Gary Paulson

Gary Paulsen is a 1957 graduate of Lincoln High School.  At an early age, a librarian at the Thief River Falls Public Library awakened in Paulsen a desire to read.  That desire inspired him to become one of America’s leading writers of adolescent fiction.

A vagabond adventurer who has lived in several states across America, Paulsen writes about what he has experienced with exciting realism.  “If I write about what it’s like up here, in this high country, it’s not because somebody told me what it’s like up here, it’s because I’ve been up here.  And if I write about what it’s like to take a dog team to Nome, it’s because I did it . . .. Everything in these books is realistic.”

In 1983 and 1985, Paulsen ran the Iditarod, the grueling 1200-mile dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, which inspired such books as Winterdance and Dogsong.

Internationally acclaimed, Paulsen’s fame was established when he won Newberry Honor Awards for Dogsong (1986), Hatchet (1988), and The Winter Room (1990). He has captivated young people across America with his “exciting, nonstop action” stories that include more than 140 novels written over the past thirty years.  Though he is most famous for his adolescent work, he is also branching out into adult literature with Eastern Sun, Winter Moon (1995).

Mr. Paulsen currently resides in New Mexico with his wife, Ruth, who illustrates his works.