Suzanne Collins
Suzanne Marie Collins] (born August 10, 1962 in Hartford, Connecticut) is a television writer and novelist, best known as the author of The New York Times best selling series The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games trilogy (which consists of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay).
Collins is the daughter of a U.S. Air Force officer who served in the Vietnam War. As the daughter of a military officer, she and her family were constantly moving. She spent her childhood in the eastern U.S. Collins graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts in 1980 as a theater arts major. She graduated from Indiana University in 1985 with a double major in theater and telecommunications. In 1989, Collins earned her master of fine arts in dramatic writing from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
Collins' career began in 1991 as a writer for children's television shows. She worked on several Nickelodeon programs, including Clarissa Explains It All, The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, Little Bear, and Oswald. She was also the head writer for Scholastic Entertainment's Clifford's Puppy Days. She received a Writers Guild of America nomination in animation for co-writing the critically acclaimed Christmas special, Santa, Baby!
Collins met children's author James Proimos while working on the Kids' WB show Generation O!, and was inspired to write children's books herself. Her inspiration for Gregor the Overlander, the first book of The New York Times best selling series The Underland Chronicles, came from Alice in Wonderland, when she was thinking about how one was more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole, and would find something other than a tea party. Between 2003 and 2007 she wrote the five books of the Underland Chronicles: Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Marks of Secret, and Gregor and the Code of Claw. During that time, Collins also wrote a rhyming picture book, When Charlie McButton Lost Power (2005), illustrated by Mike Lester.
In September 2008, Scholastic Press released The Hunger Games, the first book of a trilogy, partly inspired by the Greek myth of Theseos and the minotaur. Another inspiration was her father's career in the Air Force. The trilogy's second book, Catching Fire, was released in September 2009, and its conclusion, Mockingjay, was released on August 24, 2010. Within 14 months, 1.5 million copies of the first two Hunger Games books were printed in North America alone.
Lions Gate Entertainment acquired worldwide distribution rights to a film adaptation of The Hunger Games, produced by Nina Jacobson's Color Force production company. Collins adapted the novel for film herself. Directed by Gary Ross, filming began in late spring 2011, with Jennifer Lawrence portraying main character Katniss Everdeen. As a result of the significant popularity of The Hunger Games books, Collins was named one of Time magazine's most influential people of 2010. In March 2012, Amazon announced that Collins had become the best-selling Kindle author of all time.
Collins published The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy in 2020, based on the life of future President Coriolanus Snow, 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games trilogy. That book was also adapted for film in 2023.
Collins resides in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, within Newtown, Connecticut with her husband and their two children. She is a Roman Catholic.
References
- "Suzanne Collins." (December 2, 2023) Wikipedia - accessed December 13, 2023