diff --git plugins/FeedsNodeProcessor.inc plugins/FeedsNodeProcessor.inc
index d7cabb0..e5353ac 100644
--- plugins/FeedsNodeProcessor.inc
+++ plugins/FeedsNodeProcessor.inc
@@ -205,6 +205,18 @@ class FeedsNodeProcessor extends FeedsProcessor {
           $target_node->feeds['suppress_import'] = TRUE;
         }
         break;
+      case 'user_multi':
+        if (is_numeric($value)) {
+          $target_node->uid=$value; 
+        }
+        elseif ($value AND $loaded_user=user_load_by_name($value)) {
+          $target_node->uid=$loaded_user->uid; 
+        }
+        else {
+          global $user;
+          $target_node->uid=$user->uid; 
+        }
+        break; 
       default:
         parent::setTargetElement($source, $target_node, $target_element, $value);
         break;
@@ -233,6 +245,10 @@ class FeedsNodeProcessor extends FeedsProcessor {
         'name' => t('User ID'),
         'description' => t('The Drupal user ID of the node author.'),
       ),
+      'user_multi' => array(
+        'name' => t('Username, User ID, or inherited from current user'),
+        'description' => t('Node author: if value is numeric, the Drupal User ID. If value is non-numeric, feeds will attempt to look up the Drupal user id by this name. If value is ommitted (or a username lookup fails), user UID is inherited from the feed author / form submitter (ie. current user)'),
+      ),
       'status' => array(
         'name' => t('Published status'),
         'description' => t('Whether a node is published or not. 1 stands for published, 0 for not published.'),