Jennifer A. Nielsen
Jennifer A. Nielsen is a New York Times best-selling author of the Ascendance series, the Mark of the Thief trilogy, and the Traitor's Game trilogy.
She wrote several books, which she considers bad, before she switched genres and began writing young adult and children’s fantasy books. Her debut book was Elliot and the Goblin War, which grew into The Underworld Chronicles. The series includes Elliot and the Pixie Plot and Elliot and the Last Underworld War.
The False Prince (Scholastic Press), the first book in her Ascendance series, targeted at middle-grade readers, was on the New York Times “Children’s Middle Grade” list in March 2013 and was in the list’s top 15 for at least six weeks. The second book, The Runaway King was released in February 2013 and the third book, The Shadow Throne, released in February 2014, and the fourth book, The Captive Kingdom, released in 2020. Paramount Pictures bought the film rights to the series in December 2012.
Her Mark the Thief series was published from 2015 to 2017 with titles Mark of the Thief, Rise of the Wolf, and Wrath of the Storm. She published the Traitor's Game series (The Traitor's Game, The Deceiver's Heart, and The Warrior's Curse) in 2019–2020. Her stand-alone titles include A Night Divided (2015), The Scourge (2016), Resistance (2018), Words on Fire (2019), and Rescue (2021).
Nielsen is one of the authors of the Infinity Ring series. Her volume, the sixth book in the series, Behind Enemy Lines, was released in November 2013. The other books in the series are written by a team of six authors: James Dashner, Carrie Ryan, Lisa McMann, Matt de la Pena, and Matthew Kirby. James Dashner also writes the seventh book, which will conclude the series.
She was born and reared in northern Utah, where she still lives with her husband and three children. She has been involved in local theater and in school speech and debate competitions.
