Laurie Colwin was an American writer renowned for her engaging portrayals of New York society and her delightful food columns in Gourmet magazine. She wrote five novels, three collections of short stories, and two volumes of essays and recipes. Born on June 14, 1944, in Manhattan, New York City, Colwin grew up in various places including Lake Ronkonkoma on Long Island, Philadelphia, and Chicago. She was the second child of Estelle Colwin (née Woolfson) and Peter Colwin.

Colwin was a prolific writer from a young age, with her work first appearing in The New Yorker. In 1974, she published her first collection of short stories. Besides being a regular contributor to Gourmet, she also wrote for Mademoiselle, Allure, and Playboy. Her non-fiction books, Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, are collections of essays that serve as memoirs as well as cookbooks.

Her career was not just limited to writing. In the forward to Home Cooking, Colwin acknowledged the influence of notable cookbook writers like Edna Lewis, Marcella Hazan, Jane Grigson, and Elizabeth David, among others.

Laurie Colwin passed away unexpectedly on October 24, 1992, in Manhattan due to an aortic aneurism. She left behind her husband, Juris Jurjevics, and their child, RF Jurjevics. Her last two books, More Home Cooking and A Big Storm Knocked It Over, were published posthumously. She was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame in 2012 and posthumously into Cheltenham High School's Hall of Fame in 1999.