Heather Ramsay thinks deeply about place. She lives and writes in unceded Ts’elxwéyeqw territory (otherwise known as Chilliwack, BC), but is transitioning to Victoria. She lived on Haida Gwaii for 10 years, in Smithers (Wet’suwet’en territory) for seven years, and spent her childhood in Calgary, Alberta (otherwise known as Treaty 7 – Tsuutʼina and Blackfoot Territory). The University of British Columbia awarded her an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC in 2017. Her writing can be found in The Tyee, The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Numero Cinq, Canadian Geographic, local newspapers and more.
A Room in the Forest, her debut novel published by Caitlin Press, came out in 2025. The Haida Gwaii Museum Press published two books she co-wrote/edited: Gina ‘Waadluxan Tluu: The Everything Canoe and Gyaagang.ngaay: The Monumental Poles of Skidegate. She also co-wrote a corporate history with her father Richard Ramsay, entitled LivingWorks Legacy 30 Years.It is about his suicide prevention training social enterprise. She worked as a community reporter, freelance journalist and communications professional for over 30 years.
“Took guts to write this article, took guts to publish it. Kudos to the Tyee.”
A Tyee Reader
The story has occupied my mind ever since I started reading it. You have captured the landscape of Haida Gwaii so well — not just the physical landscape but the mystical one as well. Not mystical in the way the hippies in the book see it — but the deeper, indefinable aspects of the place.
