outdoor and adventure writer, and a former contributing editor for Outside magazine, Men’s Journal, and National Geographic. He grew up in New York and attended Dartmouth College, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English and biology. He also received a master's of fine arts in poetry and fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. An avid outdoorsman, Peter traveled the world as an expedition kayaker, writing about his experiences in the Pamirs, the Tien Shan Mountains, the Caucuses, Central America, and Peru. He was the first man (alongside a partner named Roy Bailey) to kayak the Muk Su River in Tadjikistan, a river known as “The Everest of rivers.” Peter’s work has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, Travel + Leisure, the Boston Herald, and more. His breakout best-seller, “The Dog,” has been published in 22 languages, his novel “The Painter” was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and he won a Michener fellowship for his epic poem “The Psalms of Malvine.” Peter has worked as a dishwasher, construction worker, logger, offshore fisherman, kayak instructor, river guide, and pizza deliverer — professions he writes about in his book “Set Free in China, Sojourns on the Edge.”

• Best-selling author of numerous books and novels
• Avid outdoorsman and expedition kayaker who has traveled the world
• Received a master's degree in poetry and fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.