[1] Sutherland began her professional literary career as an editor in Brooklyn, New York, at Grosset & Dunlap, then at HarperCollins; her debut solo work, This Must Be Love (a retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream), was published in 2004.

She achieved initial commercial success on the New York Times bestseller list with her junior novel adaptation of the screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,[9][10] and joined the Erin Hunter team alongside Victoria Holmes, Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry on the popular Warriors and Seekers series, from the perspective of cats and bears respectively.

With Amanda Maciel as her editor, the Wings of Fire series debuted on July 1, 2012[16] to commercial success, generally receiving mixed to positive critical reviews.

[3][7] Though she has generally refrained from revealing private details about her life in her frequent public events, Sutherland's religious background has been noted.

Though she has woven philosophical and spiritual aspects from a variety of sources and traditions into her work, she has also said that "religion isn't something talked about as freely" in her daily life, instead hoping that her writing can open up discussions among readers and pose questions to contemplate in the freer, larger-than-life fantasy worlds she creates.

[7][18] Sutherland has drawn inspiration from locations she has visited over the years,[19] including the Waitomo Caves in New Zealand and the Amber Palace in India,[20] and develops her fantasy worlds' environments through watching nature documentaries such as Planet Earth and Life in the Undergrowth.