A Q&A with Suzanne Collins, Author ofMockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)

Q:You have said from the start that The Hunger Games story was intended as a trilogy. Did it actually end the way you planned it from the beginning?

A:Very much so. While I didn't know every detail, of course, the arc of the story from gladiator game, to revolution, to war, to the eventual outcome remained constant throughout the writing process.

Q:We understand you worked on the initial screenplay for a film to be based onThe Hunger Games. What is the biggest difference between writing a novel and writing a screenplay?

A:There were several significant differences. Time, for starters. When you're adapting a novel into a two-hour movie you can't take everything with you. The story has to be condensed to fit the new form. Then there's the question of how best to take a book told in the first person and present tense and transform it into a satisfying dramatic experience. In the novel, you never leave Katniss for a second and are privy to all of her thoughts so you need a way to dramatize her inner world and to make it possible for other characters to exist outside of her company. Finally, there's the challenge of how to present the violence while still maintaining a PG-13 rating so that your core audience can view it. A lot of things are acceptable on a page that wouldn't be on a screen. But how certain moments are depicted will ultimately be in the director's hands.

Q:Are you able to consider future projects while working onThe Hunger Games, or are you immersed in the world you are currently creating so fully that it is too difficult to think about new ideas?

A:I have a few seeds of ideas floating around in my head but--given that much of my focus is still onThe Hunger Games--it will probably be awhile before one fully emerges and I can begin to develop it.

Q:The Hunger Games is an annual televised event in which one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts is forced to participate in a fight-to-the-death on live TV. What do you think the appeal of reality television is--to both kids and adults?

A:Well, they're often set up as games and, like sporting events, there's an interest in seeing who wins. The contestants are usually unknown, which makes them relatable. Sometimes they have very talented people performing. Then there's the voyeuristic thrill—watching people being humiliated, or brought to tears, or suffering physically--which I find very disturbing. There's also the potential for desensitizing the audience, so that when they see real tragedy playing out on, say, the news, it doesn't have the impact it should.

Q:If you were forced to compete in the Hunger Games, what do you think your special skill would be?

A:Hiding. I'd be scaling those trees like Katniss and Rue. Since I was trained in sword-fighting, I guess my best hope would be to get hold of a rapier if there was one available. But the truth is I'd probably get about a four in Training.

Q:What do you hope readers will come away with when they read The Hunger Games trilogy?

A:Questions about how elements of the books might be relevant in their own lives. And, if they're disturbing, what they might do about them.

Q:What were some of your favorite novels when you were a teen?

A:A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunterby Carson McCullers
Nineteen Eighty Fourby George Orwell
Anna Kareninaby Leo Tolstoy
Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut
A Wrinkle in Timeby Madeleine L’Engle
Lord of the Fliesby William Golding
Borisby Jaapter Haar
Germinalby Emile Zola
Dandelion Wineby Ray Bradbury

(Photo© Cap Pryor)

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.

Next to the exhortation at the beginning ofMoby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen'sPride and Prejudicemust be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground.