Katherine Paterson Biography

The Great Gilly Hopkins About the Author

Katherine Womeldorf Paterson was born on October 31, 1932, in TsingTsiang pu, China, where her parents were missionaries. She came to the United States when she was eight and later earned an undergraduate degree from King's College in Bristol, Tennessee, and master's degrees from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia, and Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Paterson, who currently lives in Barre, Vermont, has worked as a missionary in Japan and recently revisited the Orient.

She and her husband, a clergyman, are parents of four children. Paterson's works for young adults have received critical and popular acclaim. She won National Book Awards for The Great Gilly Hopkins and The Master Puppeteer, and she received the Newbery Medal for both Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved.