Heather Richie
American cultural writer and editor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heather Richie is an American writer and editor specializing in land traditions, foodways, outdoor sports, and environmental storytelling. Her work spans diverse domains, including culinary culture, rural land use, and gonzo journalism.[1]
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Heather Richie | |
|---|---|
Richie in 2015 | |
| Born | Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
| Occupations | writer and editor |
| Years active | since 2010 |
| Known for | foodways, gonzo journalism |
Early life and education
Heather Richie was born in Atlanta, Georgia.[citation needed] She attended the College of Charleston undergraduate program where she worked in the Writing Lab, and Sewanee: The University of the South, where her MFA thesis was accepted for publication by LSU Press.[2] Prior to attending graduate school, she did stints in odd jobs with overlapping interests in education, food systems, and entrepreneurship, such as at small farms and bakeries, spending "10 years joining Teach for America, starting a real estate brokerage, making signs, delivering flowers and, finally, delivering the mail."[3]
She later completed a certificate in documentary studies at Duke University[4] and undertook a PhD at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
In 2025, she began legal studies at the Law Society of Ireland focusing on fisheries and food legislation.[citation needed]
Career
Writing
Richie's bylines include Southern Living, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Journal, Garden & Gun, Oxford American, Gastronomica, and Nieman Storyboard.[5] Her work for Garden & Gun includes "A Cake of Truly Historic Proportions", a culinary history piece about Martha Washington's Great Cake.[6] She has written features for Land Magazine on land-use traditions, hunting leases, and wildlife conservation.[7]
She was an editorial intern at Garden & Gun and Oxford American, and Associate Editor at Fiction Southeast.[8] She served as adjunct faculty at Toccoa Falls College and LBC Universidad, and has served as a copywriter at Annapolis Performance Sailing and a digital producer for Roads & Kingdoms and Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown.[9]
Richie has spoken at academic conferences including the 2016 Society for the Study of Southern Literature conference in Boston[10] and the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium in 2018.[11] She was a 2017 judge for the International Association of Culinary Professionals Food Writing Awards.[citation needed]
Maritime and fishing
Richie is a licensed Maritime and Coastguard Agency mariner, having worked on international yacht crews after completing training with the Royal Yachting Association and earning a Ship's Cook Certificate under the Maritime Labour Convention.[12] She has commented on European Union seafood labelling regulation and consumer protection in the Irish market.[13] She is also a certified fishing guide and licensed commercial fisherman in the US and EU.[14]
Business
In 2020, she founded a Lymington-based cookbook and specialty food store, delaying launch until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[15] In 2024, the company opened an Irish branch office.[citation needed]
Richie is the founder of Autism Friendly Connemara, part of the Irish charity AsIAm's Autism Friendly Towns programme.[16][17]
Bibliography
Recognition
In 2014, Richie was awarded a research grant from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a New New South Editorial Fellowship at Duke University, and the Rivendell Writer-in-Residency from the Sewanee School of Letters. That same year, she was featured in the Southern Foodways Alliance's inaugural Spotlight series,[4] and was named a scholarship finalist for the Lee Bros. Cookbook Boot Camp.
Richie received the Carnegie-Whitney Grant from the American Library Association under the direction of Jennifer France of American College of the Building Arts to compile "The Essential Wooden Boat Building Reading List".[20] During the grant period she attended the wooden boat building school at Cape Fear Community College and produced an epistolary column for WoodenBoat.[3]
In 2021, she received multiple scholarships including the Orvis 50/50 award to attend the Certified Fly Fishing Guide program at Colorado Mountain College.[21]