Stephenie Meyer

STEPHENIE MEYER was a stay-at-home mother of three young sons in 2003 when she had a vivid dream about two characters she could not get out of her head. Putting everything she could on the back burner, Meyer invented the plot during the day and wrote it on her computer late at night when the house was quiet. Three months later she finished her first novel, Twilight.

Picked out of a slush pile at Writers House, the manuscript quickly made the rounds among publishers. Megan Tingley at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers made a major six- figure preemptive bid for three books. Within weeks of its release in 2005, the book debuted at No. 5 on The New York Times bestseller list. The rights to Twilight have been sold in 45 countries around the world.

The highly anticipated sequel, New Moon, was released in September 2006 and spent 31 weeks at No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. The book was so highly anticipated by Meyer’s eager fans that Advance Readers Copies were being sold on eBay for as high as $380.

The third book in Meyer’s Twilight Saga, Eclipse was released on August 7, 2007 and sold 150,000 copies its first day on sale. The book debuted at No. 1 on bestseller lists across the country, including USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. It was also a No. 1 bestseller in Bulgaria, Germany, Spain and Argentina.

The fourth and final book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, was published on August 2, 2008, with a first printing of 3.2 million copies—the largest first printing in the publisher’s history. Breaking Dawn sold 1.3 million copies its first day on sale in the US, rocketing the title to No. 1 on bestseller lists nationwide.

2008 was a landmark year for Meyer. On May 6, Little, Brown and Company released The Host, Meyer’s first novel for adults, which debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Additionally, USA Today declared Meyer "Author of the Year," citing that she had done something that no one else had in the 15 years of the USA Today bestselling book list when she swept the top four slots in 2008. Meyer also accomplished this unprecedented feat in 2009, when The Twilight Saga once again dominated the top of the bestseller list.

Meyer’s The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella was released in the spring of 2010, and expanded on the back story of the Bree and Riley characters, much of which was included in the film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Stephenie Meyer graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English Literature. She lives in Arizona with her husband and sons.

© 2011 Summit Entertainment