Sarah J. Maas

Sarah J. Maas was born on March 5, 1986 in New York City, New York.[2][3]

In 2008, Maas graduated magna cum laude from Hamilton College in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, where she majored in creative writing and minored in religious studies.[4]

Living in Pennsylvania, she is married to Josh, with her son and her dog. Her son, Taran, was born in June 2018. Maas met her spouse on the first day of her freshmen year of college.[5]

Maas began writing what would become her debut novel, Throne of Glass, when she was sixteen years old.[4][6] After writing several chapters of the novel (then titled Queen of Glass), Maas posted them on FictionPress.com, where it was one of the most popular stories on the site. It was later removed from the site when Maas decided to try to publish the novel.[6] The story line of the series is based on the story of Cinderella, with the premise of "What if Cinderella was not a servant, but an assassin? And what if she didn't attend the ball to meet the prince, but to kill him, instead?"[6][7]

In 2008, Maas started sending the story to agents before signing with Tamar Rydzinski of The Laura Dial Literary Agency in 2009.[6] Throne of Glass was purchased in March 2010 by Bloomsbury, who later purchased two additional books in the series.[8] The series is available in 15 countries and 35 languages.[9][4] While several prequel novellas set two years before the first novel were also published, these were later condensed into one book, The Assassin's Blade.[10] The second book of the series, Crown of Midnight, was named a New York Times young adult best-seller.[2][11] In September 2015, it was announced that the Mark Gordon Company had acquired television rights for Throne of Glass.[12] The final book in the series, Kingdom of Ash, was released on October 23, 2018; the finished series comprises seven books in total.[9][13]

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Maas' second series, is a loose retelling of the traditional Beauty and the Beast.[14][15] The first book of the trilogy was written in 2009, but was not published until 2015. The fourth book in the series, A Court of Silver Flames, is set to be published on February 16, 2021,[16] with the series planned to be adapted into film in the future.[17]

On May 16, 2018, Maas announced her third series overall and first adult fantasy series, Crescent City. The first book, titled House of Earth and Blood, was released by Bloomsbury on March 3, 2020.[18][19]

With an interview with Writers & Artists, Maas told them that "Music—especially movie scores and classical music" is her inspiration of writing.[20] She continued on to say that Sabriel written by Garth Nix and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley "kindled my love for reading fantasy and my desire to write it..."[20]

• Official website