John Green (author)

This article is about writer John Michael Green from Indiana. For for other people of the same name, see John Green.

John Green
Green speaking at VidCon in 2012
Born	John Michael Green (1977-08-24) August 24, 1977 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Occupation	Writer, critic
Nationality	American
Education	B.A., English and Religious studies
Alma mater	Kenyon College
Period	2005-present
Genres	Young-adult fiction, radio, video
Notable work(s)	Looking for Alaska An Abundance of Katherines Paper Towns Let It Snow Will Grayson, Will Grayson The Fault in Our Stars
Notable award(s)	Michael L. Printz Award 2006 Looking for Alaska
Spouse(s)	Sarah Urist Green
Children	2
Relative(s)	Hank Green (brother)
Influences F. Scott Fitzgerald Walt Whitman Nerdfighters
Influenced Nerdfighters
Signature
johngreenbooks.com

John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American writer of young adult fiction and a YouTube vlogger and educator. He won the 2006 Printz Award for his debut novel, Looking for Alaska, and reached number one on a New York Times Best Seller list with The Fault in Our Stars in January 2012.

Early life and career

Green grew up in Orlando, Florida, before attending Indian Springs School, a boarding and day school outside of Birmingham, Alabama. He graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and Religious Studies.

After leaving college, Green spent five months working as a student chaplain in a children's hospital, and was enrolled at the University of Chicago Divinity School at the time, although he never actually attended. He intended to become an Episcopalian minister, but his experiences of working in a hospital with children suffering from life-threatening illnesses inspired him to become an author, and later to write The Fault in Our Stars.

Green lived for several years in Chicago, where he worked for the book review journal Booklist as a publishing assistant and production editor while writing Looking for Alaska. While there, he reviewed hundreds of books, particularly literary fiction and books about Islam or conjoined twins. He has also critiqued books for The New York Times Book Review and written for National Public Radio's All Things Considered and WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. Green lived in New York City for two years while his wife attended graduate school.

Writings

Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, was published by Dutton Children's Books in 2005. It is a school story and teen romance largely inspired by his time at Indian Springs School. For it he won the annual Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, recognizing the year's "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit". It also made the ALA's annual list Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults. The film rights were purchased already in 2005 by Paramount, which hired Josh Schwartz as writer and director. Five years later Green told fans that "I desperately loved" the screenplay but there seemed to be no interest at Paramount. Sales of Looking for Alaska continued to increase in 2011 and Green showed mixed feelings about a movie, which would threaten readers' "intense and private connection to the story". In 2012 it reached The New York Times best seller list for children's paperbacks.

Green's second novel, An Abundance of Katherines (Dutton, 2006) was a runner-up for the Printz Award and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

With fellow young adult authors Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle, Green collaborated on Let It Snow (Speak, 2008), which comprises three interconnected short stories set in the same small town on Christmas Eve during a massive snowstorm. The story that he penned is called "A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle". On November 27, 2009, the book reached number 10 on the New York Times bestseller list for paperback children's books.

Green's third novel, Paper Towns, was released on October 16, 2008. It debuted at number 5 on the New York Times bestseller list for children's books, and the movie rights to Paper Towns have been optioned by Mandate Pictures and Mr. Mudd. Green was hired to write the Paper Towns screenplay. On April 30, 2009, Paper Towns was awarded the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel and the 2010 Corine Literature Prize.

Green and David Levithan, another young-adult writer and a friend, collaborated on the novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson (Dutton, 2010) It was a runner-up (Honor Book) for two of the annual ALA awards, the Stonewall Book Award, for excellence in GLBT children's and YA literature, and the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production. Green appeared on the sixty-first episode of Smart Mouths Podcast to discuss Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

In August 2009, Green confirmed he was writing a new book, titled The Sequel, with an expected release in 2011. On a BlogTV show, he announced that he had scrapped The Sequel. His fifth book, titled The Fault in Our Stars was officially announced on June 28, 2011, and was released on January 10, 2012. On a YouTube live show, John explained that several parts of The Sequel were reworked into The Fault in Our Stars. John Green signed all 150,000 copies of the first printing, as well as his wife and his brother leaving their own symbols, a Yeti and an Anglerfish (known as the "Hanklerfish"), respectively. The New York Times Best Seller List for Children's Books listed The Fault in Our Stars at #1 for the weeks of January 29, 2012 and February 5, 2012.

Vlogbrothers

Main article: Vlogbrothers

Brotherhood 2.0 project

John Green and his brother Hank ran a video blog project called Brotherhood 2.0. The original project ran from January 1 to December 31, 2007, with the premise that the brothers would cease all text-based ("textual") communication for the year and instead converse by video blogs, made available to the public via YouTube (where they are known as the "vlogbrothers") and on their Brotherhood 2.0 website.

Vlogbrothers after Brotherhood 2.0

In their December 31, 2007 video, the brothers revealed their decision to continue vlogging even though the project had ended. Following the conclusion of Brotherhood 2.0, a website was set up for their fans at http://www.nerdfighters.com.

The duo also created a sub-project of Vlogbrothers called Truth or Fail, a game show that is most frequently hosted by Hank in addition to a variety of guest hosts.

On January 20, 2010, Green went on paternity leave and "Secret Sister", acclaimed author Maureen Johnson made videos in his place until February 10, 2010. John's only vlog during that period was on January 28, when he read from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as a eulogy/tribute to the author; Miles, the narrator of Looking for Alaska, is frequently compared^{[citation needed]} to the narrator of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield. Green "introduced" his son Henry Green upon his return to vlogging on February 15, 2010.

Starting in 2012, Green and his brother started a short-format education video series entitled Crash Course. Between January and November 2012, John taught world history, and his brother taught biology. In November 2012, John and Hank began teaching two new courses, Literature and Ecology, respectively. In early 2013, John and Hank began teaching two new courses, American History and Chemistry, respectively.

VidCon

Main article: VidCon

VidCon is an annual conference based around online video. The conference was created by John Green and his brother Hank Green in 2010 in response to the growing online video community. Hank states, “We wanted to get as much of the online video community together, in one place, in the real world for a weekend. It's a celebration of the community, with performances, concerts, and parties; but it's also a discussion of the explosion in community-based online video.” The event draws many popular YouTube users, as well as their fans, and provides room for the community to interact. The event also contains an industry conference for people and businesses working in the online video field.

Project for Awesome

Main article: Project for Awesome

In 2007, John and Hank introduced the charity project entitled the Project for Awesome (P4A), a project in which YouTube users take two days, traditionally December 17 and 18, to create videos promoting charities or nonprofit organizations of their choosing. They raised a total of $483,446, surpassing their goal of $100,000.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Green currently resides in Indianapolis, Indiana with his wife, Sarah (also known as "The Yeti" in his video blogs, coined due to her request not to be seen on camera), his son Henry, and his dog, a West Highland Terrier, named Willy (full name: Fireball Wilson Roberts). According to his blog entry of May 16, 2007, Green was born in Indianapolis, but his family moved three weeks after he was born. He has also lived in East Lansing, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama; Orlando, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; and New York City.

On a live Google+ hangout with President Barack Obama on 14 February 2013, Green announced that he and his wife were expecting their second child, and asked whether to name the child Eleanor or Alice if it was to be a girl. The President declined to answer; however, he did tell Green to remind his child to "not forget to be awesome" (a paraphrase of the Vlogbrothers' slogan) to the surprise and pleasure of the Greens. Alice Green was born on 3 June 2013.

Works

Books

• Looking for Alaska (2005; ISBN 0-525-47506-0)
• An Abundance of Katherines (2006; ISBN 0-525-47688-1)
• Paper Towns (2008; ISBN 0-525-47818-8)
• Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances - with Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle (2008; ISBN 0-142-41214-7)
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson - with David Levithan (2010; ISBN 0-525-42158-0)
• The Fault in Our Stars (2012; ISBN 0-525-47881-7)

Short stories

• "The Approximate Cost of Loving Caroline", Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Artwork by Scott Hunt (2006)
• "The Great American Morp", 21 Proms, eds. David Levithan and Daniel Ehrenhaft (2007)
• "Freak the Geek", Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd (2009)
• "Reasons", What You Wish For (2011)
• "Double on Call and Other Short Stories" (2012)

Other

• (2009) Thisisnottom, an interactive novel hidden behind riddles.
• (2010) Zombicorns, an online Creative Commons licensed zombie novella.
• (2012) The War for Banks Island, a sequel to Zombicorns released via email to people who donated to P4A.
• The Sequel, an unfinished novel, much of which was reworked into The Fault in Our Stars. The first 6,000 words are available via email to P4A donors.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award Ceremony	Work	Category	Result	Ref
2006	Michael L. Printz Award	Looking For Alaska	N/A	Won
2007		An Abundance of Katherines	N/A	Nominated (Honor)
2012	Indiana Authors Award	N/A	National Author Award	Won
2013	Children's Choice Book Awards	The Fault in Our Stars	Teen Book of the Year	Won

External links

• Official website
• Nerdfighters home page
• The Brotherhood 2.0 Project
• Online novel and fanbase created by Green
• YouTube - vlogbrothers's Channel
• YouTube - Interview on "The Interview Show"
• list of every book mentioned in a vlogbrothers video, originally compiled by a "Nerdfighter" named Lauren.