David Guterson (born 1956) is an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, journalist, and essayist from Seattle, Washington. His work spans fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and memoir. He began by publishing short stories in periodicals, a route that led to his first book, The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind. Before writing full-time, he taught public high school for a decade.
Guterson became widely known through Snow Falling on Cedars, a novel that combines a murder trial in a Pacific Northwest island community with the legacy of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. The book received the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. His later fiction includes East of the Mountains, Our Lady of the Forest, The Other, Ed King, and The Final Case; his publications also include story collections, poetry, a memoir, and the nonfiction book Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense.
Guterson is a Guggenheim Fellow. His official website presents Evelyn in Transit as his seventh published novel and thirteenth book, showing the continuing breadth of a career that began with short fiction and has extended across several literary forms.
This profile is awaiting source review; collected books are already linked below.
