Gary Paulsen, author of wilderness-centered young adult fiction, has died at the age of 82.
Paulsen is perhaps most famous for Hatchet, a tale of a teenage boy who crash-lands alone in the Canadian wilderness and must survive the summer with only the titular tool to help him. Together with several other novels emphasizing themes of survival, it earned Paulsen the 1997 Margaret A. Edwards award.
Most recently, Paulsen released a memoir in January, Gone to the Woods, about the childhood experiences that informed his fiction. NPR interview from April.