Author Profile: George R.R. Martin

George Raymond Richard Martin, well-known author of the fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, on September 20, 1948. Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. His writing career began at a young age when he would write and sell stories about monsters for pennies to children in his neighborhood. While in high school, he became a fan of comic book collecting, and he would write fiction for comic fanzines. “The Hero,” sold to Galaxy magazine and published in the February 1971 issue, was the first story he sold in his professional career. Martin was age 21.

Martin earned his B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University in 1970, graduating summa cum laude, and he also earned his M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern in 1971. From 1976 – 1978, he taught journalism at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, while continuing to write on the side. Martin married in 1975 but was divorced four years later, the same year he decided to take on writing full-time.

Martin later moved to Hollywood, and in 1986, became a story editor for the Twilight Zone at CBS Television. A year later — still with CBS — he signed on as Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast, being promoted to Co-Supervising Producer in 1989. In the early ’90s, Martin wrote a pilot called Doorways for Columbia Pictures Television. In 1996, Bantam Books published the first installment, A Game of Thrones, in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. Ever since, Martin has arguably become the most popular author in the fantasy genre, writing three additional novels in the series with three more to come.

A Song of Ice and Fire series:

• A Game of Thrones (1996)
• A Clash of Kings (1998)
• A Storm of Swords (2000)
• A Feast for Crows (2005)
• A Dance with Dragons (forthcoming)
• The Winds of Winter (forthcoming)
• A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)

Read Martin’s entire bibliography on his Web site.

Martin currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His next novel, A Dance with Dragons,  the fifth book in A Song of Ice and Fire, is planned for release later this summer or early fall.

Follow news about George R.R. Martin on his blog.