Best known for his science fiction novels Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card has written in many other forms and genres. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story Gert Fram in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of Ender's Game in the August issue of Analog.
The novel-length version of
Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin.
While Card's early science fiction stories and novels were earning attention (Card won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978), he supported his family primarily by writing scripts for audiotapes produced by Living Scriptures of Ogden, Utah.
Later, in the mid-1980s, while the novel version of Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead were winning the Hugo and Nebula awards, he also wrote the screenplays for animated children's videos from the New Testament and Book of Mormon.
Card was born in Washington and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he teaches occasional classes and workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.
He is the author many novels, from the 18 science fiction books set in the Ender Universe, to the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with
Seventh Son), to stand-alone science fiction and fantasy novels like
Pastwatch and
Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series,
Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like
Empire and historical novels like the monumental
Saints and the religious novels
Sarah and
Rachel and
Leah. Card's recent work includes the Mithermages books (
Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old.
Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, where his primary activities are writing a review column for the local
Rhinoceros Times and feeding birds, squirrels, chipmunks, possums, and raccoons on the patio.
