Born in 1958, James Gurney is the creator of Dinotopia, both authoring and illustrating the four central books Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time, Dinotopia: The World Beneath, Dinotopia: First Flight and Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara. Gurney has illustrated backgrounds in animated films such as Fire and Ice ('83), illustrated covers of over seventy books and illustrated several articles for National Geographic magazine. He won the Best of Show award in the 1989 World Science Fiction Convention. He has a wife Jeanette, who is an artist, and two sons Daniel and Franklin.