Gary James Paulsen (May 17, 1939 – October 13, 2021) was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness.

He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.

A great part of the book Eastern Sun, Winter Moon is dedicated to the voyage by naval vessels (liberty ships) to the Philippines.

Bits and pieces of Gary's adolescence can be cobbled together in Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books.

He often uses "coming of age" themes in his novels, where a character masters the art of survival in isolation as a rite of passage to manhood and maturity.

[12] The ALA Margaret Edwards Award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for a "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".

Paulsen won the annual award in 1997, when the panel cited six books published from 1983 to 1990: Dancing Carl, Hatchet (first in the series), The Crossing, The Winter Room, Canyons, and Woodsong.

[3] In the mid-1960s, Paulsen moved to Taos, New Mexico, where he met his third wife, Ruth Wright, an illustrator of children's books, whom he married in 1971.

[16][17][18] In 1983, Paulsen entered the 1,150-mile (1,850 km) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and placed 41st[19] out of 54 finishers, with an official time of 17 days, 12 hours, 38 minutes, and 38 seconds.

In 1990, suffering from heart disease, Paulsen decided to give up dog sledding, which he described as the most difficult decision he had ever made.

According to his keynote speech on October 13, 2007, at the Sinclair Lewis writing conference in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, he still intended to compete in the Iditarod.

Paulsen was an outdoorsman (a hunter and trapper), who maintained a 40-acre (160,000 m2) parcel of land north of Willow, Alaska, where he bred and trained sled dogs for the Iditarod.