Heather Skinner has been with the Mountain Eagle & Schoharie News since April of 2025. She covers Esperance Village & Town meetings, the Around the Neighborhood Esperance column, Sharon Springs sports, and loves seeing libraries and community members highlighted.

You may know her from when her tale, In the Wind, won the Sharon Springs Free Library short story writing contest in 2021, when she was a Schoharie Library Storytime Educator, or from her Middleburgh Library workshop about working with literary agents.

On April 13, 2026, she was honored to be presented with the 2025-2026 Elks Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award, "For Outstanding and Meritorious Service to Humanity," by Esperance Mayor, Royce Gage, and Village Clerk/Treasurer & Esperance Elks Lodge member, Michelle Parks, for the impact her newspaper articles have had on the community.

She loves to write children’s books and is currently a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and of a Storyteller Academy critique group started by author/illustrator Laurie Keller, and is querying literary agents and publishing houses. When she isn’t writing or reading, she enjoys homeschooling and spending time with her daughter, teaching herself hobbies like roller skating, and attending concerts and author/illustrator conventions.