Heath Lee comes from a museum education, preservation, and program background. She holds a B.A. in History with Honors from Davidson College, and an M.A. in French Language and Literature from the University of Virginia. Heath is an independent historian, biographer, and curator.
Potomac Books, a division of the University of Nebraska Press, published Heath’s prize-winning book, Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause, in 2014. Heath’s narrative nonfiction book entitled The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam was published by St. Martin’s Press on April 2, 2019. Heath was the 2017 Robert J. Dole Curatorial Fellow, and her exhibition entitled The League of Wives: Vietnam POW MIA Advocates & Allies about Vietnam POW MIA wives premiered at the Dole Institute of Politics in May of 2017. The exhibit is currently traveling through 2023 to museum venues all over the United States including the Richard Nixon Presidential Library.
Actress Reese Witherspoon and her production company Hello Sunshine, in partnership with Sony 3000, have optioned The League of Wives for a feature film. Heath is an executive producer and historical consultant for the project. Heath’s next book is a new biography of First Lady Pat Nixon is coming from St. Martin’s Press in 2024.
JRW: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
HL: I loved reading books and writing stories from a very early age. By the time I was eight or nine I was writing plays for the neighborhood kids and forcing everyone to perform in them! As a pre-teen, I became interested in journalism and started writing for the middle school paper. In high school, I became Editor of the school paper and also worked for the Richmond Newsleader as a “Young Virginian” teen reporter. Writing has been a sustained interest since childhood for me.
JRW: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
HL: I do seem to write best with my snoring French bulldog Dolly Parton beside me!
JRW: What is one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
HL: How much you have to do to promote your own work. It is very DIY in terms of the publicity and marketing of your book. Unless you are at the very top of the author pyramid, you have to be prepared to take charge there. Writing a book is just the beginning of the endeavor.
JRW: What advice would you offer new writers?
HL: I write narrative nonfiction and biography, so the choice of a central subject that you are passionate about is crucial. You are going to be spending YEARS with this person or this subject, so make sure you are obsessed at the outset! This doesn’t mean the person or subject doesn’t have flaws — if they are perfect they will become really boring. But you need to see something in the subject that captures your attention fully before you commit. I usually “date” a number of different subjects before I finally decide on “the One”!