Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card was born on August 24th, 1951 in Richland Washington. The third of six children, Card grew up in California and served as a missionary in the LDS church in Brazil. Card graduated from Brigham Young University and attended the University of Utah and the University of Notre Dame.

It was during his time at Brigham Young that he began writing. He began writing poetry and his own plays many of which were produced by the college. While working at the college's paper, Card began dabbling in science fiction and wrote one of his most famous novels 'Ender's Game' as a short story. He later adapted the story into a full-length novel and it was purchased by the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact and published in an issue in August of 1977. During this time, he was also writing short audio plays on the history of the LDS church and their gospel as well as working as an associate editor for the Ensign, the church's official magazine.

When he received a novel contract for two more books he left the magazine and began writing full time. In October of 1983, Card received a contract for a full series called the Alvin Maker trilogy that published between 1987 and 2003. He also began writing a full series of sequels to 'Ender's Game', which went on to have 11 books in the series total, including short stories and prequels. The most recent were published in 2008.

Card won both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award in consecutive years (1985 and 1986, respectively). Card is the only author to have ever won Science Fiction's two biggest prizes in two consecutive years.

In 2008, Card began writing a screenplay for an 'Ender's Game' movie, which was released in 2013. Card has also dabbled in many other genres of writing including horror novels, film novelizations, and graphic novels as well as contributing dialog to video games.

In 2005 Card became a creative writing professor at Southern Virginia University, a small college run by the LDS church. He has also written two books on the subject of writing, 'Characters and Viewpoint' (1988) and 'How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy' (1990).

Card is married to Kristin Allen Card and the two have five children together. Each child is named after an author that he and his wife admire. He and his family currently live in Greensboro, North Carolina.