David Allan Cates is the author of three novels, Hunger in America, a New York Times Notable Book, X Out of Wonderland, and Freeman Walker.  Cates has also published numerous short stories and travel articles in Outside Magazine and the New York Times Sophisticated Traveler.

Cates is the executive director of Missoula Medical Aid, which leads groups of medical professionals to provide public health and surgery services in Honduras.  In Missoula he works with the Missoula Writing Collaborative, teaching classes on the short shory in public high schools.  For many years he worked as a fishing guide on the Smith River and raised cattle on his family's farm in Wisconsin.