Kirkpatrick Hill spent her first six years at a mining camp outside Fairbanks, Alaska, which was a lot like the mine in Bo at Ballard Creek. She graduated from Syracuse University and taught for the next 30 years, mostly in the Alaska bush which is the setting for Toughboy and Sister, Winter Camp, Minuk, Dancing at the Odinochka The Year of Miss Agnes, and Miss Agnes and the Ginger Tom. She is the mother of six children, grandmother of nine, and great-grandmother of two. She lives in Fairbanks, and spends as much time as possible at the family home in Ruby, on the Yukon River.
