Douglas Coupland is a distinguished Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist, born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on 30 December 1961. His family moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1965, where he continues to live and work. Coupland studied art and design in Vancouver, Milan, and Sapporo.

His first novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, published in 1991, became an international bestseller and popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. Since then, he has authored thirteen novels, two collections of short stories, seven non-fiction books, and various dramatic works and screenplays for film and television. His novels have been translated into 35 languages worldwide.

Coupland's writing explores themes such as the unexpected cultural changes brought by new technologies, conflicts with religious values, dysfunctional families, and an ironic stance towards media saturation. He has been long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

Beyond literature, Coupland is a notable visual artist. His exhibitions, such as Everywhere Is Anywhere Is Anything Is Everything and Bit Rot, have been displayed across North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2015 and 2016, he was the artist-in-residence at the Paris Google Cultural Institute.

He is a columnist for the Financial Times, and a frequent contributor to The New York Times, e-flux journal, DIS Magazine, and Vice. Coupland has also written and performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England.

Coupland's contributions to arts and letters have earned him numerous honors, including being an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of British Columbia, and a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and has received the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.