James Dashner
Children's Author
Children's author who is best known for writing The 13th Reality series as well as the Jimmy Fincher Saga. He published the first book in a third series, The Maze Runner, in 2009 and the book was turned into a 2014 film starring Dylan O'Brien and Kaya Scodelario.
He studied at Brigham Young University, where he earned a degree in accounting. He worked in finance before beginning his career in writing.
His novel The Journal of Curious Letters was a Borders Original Voices pick in 2008.
He and his five siblings were raised in Georgia. With his wife, Lynette Anderson, he had four children.
He beat out Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Jeffrey Scott Savage, and Jessica Day George to win the 2008 Whitney Award for Best Youth Fiction.