Karen Zeinert taught American history to high school students and language arts and social studies to middle school children. She had been a writer since 1981 and had authored such works as Captured by Indians: The Narrative of Mary Jemison (Linnet, 1995) and The Extraordinary Women of World War I (Millbrook, 2001). Across the Plains in the Donner Party (Linnet, 1996) was selected by VOYA as one of the top 40 nonfiction books for Young Adults published in 1996.