Interview with Kate Egan, editor of The Hunger Games trilogy

Today I’m taking you behind the scenes of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, this year’s “It” series in young adult (YA) fiction. The trilogy's editor, Kate Egan, happens to live around the corner from me. She came to my house for coffee to share the publishing story behind this #1 New York Times bestseller series, which has been popular with adults too.

The premise draws on both pop culture and the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur: a despotic ruler selects children from every district to fight to the death. The sole survivor brings back a bounty of food to his or her district. The battle is staged in a nightmare world of mutant hazards and broadcast live as entertainment, the ultimate reality TV. Needless to say, this gory spectacle foments, rather than subdues, rebellion in the districts.

When her younger sister is selected to be a contestant, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Katniss is a skilled archer who has been poaching wild game to feed her family. She is paired with a boy, Peeta, who once saved her from starvation. Katniss owes Peeta her life, but only one contestant is allowed to survive. Peeta loves Katniss, but she also has feelings for her hunting partner, Gale. This love triangle frames a coming-of-age story set in a war zone.

Although the first two books The Hunger Games (2008) and Catching Fire (2009) were more entertaining and better paced, Mockingjay (released last August 2010) has greater philosophical depth and moral ambiguity. The regime is corrupt and evil, but are the revolutionaries any better? In this not-so-distant future, television has become the most effective weapon of war. Despite the violence, this series does not glorify war, rather the opposite. The cost of war is paid by all participants, win or lose.

This dystopian trilogy reminded me more of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm than of books written for teenagers. If you've never read YA, try these. My daughter found the first book too scary at age eleven but returned to the books at age thirteen and really enjoyed them. I loved them too. All three books were hard to put down and impossible to forget. After finishing, I had many questions. Kate Egan had the answers.

photo of Kate Egan by Sarah Laurence

My Interview of Kate Egan

Sarah: how did you first connect with the author Suzanne Collins?

Kate: while working for Scholastic in NYC, I acquired and edited Suzanne’s first book, Gregor The Overlander. It became a five book series. The Underland Chronicles is about a boy who falls through a hole in his laundry room into a world hidden under New York, populated by giant rats and cockroaches and other creatures you might expect to find beneath the city.

Sort of like a modern Alice in Wonderland?

Exactly. The Underland Chronicles is meant for a younger audience but shares a similar central theme with The Hunger Games series.

What is that central theme?

Suzanne’s main interest is “what is a just war?” She’s especially concerned about the effects of war on a person.

What first attracted you to her writing?

The un-put-down-able quality to her writing. Suzanne started her career as a screenwriter. She wrote the adorable Little Bear television program on Nick Junior, among many other shows. She knows how to move a story and how to hold a kid’s attention, although Little Bear and her novels are extremely different in tone.

What was the inspiration for The Hunger Games trilogy?

Suzanne was flipping back and forth between the Iraq War coverage and Survivor on TV when she got the idea for The Hunger Games. Suzanne always writes her books in 3 parts with 9 chapters each so a trilogy was natural. She had the whole story in her head from the start.

When did you first hear about The Hunger Games?

Four years ago I was doing the final edits on the last Gregor book, when my second child was born. It was a month before I was ready to get back to editing. Suzanne used that time to write the proposal for The Hunger Games trilogy. The original proposal had the fight to the death and the intriguing character of Katniss. I realized that this was going to be the biggest book I’d ever worked on.

Why do you think The Hunger Games series has been so successful?

When I started working in publishing in the mid 1990’s, young adult fiction was all but dead. Scholastic, the publisher of The Hunger Games, barely published YA back then. There was no dedicated space for teen fiction in the bookstores. In the past ten years, the publishing pendulum has swung towards YA, even garnering an adult crossover audience. The Hunger Games was impossible to put down, and Katniss was a great character. Suzanne is a terrific storyteller.

Given that Scholastic’s headquarters are in NYC, why did you move to Maine?

My husband worked for the New York City government, and one of the terms of his employment was that we had to live within the city limits. We were living in a basement apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Our daughter’s crib was in the hall! In 2003 my husband was offered the job of running the State Ethics Commission in Augusta. In six weeks we bought a car and a house and moved to Maine.

How did you manage to keep working as an editor after the move?

I switched to working freelance for several publishing companies, mostly for Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. I kept 3 of my old authors from Scholastic, too. I work in the mornings when both kids are in school, during naptime and late at night.

How did you hold onto Suzanne Collins as your author?

