Barbara Gowdy is a novelist and short story writer. She is a three-time finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award, two-time finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. In 1996, She received the Marian Engel Award. Gowdy was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2007.

She has authored seven books, debuting with the novel Through the Green Valley in 1988. Helpless won the Trillium Book Prize. It was also longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. The Romantic was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The White Bone was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Mister Sandman was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and the Trillium Book Award. She is also the author Little Sister and Falling Angels