Gary Paulsen grew up in the Philippines and has worked as a sailor, archer, trapper, singer, actor and carnival worker, amongst others. He is the author of many critically acclaimed books for young people, and has won the prestigious Newbery Honor Award three times, for his books The Winter Room, Hatchet and Dogsong. He lives in New Mexico and on a boat in the Pacific, with his wife, the painter Ruth Wright Paulsen.