Writer and storyteller Joseph Bruchac was born in Greenfield Center, New York, on October 16, 1942. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University, a master of arts degree from Syracuse University, and a doctorate from the Union Institute of Ohio. Bruchac has published more than 120 books for children and adults; nearly all concern Indigenous American subjects and themes. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Cherokee Nation, and he has also been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of America, an organization that he helped to found. He continues to live in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Some of Bruchac’s best-known books include Tell Me a Tale: A Book About Storytelling (1997), The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story (1993), and The Heart of a Chief (1998). He recounts growing up in his grandparents’ home in his memoir, Bowman’s Store: A Journey to Myself (1997). Throughout his career, he has championed Indigenous American themes and writers. In Skeleton Man, Bruchac portrays Mohawk culture in a positive light, for the protagonist uses her Mohawk heritage to cope with her predicament and solve the mystery of her parents’ disappearance.