Tui T. Sutherland

About

Tui Tamara Sutherland (born July 31, 1978) 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 67 million copies.

Tui T. Sutherland was born on July 31, 1978, in Caracas, Venezuela. Her mother, who was from New Zealand, named her after the tūī, a bird native to that country. Sutherland lived in Asunción, Paraguay, Miami, Florida, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 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…