Siobhan Vivian (born January 12, 1979) is a bestselling American novelist, editor, and screenwriter.

Early life and education

Siobhan Vivian was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

on January 12, 1979. At a young age, Vivian moved to

Rutherford, New Jersey Rutherford is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough's population was 18,834. Rutherford was formed as a borough by an act of the ...

where she went to school and often got in trouble for sneaking out and not doing her homework. A 1997 graduate of Rutherford High School, Vivian has used her childhood in Rutherford as a "deep well" of ideas for her work. Vivian moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

after high school where she attended the University of the Arts and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Writing for Film and Television. Vivian then moved back to

where she earned an MFA in Creative Writing: Children's Literature from

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

. It was while in graduate school that Vivian met fellow authors Morgan Matson and Jenny Han, the latter of which she would go on to cowrite the Burn for Burn Trilogy with.

Career

After college, Vivian worked as an editor at

Alloy Entertainment Alloy Entertainment (formerly Daniel Weiss Associates and 17th Street Productions) is a book packaging and television production unit of Warner Bros. Television Studios. It produces books, television series, and feature films. Alloy Entertainme ...

where she worked on a number of

New York Times Bestselling ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States.John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

Series and also was the screenwriter for Playhouse Disney's

Little Einsteins ''Little Einsteins'' is an American animated children's television series based on the Baby Einstein line of videos. It was produced by The Baby Einstein Company (which, at the time, was owned by Disney) and animated by Curious Pictures. The s ...

. In 2008, Vivian's first book, A Little Friendly Advice, was released and was shortly followed by a picture book she cowrote with

J. Otto Seibold James Otto Seibold (born 1960) is an American artist and children's book creator. With no formal art training, he was able to sneak into the art world during the "outsider art" craze of the 1990s. His book ''Mr. Lunch Takes a Plane Ride'', publish ...

titled Vunce Upon A Time. Vivian's next book, Same Difference, which was published in 2009, garnered Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year as well as 2012 ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults. Both of these awards were also awarded to her next book, Not That Kind of Girl, along with a Caroline W. Field Award Nomination. Her most recent solo book, The List, inspired by true events at a high school in New Jersey, was published in 2012 and earned the ALA 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults, was a

Junior Library Guild Junior Library Guild, formerly the Junior Literary Guild, is a commercial book club devoted to juvenile literature. It was created in 1929 as one of the enterprises of the Literary Guild, an adult book club created in 1927 by Samuel W. Craig and H ...

Selection, and was a best seller in France. The novel was also optioned by MTV with

Stephen Chbosky Stephen Chbosky (; born January 25, 1970) is an American screenwriter, film producer, film director, novelist, television writer, and television producer. He is best-known for writing the bestselling coming-of-age novel '' The Perks of Being a W ...

as executive producer. All of Vivian's individually written books were published by Push, an imprint of

Scholastic Scholastic may refer to: * a philosopher or theologian in the tradition of scholasticism * ''Scholastic'' (Notre Dame publication) * Scholastic Corporation, an American publishing company of educational materials * Scholastic Building, in New Y ...

. In 2012, Vivian also published Burn for Burn the first book in the Burn for Burn Trilogy with fellow

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

author, Jenny Han. The following two books were published each following year. Vivian's most recent novel, The Last Boy and Girl in the World, was released in April 2016. In the June 19, 2016 edition of the New York Times Book Review, Vivian placed at number 2 in the Young Adult E-book category for The List. In November 2019, Vivian faced criticism for her tweets regarding Brooke Nelson, a college student who was mentioned in her local newspaper as saying she thought that author

Sarah Dessen Sarah Dessen (born June 6, 1970) is an American novelist who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Born in Illinois, Dessen graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her first book, ''That Summer'', was published in 1996. She ...

's YA novels were not suitable for the Common Read program run by

Northern State University Northern State University (NSU) is a public university in Aberdeen, South Dakota. NSU is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents and offers 45 bachelor's degrees, 53 minors, six associate degrees, 16 pre-professional programs, 23 certifi ...

, Aberdeen. When the story was reported in Jezebel, The Guardian, the Washington Post, and Slate, Vivian reportedly regretted her actions.

Personal life

She currently resides in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh with her husband, designer Nick Caruso, and their daughters, Vivian (born 2013) and Marie (born 2015). Additionally, Vivian is a professor of creative writing at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

Bibliography

* 2008 – ''A Little Friendly Advice'' * 2008 – ''Vunce Upon A Time'' (with

) * 2009 – ''Same Difference'' * 2010 – ''Not that Kind of Girl'' * 2012 – ''The List'' * 2012 – ''Burn for Burn'' (Burn for Burn, #1) (with Jenny Han) * 2013 – ''Fire with Fire'' (Burn for Burn, #2) (with Jenny Han) * 2014 – ''Ashes to Ashes'' (Burn for Burn, #3) (with Jenny Han) * 2016 – ''The Last Boy and Girl in the World'' * 2018 - ''Stay Sweet'' * 2020 - ''We are the Wildcats''

References

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vivian, Siobhan 1979 births Living people People from Rutherford, New Jersey Novelists from New Jersey Novelists from New York (state) American writers of young adult literature 21st-century American novelists American women novelists University of Pittsburgh faculty Women writers of young adult literature 21st-century American women writers Novelists from Pennsylvania Rutherford High School (New Jersey) alumni American women academics