Tui Tamara Sutherland (born July 31, 1978, in Caracas, Venezuela) is an American children's book author who has written more than 60 books under her own name and under several pen names. In 2009, she won $46,200 over three games on Jeopardy! She is best known for writing the Wings of Fire series of epic dragon fantasy novels. Sutherland's books have sold over 15 million copies.

Early life, education and literary career

Tui T. Sutherland was born on July 31, 1978, in Caracas. Her mother, who was from New Zealand, named her after the tūī, a bird native to that country. Sutherland lived in Asuncion, Miami, and Santo Domingo for short periods before moving to New Jersey in high school. While in high school she began doing theater, mostly backstage work. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Williams College in 1998, writing her college thesis about Ophelia from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, then earned a Master of Arts in Art History. Sutherland's thesis was titled The beautified Ophelia: Shakespeare in British Art, 1850-1900. Sutherland abandoned ideas of a career in theater in favor of writing children's books after "she partook in creative writing courses over six months in New Zealand", a decision she half-joked allowed her career path "to be more far stable and lucrative". Sutherland began her professional literary career as an editor in Brooklyn, New York, at Grosset & Dunlap, then at HarperCollins; her debut solo work, This Must Be Love (a retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream), was published in 2004. She achieved initial commercial success on the New York Times bestseller list with her junior novel adaptation of the screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and rose to further notoriety after joining the Erin Hunter team alongside Victoria Holmes, Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry on the popular Warriors and Seekers series, from the perspective of cats and bears respectively. Her success during this time, coupled with what she learned about the inside workings of the publishing industry, helped her work up the courage to write and see through to publication several books of her own. Sutherland eventually quit her position as an editor to write full-time and later moved to Watertown, Massachusetts. Sutherland has written books under her actual name (or an initialized variation) as well as under pseudonyms and pen names, including Tamara Summers, Heather Williams, and Rob Kidd, the latter of which was shared. After the conclusion of her dog-focused Pet Trouble series, Sutherland pitched her agent Steven Malk and the team at Scholastic Inc. about writing an epic fantasy series starring dragons as the heroes. With Amanda Maciel as her editor, the Wings of Fire series debuted on July 1, 2012 to commercial success, generally receiving mixed to positive critical reviews. Over time the series gradually amassed a fan following and became an international bestseller.

Personal life

Sutherland grew up sharing original ideas and exploring the classics with her younger sister Kari. She married her husband Adam in October 2007, and the two live in Watertown, Massachusetts with their two sons. Though she has generally refrained from revealing private details about her life in her frequent public events, Sutherland's religious background has been noted. Sutherland is known to borrow influences from a variety of religious traditions and backgrounds; she "attended a Baptist missionary school in Paraguay, studied Buddhism in college" and is raising her children with Judeo-Christian influences, having "married a wonderful Jewish man". Though she has woven philosophical and spiritual aspects from a variety of sources and traditions into her work, she has also said that "religion isn't something talked about as freely" in her daily life, instead hoping that her writing can open up discussions among readers and pose questions to contemplate in the freer, larger-than-life fantasy worlds she creates. Sutherland has drawn inspiration from locations she has visited over the years, including the Waitomo Caves in New Zealand and the Amber Palace in India, and develops her fantasy worlds' environments through watching nature documentaries such as Planet Earth and Life in the Undergrowth. Although she is not a member of the WGA, Sutherland marched in support of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike in Boston. A long-time fan of Jeopardy!, she named the sixth dog in the Pet Trouble series after it. In 2009, she was a two-day champion on the show, winning a total of $46,200 over three episodes; the first two games she won by a fine margin, whereas she lost in her latter appearance as she did not wager enough money on the final clue; had she wagered everything, she would have won the game. Sutherland began a free subscription-based newsletter on Substack in late June 2024.

Individual titles

Under pseudonym

As Erin Hunter

As Rob Kidd

As Tamara Summers

As Heather Williams

Anthologies

Series

Avatars

Pet Trouble

The Menagerie

Spirit Animals

Wings of Fire

Wings of Fire: Winglets

Wings of Fire: Legends

Wings of Fire - The Graphic Novel

Wings of Fire (Spin-offs and Tie-ins)

Note: All books credited under the name Tui T. Sutherland unless otherwise stated.