Your Life as a Private on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Jessica Gunderson grew up in the small town of Washburn, North Dakota. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota and an MFA in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She has written more than one hundred books for young readers. Her book President Lincoln’s Killer and the America He Left Behind won a 2018 Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Silver Award. She currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

The fourth girl in a family of 8 children, Colleen Madden made it through childhood pretending to be a space princess with a wookie sidekick and drawing in her cardboard box art studio. Colleen spent some time acting and training at The Second City in Chicago, then went on to graduate from a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts, with a contract major in illustration and English literature. She is currently residing in the Philadelphia area, with her writer-husband, and their 2 sons. She has illustrated for many different kinds of clients and is the recipient of an International Greeting Card Louie Award. When not illustrating, Colleen can be found long distance running, making her boys giggle, and eating lots and lots of sushi.