Suzanne Collins is the author of the award winning young adult dystopian series, The Hunger Games. She was born on August 10th, 1962 in Connecticut.  Growing up, Collins learned about survival skills from her father; consequently, she would later write about these skills, using her knowledge of hunting and gathering to help her develop her characters. In the 1990s, she worked for several children's television companies, helping write for popular shows like Little Bear and Oswald. After contributing to TV programs for kids, Collins began writing her first book series, The Underland Chronicles.  Even in this first written series, Collins tackles difficult subject matters, which she believes kids can handle and want to talk about. The Hunger Games was published by Scholastic Publishing in 2008; it went on to win many awards, including Notable Book from New York Times. According to Collins, part of her inspiration for the story comes from The Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur along with the Gladiator games of Roman times. The second book, Catching Fire (2009), and third, Mockingjay (2010), were published a few years after the first in the series. Suzanne is still a writer, and most recently published a prequel in the series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in 2020 ("Suzanne Collins").