Suzanne Collins
“The Hunger Games”
Early Life
• Born August 10, 1962 in Hartford, Connecticut
• Father was a U.S. Air Force officer who served in
Vietnam
• Family moved constantly, but primarily on the East
Coast
• Graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts in
Birmingham with a Theater Arts degree
• Earned M.F.A. in dramatic writing from the New York
University Tisch School of the Arts
Career
• 1991 – writer for children’s television shows
• Clarissa Explains It All
• The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo
• Little Bear
• Inspired to write her own children’s books
• Gregor the Overlander
• First book of the Underland Chronicles
• Inspired by “Alice in Wonderland”
“The Hunger Games” Trilogy
• September 2008 – Scholastic Press released
“The Hunger Games”
• Inspired by the Greek myth “Theseus and the
Minotaur”
• Inspired by firsthand knowledge of poverty,
starvation, and effects of war
• September 2009 – “Catching Fire” released
• August 2010 – “Mockingjay” released
Success
• Collins was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential
People in 2010
• March 2012 – Amazon announced Collins was the best-selling
Kindle author of all time
“The Hunger Games
• Setting
• Unspecified future time
• Totalitarian nation of Panem – the state holds total authority over the society
and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life whenever possible
• District 12 – formerly known as Appalachia (East KY, VA, WV)
• We would be considered District 11
• Themes
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Government Control
“Big Brother”
Personal Independence
Power, Corruption, Downfall