Katherine Paterson

Katherine Paterson was born Katherine Womeldorf to Presbyterian missionary parents stationed in Qing Jiang, China. Her father was a preacher who headed a local boys’ school—but during the Japanese invasion of 1937, the family was forced to return to the United States. During the war, the family moved around the American South incessantly, spending time in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia—an experience that disoriented young Paterson, whose first language was Chinese. As Paterson grew older, however, she developed a love of language, reading, and writing, and graduated summa cum laude from King College, a private Presbyterian college in Tennessee, in 1954. She later traveled to Japan, and her experiences there formed the basis for her first published novel, 1973’s The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, which is set in 12th-century Japan. In 1977, Paterson’s novel Bridge to Terabithia was published to widespread acclaim. The book won the 1978 Newbery Medal and has since become a staple of contemporary children’s literature. Paterson is also the author of Jacob Have I Loved and The Great Gilly Hopkins, the latter of which won the National Book Award. Paterson is the Vice President of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and currently lives in Vermont.