When Suzanne’s agent sold The Hunger Games trilogy to Scholastic, it was agreed that I would remain her editor. We’ve been together for eight books now.

What are Suzanne Collins’s strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and how do you help her as an editor?

Storytelling is Suzanne’s strength. As an editor, I help her develop the characters. For example, I asked her for more of the Peeta-Katniss-Gale love triangle. Suzanne was more focused on the war story. We’ve learned to trust each other. Sometimes Suzanne thinks it’s obvious where she is going, but I tell her I don’t see it. When I need help following, it’s a sign that the manuscript needs some shoring up.

What has happened in the wake of The Hunger Games?

Suzanne wrote the screenplay for the movie of The Hunger Games, which will be produced by Nina Jacobson at Lionsgate Productions. They are in talks with Gary Ross, who directed Pleasantville and Seabiscuit. Suzanne is also busy with the Mockingjay launch and approving licensing products, like a Hunger Games board game.

Is Suzanne Collins working on a new novel?

I think she is starting to think about it, but that’s all I know right now.

I’m struck by how much The Hunger Games has appealed to adult readers as well as to teens. What marks a book as young adult as opposed to adult fiction?

I'd say that there has to be a teenaged protagonist. They are coming-of-age stories. The ending does not have to be happy, but there must be hope. A window is left open.

Thank you, Kate!

Reviewer’s Disclaimer: I bought all three books myself when they were first released. Kate Egan and I were introduced by our neighbor Charlotte Agell, author of another dystopian novel for teens, Shift. This interview was our first meeting. We met up more recently for a walk to enjoy the fall foliage. That first shot is from my front yard, and Kate is standing in my back yard. All photos were taken by me.

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@Barrie Summy

Note: Please do not contact me to reach Kate Egan. I am unable to forward e-mails.

Autumnal Reflections

When the leaves are golden and the sky washed blue,

Walk into my woods amongst the maples.

Listen to the wind tickle the birches.

Follow a path under a bower of branches

Over a bridge to a mirror pond.

Where reflections cast murky depth,

Abstraction is more vibrant than reality.

A Tempest of Scattered Leaves

Looking at the fallen leaves, I feel empathy for the trees. At the peak of creativity, my colorful ideas are scattered all over the place. Last Friday a storm straight out of The Tempest blew through Maine. Rain lashed sideways and trees toppled. We lost power. In the dark, I sketched out an outline for a new novel (really plot fragments that could be woven into a narrative later) and quit work for the day.

Then I met two friends for a two-hour lunch at Trattoria Athena, a new Greek restaurant in Brunswick. I highly recommend the gyros and catching up with old friends. Years ago we used to get together weekly for playgroup. Our sons have remained close friends, but we had drifted apart lately. We laughed over how much busier we are driving our teenagers to activities now than when they were toddlers.

Not only am I a soccer mom, I’m a Shakespeare mom. My daughter plays center forward and on weekends Shakespeare takes center stage in her acting class. My son quit soccer to play evil Antonio in The Tempest, with rehearsals every day after school and tech work on weekends. I drive miles for the Bard. Luckily, my young adult novel “as u like it” is about teen actors and Shakespeare so I’ve been observing rehearsal and acting classes, getting double credit for parenting and work.

On the road I rake up inspiration for my novels. It’s hard to know where to draw the line between art and life. Am I writing about teen actors who love Shakespeare because of my kids or do my kids love Shakespeare and acting because I’m writing about it? I like to think that my young adult novel could plant the passion for Shakespeare. It keeps me going…mile after mile after mile.

Photos: back step, front yard maple, backyard maples, view from Bradbury Mountain in Pownell

Shakespeare Watch:


Helen Mirren is playing Prospero in a Miramax production of The Tempest! It looks absolutely amazing (movie release date: 12/10/10.) At my son's school, a talented girl was also cast in the lead role of Prospero. The character is actually more believable with the gender switch.

I'm always on the look out for Shakespeare themed novels. Don't you love the cover of this one?

Illyria by Elizabeth Hand takes Twelfth Night as an inspiration for an illicit love story between cousins who discover the joy of theater. Although Illyria was published (2010) as young adult fiction in the USA, the topic of incest, the 1970’s setting and the literary style make it better suited to an adult audience, in my opinion.

Hand is a Maine author, but Illyria was first published in the UK in 2007. Thank you, Beth Kephart, for the recommendation. No free products were received.

Stella's Last Walk

I write with shaky fingers as tears stream down my face. 

No dog lies at my cold feet. 

The only trace is a well-worn patch on my office floor. 

