Picture of Suzanne Collin

about suzanne

Biography

In 1991, Suzanne Collins began her professional career writing for children's television. She worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She also co-wrote the Rankin/Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! with her friend, Peter Bakalian, which was nominated for a WGA Award in Animation. Most recently she was the Head Writer for Scholastic Entertainment's Clifford's Puppy Days,and a freelancer on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children's author and illustrator James Proimos, who talked her into giving children's books a try.Thinking one day about Alice in Wonderland, she was struck by how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who, like her own, lived in urban surroundings. In New York City, you're much more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole and, if you do, you're not going to find a tea party. What you might find...? Well, that's the story of Gregor the Overlander, the first book in her five-part fantasy/war series, The Underland Chronicles,which became a New York Times bestseller. It has been sold into 21 foreign territories.
Picture of The Underland Cronicals, all 5 books
The Underland Cronicals
Her next series, The Hunger Games Trilogy, is an international bestseller. The Hunger Games has spent over six years to date on The New York Times bestseller list since publication in September 2008, and has also appeared consistently on USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. It has been sold into 54 territories in 52 languages. In 2010 Suzanne was named to the TIME 100 list as well as the Entertainment Weekly Entertainers of the Year list. In 2016, she was presented the 2016 Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community for exemplifying the unique power of young people's literature to change lives and create lifelong book lovers. It was the first time the Guild presented the award to a YA author.
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Interview

Here is an interview that I did with Jen Rees at Scholastic Press:

1. Of all the places Gregor could have traveled to, why the Underland?
I liked the fact that this world was teeming under New York City and nobody was aware of it. That you could be going along preoccupied with your own problems and then whoosh! You take a wrong turn in your laundry room and suddenly a giant cockroach is right in your face. No magic, no space or time travel, there's just a ticket to another world behind your clothes dryer.
2. Is there anything you find/found difficult or challenging in writing from the perspective of an 11-year-old boy?
I remember being eleven very clearly and I had a lot of friends who were boys so it felt pretty natural being in Gregor's head.
3. Are you anything like Gregor?
I think I'm like Gregor because we both want to do the right thing but sometimes have trouble figuring out what it is. Also, neither of us likes to ride roller coasters and we've both changed a lot of diapers.
But Gregor is much braver than I am…if I even see a regular sized rat in New York City I immediately cross the street.
4. What kinds of things did you enjoy doing when you were 11?
Gymnastics, like Luxa. Reading. Running around in the woods with my friends.
5. Many people think bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders are creepy! Did you have to get over your fear of any (or all!) of them to write this story?
I wish I could say that after I researched the creepy animals I was no longer at all afraid of them…but that would be a big fib! Cockroaches aren't really scary, just a little germy, so I don't mind them much. I love bats…except these really loud ones that get in my attic in the summer and hold some kind of party all night long. Spiders still scare me some, although I'm also fascinated by them and I can happily watch them from a distance. But rats…not pet rats but the wild kind…I will always have what I consider to be a healthy fear of rats. You should, too.
6. Are you kinder to cockroaches, bats, rats, and/or spiders nowadays?
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