Green, John (1977-…), is an American author of young adult fiction. Green won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award for Looking for Alaska (2005), his first novel. The award is presented each year to the best American book written for readers ages 12 to 18. Green’s second novel, An Abundance of Katherines (2006), was a runner-up for the 2007 Printz award.
Green based Looking for Alaska partly on his experiences at a boarding school near Birmingham, Alabama. The central character is a boy named “Pudge” Halter. The “Alaska” of the title is the name of a girl he meets at the school, a leader of the social group that adopts Pudge. Critics have praised the novel for its wit and for its realistic and complex teenage characters. It was adapted as a television mini-series in 2019. An Abundance of Katherines follows the adventures of a teenage math prodigy (gifted child) named Colin. The novel is filled with clever wordplay and portraits of warm teenage friendships.
Green collaborated with the American authors Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle in three interrelated short stories, Let It Snow (2008). His novel Paper Towns (2008) follows a teenage boy as he tries to find the girl he loves, who has disappeared. Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010), written with the American author David Levithan, is about two boys with the same name whose lives intersect in unexpected ways. In The Fault in Our Stars (2012), Green wrote a sensitive and realistic love story about two teenagers who have cancer. The book was adapted as a motion picture in 2014. Turtles All the Way Down (2017) is narrated by a bright teenage girl who suffers from a mental disorder called obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which can create great anxiety in people who experience it. Green also wrote the essay collection The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet (2021).
John Michael Green was born on Aug. 24, 1977, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and grew up primarily in Orlando, Florida. He received a B.A. degree in English and religious studies from Kenyon College in 2000.