Stella was frequently mistaken for a puppy at age six. 

Her golden coat hid the tumors. 

She went from healthy to dying in a matter of weeks. 

There was nothing we could do other than make her last week perfect 

and her death painless at home.

Stella came into our lives when my husband was having health problems. 

That mischievous fluff-ball chased away tears and retrieved laughter. 

 Now that my husband is well, it seems unreal that this lively bundle of joy is gone.

As my daughter said, 

“I was supposed to say goodbye to her when I went away to college five years from now.” 

At an age when even good friends alternate from kind to cruel as hormones ebb, 

a loyal pet was a safe harbor.

Stella demanded walks in all weather, keeping us fit.
We took her on our sabbatical to England. 

She tongue mopped the kitchen floor and shredded garbage for easy recycling. 

 Dirty socks were matched with their owners. 

She had good taste in music, teaching my children to be more careful with their iPods.

Our house sounds quiet. 

 We notice her absence even more than her presence in our busy lives. 

 Once we were welcomed with genuflections of ecstasy. 

 The worst part now is coming home.

Nothing is left but these photos of our last walks at Popham Beach and Bailey Island. 

That final week was a gift, a time to take Stella to special places, 

knowing that when we returned that she’d still be inside us. 

My daughter labeled those final days“sehnsucht,” 

a longing for what we cannot experience, sort of the opposite of déjà vu. 

She discovered this uniquely German word and taught it to me.

The hardest act of love is letting go.

Stella by Starlight 7/16/04-9/24/10

before i fall by Lauren Oliver (mother-daughter review)

Reviewers' Disclaimer: novel purchased at Nantucket Bookworks.

Usually if I don’t like a book, I quit, but I’m glad my daughter convinced me to keep reading "before i fall" by Lauren Oliver. Despite the unlikable characters, the story is meaningful and thought provoking. Oliver’s debut novel captures American high school at its ordinary worst.

Here’s the premise: a popular senior dies in a drunk driving accident. Sam wakes up the next morning to the same day. Given the chance to redo, what would she do differently? In this self-proclaimed homage to the 1993 movie Groundhog Day (video clip below), Oliver replays that fatal day six more times in variations. The problem is we are stuck in the head of a conventional teenaged girl instead of the hilarious Bill Murray.

This observation on popularity made me stop reading on page 18 of "before i fall:"

“So now I have first pick of everything. So what. That’s the way it is. Nobody ever said life was fair.”

Sam cheats on quizzes, dates a popular jerk, flirts with her teacher, goes to drunken parties and ridicules losers. She’s in a clique with three popular girls, who rule their suburban public high school with sassy entitlement. If this sounds familiar, it’s meant to be.

The novel gets much better on day three when Sam realizes that she has to change. This is when the Clique/Gossip Girl world is flipped upside down. The story avoids sounding preachy because Sam acts like a real teenager. Slowly, a code of morality evolves through trial and error mixed with introspection. Despite focusing on death, this amusing book is about living.

Oliver’s frequently philosophical reflections are delivered in a true teen voice:

Sam’s heart-throb boyfriend: “It’s like the idea of him is better than the him of him.”

"I’m popular - really popular - but I don’t have that many friends.”

On sophomores: “Lindsay calls them s’mores because they always stuck together and more than two will get you sick.”

“I’m dead, but I can’t stop living.”

After the first two chapters, "before i fall" is a book you can’t stop reading. Then it will make you think.

Groundhog Day Trailer (one of our favorite movies)

My 13-year-old daughter’s book review:

I picked up "before i fall" on a rainy day on Nantucket Island just after my mom told me about it. True, she didn’t seem very convinced, but that was just part of why I picked it, to see what it was really like.

Oliver narrates this book from a very believable voice. Sam has flashbacks to being a loner in middle school before she got popular. This perspective allows her to understand the loners in high school. I was worried the book would be repetitive, but it surprisingly wasn’t. It was interesting to see how the same day could go in so many different directions and still go back to the beginning by morning time.

"before i fall" was somewhat addicting and a very funny, pleasurable book. My only criticism would be the characters, most of which were not very likeable, although I did love Izzy and Kent. Unlike my mom, I never considered quitting a quarter way through, and despite my mixed feelings, this book was well worth reading.

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@Barrie Summy

Book Blog Watch: Check out a new book blog, The Contemps, posted by a collaboration of authors who write realistic contemporary fiction for teens. Congratulations to Beth Kephart for selling her thirteenth book to Egmont.