Catherine Gourley is an award-winning author of stories for young adults. Her books include Island in the Creek, Never Turn Back, and Beryl Mehan, which is a historical fiction novel. She attended Rutgers University in New Jersey and even played in the orchestra there. Her many jobs have included being a former editor at Weekly Reader Corporation and a journalist for various Canadian and American newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal. "The Cutoff: The Story of the Donner Party" is an example of the simplistic yet well-crafted and compelling writing style for which she is well known.