Writing became an obsessive compulsive habit but I had almost no money so I thought about being an urban firefighter and having lots of free time in which to write or becoming an English teacher and thinking about books and writers on a daily basis. That swayed me.

Work
Guterson is best known as the author of Snow Falling on Cedars (1994) recipient of the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award. Currently he lives on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound and is a co-founder of Field's End an organization for writers. The film was directed by Scott Hicks and starred Ethan Hawke James Cromwell Sam Shepherd and Max von Sydow and went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for cinematography.

David Guterson (pron.