Nate Nelson

Nate Nelson has been hearing God since he was three years old, and he flinches a little when somebody calls him a man who hears God.

He has been a dishwasher, an electrician on an island owned by billionaires, a builder, a missionary, a photographer, and a licensed insurance agent. He has been homeless twice, evicted, and divorced once. He has prayed for the dying in hospital hallways and in grocery store parking lots. He lives in Cookeville, Tennessee, with his wife Elizabeth and their four children.

His memoir, Do You Want a Heart?, is the account of what that voice said, what he did about it, and where he got it wrong.

He is also the author of four photography guides, written out of the classes he taught in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They exist because the hard part was never the camera. It was knowing when, where, and why.