David Guterson is the author of the novels Snow Falling on Cedars, East of the Mountains and Our Lady of the Forest; a collection of short stories, The Country Ahead Of Us, The Country Behind, and of the non-fiction book Family Matters: Why Home Schooling Makes Sense.  Snow Falling on Cedars won the PEN/ Faulkner Award and  was released as a film in December 1999, starring Sam Shepard and Ethan Hawke. David Guterson lives in Washington State.