Ally Condie | |
---|---|
![]() Condie at the 2018 Texas Book Festival | |
Born | Cedar City, Utah, U.S. | November 2, 1978
Occupation |
|
Education | Brigham Young University (BA) Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA) |
Genre | Dystopian fiction, children's literature, young adult fiction |
Notable works | Matched trilogy |
Children | 3 sons and a daughter |
Website | |
allycondie |
Allyson Braithwaite Condie (born November 2, 1978) is an author of young adult and middle grade fiction. [1] Her novel Matched was a #1 New York Times and international bestseller, and spent over a year on the New York Times Bestseller List. [2] The sequels ( Crossed and Reached ) are also New York Times bestsellers. [3] Matched was chosen as one of YALSA's 2011 Teens' Top Ten [4] and named as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of 2010. [5] All three books are available in 30+ languages.
Condie is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Atlantia (a standalone novel published in 2014) and Summerlost (a middle grade novel published in 2016). Summerlost was a finalist for the 2017 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery. [6]
She is the founder and director of the WriteOut Foundation, a non-profit 501 (3) (c) foundation that runs writing camps for rural teens. She is also a member of the Yallwest Board, [7] which is a non-profit California-based organization aimed at making books accessible to local children. [8] Condie is also on the board of Go Jane Give, a non-profit Utah-based organization that organizes donations to refugees. [9]
Condie was born in Cedar City, Utah. [1] At the age of four, she told a series of original stories about a unicorn to her babysitter, who wrote them down for Condie. [10] [11] Once she could write, Condie kept a regular journal, as well as a poetry journal. [11] Condie did not have much time for creative writing in high school, college, or her years as a high school English teacher. [11] [12] In high school, Condie ran cross country and track, and has maintained a love for distance running even today. [11] Condie partially credits her interest in YA writing to her positive experience working with high schoolers, despite not writing much during her own time in high school. [11] She wanted to become the kind of author she would have felt comfortable recommending her students read. [13] Writing for adolescents came naturally to Condie because of her experience as a high school teacher, cross country and track coach, [12] as a sorority mom, and especially since she herself enjoys reading YA literature. [13]
She attended Brigham Young University and has an undergraduate degree in English Teaching. She taught high school English in Utah and in upstate New York. With the arrival of their first child, Condie quit teaching to raise a family. During this time away from school and work, she picked up writing again. [14] Condie began publishing YA literature with Deseret Book Company, a small, Utah-based publisher. [14] [15] She published her first book in 2006, Yearbook, which was subsequently followed by the remaining two books in the Yearbook trilogy: First Day (2007) and Reunion (2008). The trilogy was followed by two stand-alone novels: Freshman for President (2008) and Being Sixteen (2010). [14]
In 2017, she lived with her husband and four children in Pleasant Grove, Utah. [16] The couple had three sons, the oldest of which had been diagnosed with autism in 2011. [17] In 2012 the family had adopted a girl from China. [18] Also in 2017, Condie graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts with a Master's in Fine Arts Degree. [19] Condie went through a divorce in 2019. [20] She returned to her maiden name, Braithwaite, and struggled at first emotionally with the fact that her novels will continue to be published under the name of her Ex-Husband. [21] She married her second husband, David, in August 2023. [22] Condie is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). [16] [23] The Utah landscape and Christian themes from her upbringing continue to influence her writing. [13] While trying to come to terms with her divorce, Condie wrote her first adult novel, The Unwedding. [20]
The YA novel Matched was published by Dutton Penguin in November 2010 and reached number three on the Children's Chapter Books bestseller list in January. [24] [25] [26] Condie took the manuscript for Matched to Penguin Random House, after being advised so from her director at Deseret Book, where it reached an international audience. [15] The second book, Crossed , was published in November 2011, and Reached , published November 2012, completed the trilogy. The trilogy falls into the category of dystopian YA, which has increased in popularity for the modern YA audience. [14] [27] [28]
Condie's standalone novel, Summerlost, marked a transition for the novelist from YA to middle grade writing. Speaking on "Summerlost," (Dutton Children's Books, 2016) Condie mentions that the characters and the location of her novel were inspired by her own childhood in Cedar City, Utah. [10] The fictional "Iron Creek" is inspired by "Coal Creek" in Cedar City. [10]
This trilogy is written with Brendan Reichs
At least one new novel from Ally Condie is planned, an untitled YA novel. [36]
Mormon fiction is generally fiction by or about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are also referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormons. Its history is commonly divided into four sections as first organized by Eugene England: foundations, home literature, the "lost" generation, and faithful realism. During the first fifty years of the church's existence, 1830–1880, fiction was not popular, though Parley P. Pratt wrote a fictional Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil. With the emergence of the novel and short stories as popular reading material, Orson F. Whitney called on fellow members to write inspirational stories. During this "home literature" movement, church-published magazines published many didactic stories and Nephi Anderson wrote the novel Added Upon. The generation of writers after the home literature movement produced fiction that was recognized nationally but was seen as rebelling against home literature's outward moralization. Vardis Fisher's Children of God and Maurine Whipple's The Giant Joshua were prominent novels from this time period. In the 1970s and 1980s, authors started writing realistic fiction as faithful members of the LDS Church. Acclaimed examples include Levi S. Peterson's The Backslider and Linda Sillitoe's Sideways to the Sun. Home literature experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s when church-owned Deseret Book started to publish more fiction, including Gerald Lund's historical fiction series The Work and the Glory and Jack Weyland's novels.
