Suzanne Collins


Suzanne Collins is an American author and television writer who is best known as the author of the young adult dystopian book series The Hunger Games. She is also the author of the children's fantasy series The Underland Chronicles.

Early life and education

Collins was born on August 10, 1962, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Jane Brady Collins and Lieutenant Colonel Michael John Collins, a U.S. Air Force officer who served in the Korean and the Vietnam War. Her grandfather and numerous uncles fought in both World Wars. She is the youngest of four children, her older siblings being Kathryn, Andrew, and Joan. As the daughter of a military officer, she moved with her family very often, mostly living in Europe and the eastern part of America. As a young girl, Collins enjoyed reading, gymnastics, and exploring the woods with her friends.
Collins graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham in 1980 as a Theater Arts major. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University Bloomington in 1985 with a double major in theater and telecommunications. In 1989, Collins earned her Master of Fine Arts in dramatic writing from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Career

Collins began her career in 1991 as a writer for children's television shows. She worked on several shows for Nickelodeon, including Clarissa Explains It All, The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, Little Bear, Oswald and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!. She was also the head writer for the PBS spin-off Clifford's Puppy Days. She received a Writers Guild of America nomination in animation for co-writing the critically acclaimed 2001 Christmas special, Santa, Baby! After meeting children's author James Proimos while working on the Kids' WB show Generation O!, Collins felt 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, illustrated by Mike Lester.
In September 2008, Scholastic Press released The Hunger Games, the first book of a series by Collins. The Hunger Games was partly inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Another inspiration was her father's career in the Air Force, which gave her insight to poverty, starvation, and the effects of war. The trilogy's second book, Catching Fire, was released in September 2009, and its third book, 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. The Hunger Games was on The New York Times Best Seller list for more than 60 weeks in a row. 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 well as Josh Hutcherson who played Peeta Mellark and Liam Hemsworth who played Gale Hawthorne. The subsequent two novels were adapted into films as well, with the latter book split into two cinematic installments, for a total of four films representing the three books. As a result of the 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 she had become the best-selling Kindle author of all time. Amazon also revealed that Collins had written 29 of the 100 most highlighted passages in Kindle ebooks—and on a separate Amazon list of recently highlighted passages, she had written 17 of the top 20.
Collins released a Hunger Games prequel titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in May 2020. It is based on the life of future President Coriolanus Snow, 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games trilogy. A film adaptation, starring Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, was released on November 17, 2023. In March 2025, it was followed by Sunrise on the Reaping, which explores the 50th Hunger Games won by Haymitch Abernathy. Lionsgate procured the rights to adapt the novel into a film, which is set to release on November 20, 2026.

Personal life

Collins moved to New York City in 1987 and lived there until 2003.
In 1991, Collins met Charles "Cap" Pryor at Indiana University and they married in 1992. Pryor has been supportive of Collins's career, reading and critiquing the earliest drafts of The Hunger Games. They live in the Sandy Hook area of Newtown, Connecticut, with their two children, Charlie and Isabel. Though Collins's IMDb profile claims she and Pryor divorced in 2015, this has never been confirmed.
In 2013, Forbes reported that Collins has a net worth of $55 million, making her No. 3 on Forbes's Top-Earning Authors List.

Awards

WorkYearAwardCategoryResult
The Hunger Games2008Cybils AwardSpeculative Fiction: Young AdultWon
The Hunger Games2009–2010Soaring Eagle Book AwardWon
The Hunger Games2009Buckeye Children's & Teen Book AwardWon
The Hunger Games2009Thumbs Up! AwardWon
The Hunger Games2009Locus AwardYoung Adult Novel
The Hunger Games2009Inky AwardsSilver Inky AwardWon
The Hunger Games2009Golden Duck AwardHal Clement AwardWon
The Hunger Games2010Hampshire Book AwardsBook AwardWon
The Hunger Games2010Kentucky Bluegrass AwardGrades 9-12Won
The Hunger Games2010Children's Book AwardOlder ReadersWon
The Hunger Games2010Children's Book AwardOverallWon
The Hunger Games2010Vermont Golden Dome Book AwardWon
The Hunger Games2011California Young Reader MedalYoung AdultWon
The Hunger Games2011Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book AwardWon
The Hunger Games2011Sequoyah Book AwardYoung Adult and IntermediateWon
The Hunger Games2011Sequoyah Book AwardHigh SchoolWon
The Hunger Games2011Geffen AwardTranslated Science Fiction NovelWon
The Hunger Games20122012 Teen Choice AwardsChoice BookWon
The Hunger Games2012Concorde Book AwardWon
The Hunger Games2012BILBY AwardOlder Readers AwardWon
The Hunger Games 2013Ray Bradbury Award
The Hunger Games 2012Bram Stoker AwardBest Screenplay
Catching Fire2009Goodreads Choice AwardsYoung Adult SeriesWon
Catching Fire2010Golden Duck AwardHal Clement AwardWon
Catching Fire2010Locus AwardYoung Adult Novel
Catching Fire2010Indies Choice Book AwardsYoung AdultWon
Catching Fire2011–2012Soaring Eagle Book AwardWon
Catching Fire2012Geffen AwardScience FictionWon
Catching Fire2014BILBY AwardOlder Readers AwardWon
Catching Fire2018Goodreads Choice AwardsBest of the Best
Mockingjay2010Goodreads Choice AwardsYoung Adult FantasyWon
Mockingjay2011Neffy AwardsSF/F AuthorWon
Mockingjay2011Children's Choice Book AwardsTeen Choice Book of the Year
Mockingjay2011Locus AwardYoung Adult Novel
Mockingjay2011Andre Norton Award
Mockingjay2013Geffen AwardYoung AdultWon
Mockingjay2016BILBY AwardOlder Readers AwardWon
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes2020Goodreads Choice AwardsYoung Adult Fantasy
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes2021Geffen AwardScience FictionWon
Sunrise on the Reaping2025Goodreads Choice AwardsYoung Adult Fantasy & Sci-FiWon
Sunrise on the Reaping2025Waterstones Book of the Year
Sunrise on the Reaping2025Dragon AwardsBest Young Adult/Middle Grade NovelWon
Sunrise on the Reaping2025Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Award
Year of the Jungle2014Christopher AwardBooks for Young People - Kindergarten and upWon
Year of the Jungle2014Charlotte Zolotow Award
Gregor the Overlander
2005Beehive Book AwardChildren's Fiction
Gregor the Overlander
2006Waterstones Children's Book PrizeBest Book
Gregor the Overlander
2004NAIBA Children's Novel AwardWon

; Other awards