Born May 17th, Gary Paulsen learned to love reading at an early age with guidance of a librarian and the magic of his own library card. The astonishing real-life adventures that fill some of his books began in earnest when he left home at 14 to travel with a carnival. Other experiences that he draws upon for his writing include a summer of farm chores; jobs as an engineer, construction worker, ranch hand, truck driver, and sailor; and two rounds of the Iditarod, a 1,180-mile Alaskan dog sled race. Living in the remote Minnesota woods, Paulsen had embraced the sport of dog racing, but in 1985, after running the Iditarod for the second time, he suffered an attack of angina and was forced to give up the hobby. "I started to focus on writing the same energies and efforts that I was using with dogs. So we're talking 18-, 19-, 20-hour days completely committed to work. Totally, viciously, obsessively committed to work, the way I'd run dogs....I still work that way, completely, all the time. I just work. I don't drink, I don't fool around, I'm just this way....The end result is there's a lot of books out there." Paulsen has written more than 175 books and some 200 articles and short stories for children and adults. Three of his novels — Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room — were Newbery Honor Books. He and his wife, Ruth Wright Paulsen, an artist who has illustrated several of his books, divide their time between a home in New Mexico and a boat in the Pacific.

—Julie G. Schuster