Cathy Guisewite was born in Dayton, Ohio, and spent the first five "wonder years of life" there before moving to Midland, Michigan - all contributing to a Midwestern foundation she believes made the rest of her life possible. In 1976, she created the Cathy comic strip, which ran in nearly 1,400 newspapers for 34 years. The strip earned Cathy the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award in 1992; an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy in 1987; and the high honor of having her work displayed on refrigerators across the land. She was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Dayton Region's Walk of Fame in 2017.

Cathy's hilarious and relatable look at the challenges of womanhood in a changing world became a cultural touchstone. In 2019, she returned with her signature wit and warmth in a debut essay collection, Fifty Things That Aren't My Fault, about "when everything starts changing and disappearing without permission: aging parents, aging children, aging self stuck in the middle." Cathy lives in California with her handsome and charming dog, Leo.