Paul Sunga wrote Red Dust, Red Sky after living and working in Lesotho for several years during the 1980s, the last years of apartheid in South Africa. He worked as a teacher, journalist and medical research advisor, and was also involved with the political underground. He is the author of one previous novel, The Lions, published in 1992.

Born in Ottawa, Paul Sunga has a PhD in Medicine, as well as degrees in biology and philosophy. He is the Director of International Development at Langara College in Vancouver, and a consultant to the Canadian International Development Agency for bilateral programs in Bangladesh and Ethiopia. He has fifteen years of international experience in Southern and Eastern Africa and Southern Asia, primarily in the areas of public health and community development.