(McElhatton rhymes with TACKLE-LATIN, if that helps.)Heather McElhatton is a writer and independent producer for Public Radio International. Her commentaries and

stories have been heard nationally on This American Life, Marketplace, Weekend America, Sound Money and The

Savvy Traveler. She also produced the radio literary series Talking Volumes. Heathers audio archive can be found at www.mpr.org

She has had several short stories published, including 'Red Shoes' which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2001. Writer/publisher Joyce Carol Oates published the story in

Princeton's literary magazine, The Ontario Review that same year. Heather’s new radio show is called STAGE SESSIONS and is held in front of a live audience at the Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul, Minnesota.

 The show is aired on Minnesota Public Radio a week later. Guests have included Sebastian Junger, Ann Bancroft, Bill Holm and Robert Bly. Their work is combined with other musicians, poets and humorists.

Besides ongoing reporting and radio commentary, Heather will appear on Ira Glass's television version of This American Life, which is slated to premiere on Showtime this winter.

Her debut novel is a choose-your-own-ending book for adults called Pretty Little Mistakes and will be published by HarperCollins in spring 2007.