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Born in 1932 in China to missionary parents, Katherine was herself a teacher and a missionary in Japan. She received master’s degrees in English Bible and Religious Education, and her husband is a Presbyterian minister. The have four children and seven grandchildren.

Mrs. Paterson, among the most celebrated of our authors, has written more than 30 books for children, including 14 novels for young people. Two of these novels, The Master Puppeteer and The Great Gilly Hopkins, were National Book Award winners, in 1977 and 1979 respectively. The Great Gilly Hopkins was also the single Honor Book for the 1979 Newbery Medal. She received the Newbery Medal in 1978 for Bridge to Terabithia and again in 1981 for Jacob Have I Loved. Lyddie was the U.S. contribution to the Honors List of the International Board of Books for Young People in 1994, and Jip, His Story, was the winner of the 1997 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Her books have been published in more than 25 languages, and she is the 1998 recipient of the most distinguished international award given to a writer for a contribution to children’s literature, the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Her most recent books are a novel, The Same Stuff as Stars, and a picture book, Blueberries for the Queen, which she co-authored with her husband, John.

Katherine Paterson lives in Vermont, the setting for the last few chapters of Long Road Home.

Emily Arnold McCully was born in Galesburg, Illinois and grew up an innovative "daredevil child", always climbing trees and writing and illustrating her own stories—which she bound and gave copyright dates to. She also was a young entrepreneur, selling her work (postcards, greeting cards, scenery, and copies of the old masters) at the end of her driveway.

Emily McCully attended Brown University, receiving a BA in art history and an MA from Columbia University in the same major.

After graduation she held jobs in the art field, coming to children's illustration in a "roundabout way". In 1966, after seeing her artwork on a subway advertisement, an editor suggested she illustrate Greg Panetta's Sea Beach Express. Emily accepted, going on to illustrate over 100 children's books.

In 1969 she illustrated Meindert de Jong's Journey from the Peppermint Express, which was the first children's book to receive the National Book Award. In 1985 she received the Christopher Award for writing and illustrating Picnic, a wordless picture book about a family of mice. And in 1993, Emily was awarded the coveted Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the High Wire. Ms. McCully also writes for adults, receiving grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. A Craving was nominated for an American Book Award.

Emily Arnold McCully divides her time between New York City and her country home.