Ruth Coughlin was born on December 3, 1943. She was an editor at Harper and Delacorte Press. She married William J. Coughlin, a federal administrative law judge and novelist, whom she edited while working at Delacorte Press. She moved to Detroit where she eventually became the book editor at The Detroit News. In June 1991, her husband was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and died nine months later. She wrote Grieving: A Love Story, a memoir about love, loss and the pain of widowhood. It was published in 1993. She died on December 25, 2014 at the age of 71.
Michael Dorris, Author Michael Dorris received an undergraduate degree in English, with honors, from Georgetown University and a graduate degree in anthropology from Yale. He taught for fifteen years at Dartmouth College and founded the Native American Studies Program there. His novels include "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" and "The Crown of Columbus," co-authored with Louise Erdrich. "The Broken Cord," which was named Best Non-Fiction of the Year by the National Book Critics Circle, brought attention to the disorder Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. He has also written novels for young adults, which include "Guests," "Sees Behind Trees," and "Morning Girl," which won the Scott O'Dell Award for… Historical Fiction.