Suzanne Collins was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1962. Her father was an Air Force pilot, and she moved frequently as a child; her experience with a family member in the military would contribute to the deep empathy she showed in her successful series The Hunger Games. In 1991, she began her career as a writer for children's television, penning scripts for many hit Nickelodeon shows for students from preschool to middle school and later moving to work on preschool shows for Scholastic and Kids WB. Her work was nominated for several awards.
She published her first book, Gregor the Overlander, in 2003. Collins was inspired to write Gregor when she began to wonder how a child raised in...