Cat Bauer

In 2004, Holly Bolstad of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, won her state Level I Letters About Literature competition, a national reading-writing contest sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, together with Target Stores, by writing to Cat Bauer about how Harley, Like a Person had affected her life. To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre—fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author's work changed the student's way of thinking about the world or themselves.

On May 27, 2004 the Honorable Prudence Carter Beatty signed an Order reverting all rights to Harley, Like a Person to Bauer. That book was republished in a slightly different form in 2007 by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, together with a companion novel entitled, Harley's Ninth, which takes place all on one day, October 9, John Lennon's birthday.

Bauer later changed the title of her first novel to Harley, Like a Person, which was originally published in 2000 by Winslow Press, a boutique publisher that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002.

In April 1998, Bauer moved to Venice, Italy, where she lives today on the Grand Canal. She is presently divorced.

In July, 1993, Sassy published her first short story, Run Away, which was the inspiration for her first novel, Harley, Like a Person. Under the working title of "Zee," that effort was the recipient of the very first Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award given by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Selected from manuscripts submitted for individual critique at the SCBWI Annual Conference in Los Angeles, the award is given to the manuscript deemed most promising for publication. Another in the list of "firsts," Bauer's winning entry was critiqued by Walter Dean Myers, the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award winner, a prize which recognizes excellence in young adult literature.

Bauer graduated with honors from Pompton Lakes High School in 1973.

Catherine "Cat" Bauer (born July 27, 1955 in Greenville, South Carolina) is the award-winning author of contemporary novels featuring the young protagonist, Harley Columba, and is known for her unique and honest voice. Publishers Weekly said, "Bauer creates a witty and resilient narrator in...Harley Columba... Readers will be rooting for this sympathetic heroine." In the Thomson Gale biography, the authors noted that: "Readers and reviewers often found the strength of Bauer's novel in the authentic voice of its heroine, Harley. Patricia Morrow, for example, in Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), remarked that 'Harley's voice is true to the experience of many young people,' and that 'Although the outcomes are not unexpected, they do not follow any formulas.'"