Shannon Hale is an American author primarily of young adult fantasy, including the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy and The Goose Girl. Her first novel for adults, Austenland, was adapted into a film in 2013. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and the University of Montana. She has also co-written with her husband, Dean.
Martha Elizabeth "Libba" Bray is an American writer of young adult novels including the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Going Bovine, and The Diviners.
Robison Wells is an American novelist and blogger.
Jennifer Donnelly is an American writer best known for the young adult historical novel A Northern Light.
Amy Sarig King is an American writer of short fiction and young adult fiction. She is the recipient of the 2022 Margaret Edwards Award for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature."
Matched, by Ally Condie, is the first novel in the Matched trilogy. The novel is a dystopian young adult novel about a tightly controlled society in which young people are "matched" with their life partners at the age of 17. The main character is 17-year-old Cassia Reyes, who is Matched with her best friend, Xander Carrow. However, when viewing the information for her Match, the picture of another young man Ky Markham, an acquaintance outcast at her school, is flashed across the screen. As Cassia attempts to figure out the source of the mishap, she finds herself conflicted about whether her Match is appropriate for her–and whether the Society is all that it seems to be. This book is followed by Crossed and Reached.
Crossed is a young adult novel written by Allyson Braithwaite Condie. It is the sequel to Matched and the second book in the Matched trilogy, which concludes with Reached. Told in the alternating perspectives of Cassia and Ky, the novel is largely set in a desert canyon which was inspired by Condie's experience growing up in southern Utah. The plot follows Cassia and Ky's respective journeys to find each other again in the outer provinces as they begin to learn of a growing rebellion against the Society. Reception to the novel was mixed to positive and the novel reached The New York Times bestseller's list for children's chapter books.
Divergent, the debut novel of American novelist Veronica Roth, was published by HarperCollins Children's Books in 2011. The novel is the first in the Divergent series, a trilogy of young adult dystopian novels set in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago. The society defines its citizens by their social and personality-related affiliation with one of five factions. This rigid system has removed the threat of anyone exercising independent will and re-threatening the population's safety. In the story, Beatrice Prior joins the ranks of the Dauntless faction and explores her new identity as "Tris". Underlying the action- and dystopian-focused main plot is a romantic subplot between Tris and "Four", one of her instructors in the Dauntless faction.
Marissa Meyer is an American novelist. A large portion of her bibliography is centered on retellings of fairy tales. She is best known for her series The Lunar Chronicles, which includes her 2012 debut novel, Cinder.
Reached is a 2012 young adult dystopian novel by Allyson Braithwaite Condie and is the final novel in the Matched Trilogy, preceded by Matched and Crossed. The novel was published on November 13, 2012, by Dutton Juvenile and was set to have a first printing of 500,000 copies. The novel is told from the viewpoints of Cassia, Ky, and Xander, a point that Condie insisted on. The plot follows the experiences of the three protagonists with the rising of the rebellion against the Society, the race to find the cure against a plague of mysterious origin, and discovering the real intentions of the Rising. Critical reception of the novel was positive and it reached No. 6 on USA Today's Best Selling Books list in 2012.
Amie Kaufman is an Australian author. She has authored New York Times bestselling and internationally bestselling science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She is known for the Starbound Trilogy and Unearthed, which she co-authored with Meagan Spooner; for her series The Illuminae Files, co-authored with Jay Kristoff; and for her solo series, Elementals. Her books have been published in over 35 countries.
Angie Thomas is an American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give (2017). Her second young adult novel, On the Come Up, was released on February 25, 2019.
Dana Jae Schwartz is an American journalist, screenwriter and author. She was previously a correspondent at Entertainment Weekly; she is also the author of five books. She also writes and hosts Noble Blood, a historical weekly podcast for iHeartMedia about the dark side of monarchy.
Julie Berry is an American author of children's and young adults books and winner of several national book awards.
Dhonielle Clayton is an American author and chief operating officer of We Need Diverse Books. She has written multiple book series, including The Belles (2018-2023). She also collaborated with Tiffany D. Jackson, Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon to write Blackout (2021).
Raybearer is a 2020 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian American writer Jordan Ifueko. Ifueko's debut, it was published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams, on August 18, 2020.
The Matchedtrilogy is a young adult, dystopian fiction series written by American author Ally Condie, set in a centrally governed society. The Society seems to be formed after an apocalyptical global warming event. The novel Matched was published by Dutton Penguin in November 2010 and reached number three on the Children's Chapter Books bestseller list in January. Previously working with a small, Utah-based publisher, Condie took her manuscript to Penguin Random House, after being advised to do so from her director at Deseret Book. This helped the novel reach a national audience. The Matched novel has been optioned to the Walt Disney Company for a film adaptation. Foreign rights were sold to 30 countries before publication. The second book, Crossed, was published in November 2011, and Reached, published November 2012, completed the trilogy.
Beasts of Prey is a 2021 young adult fantasy novel by American writer Ayana Gray. Gray's debut novel follows two teenagers, Koffi and Ekon, who enter the magical Greater Jungle in pursuit of a murderous creature called the Shetani. It was published on September 28, 2021, and quickly entered the New York Times and Indie Bestseller lists.
Nina LaCour is an American author, primarily known for writing young adult literature with queer, romantic story lines. Her novel We Are Okay won the Printz Award in 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)