Karen Cushman was born in Chicago and now lives in Oakland, California. She has a long-standing interest in history (she was Assistant Director of the Museum Studies Department at John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco) -particularly in the lives of ordinary people who lived at other times. She won the prestigious Newbery Medal in 1995 for The Midwife's Apprentice. Catherine, Called Birdy is her YA novel set in medieval Britiain.

Karen Cushman was born in Chicago and now lives in Oakland, California. She has a long-standing interest in history (she was Assistant Director of the Museum Studies Department at John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco) -particularly in the lives of ordinary people who lived at other times. She won the prestigious Newbery Medal in 1995 for The Midwife's Apprentice. Catherine, Called Birdy is her YA novel set in medieval Britiain.