Ally Condie is an American author best known for her young adult and middle-grade fiction. Born November 2, 1978, in Cedar City, Utah, Condie was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon faith). She received an undergraduate degree in English Education from Brigham Young University and a Master of Fine Arts from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Condie has said that her years as an English teacher inspired her to write novels that she would recommend to students. Her most famous novel is Matched (2010), a young-adult dystopian novel in which young people are matched with their future spouse at the age of 17. The novel’s sequels—Crossed (2011) and Reached (2012)—explore the impacts of deviating from society’s expectations for young people.

The Unwedding is Condie’s first novel for adults. The book draws from her own personal life experience in many ways. Like the novel’s protagonist Ellery, Condie went through a divorce after nearly 20 years of marriage. Condie has said that she was inspired to begin writing The Unwedding when her husband took his new girlfriend on what was supposed to have been their 20th-anniversary trip.