Background and career
Stephenie Meyer ( ; née Morgan; born December 24, 1973) is an American novelist and film producer. She wrote the vampire romance series Twilight, which has sold over 160 million copies, with translations in 37 different languages. She was the bestselling author of 2008 and 2009 in the United States, having sold over 29 million books in 2008 and 26.5 million in 2009. An avid young reader, Meyer attended Brigham Young University, marrying at the age of 21 before graduating with a degree in English literature in 1997. Having no prior experience as an author, she conceived the idea for the Twilight series in a dream. Influenced by the work of Jane Austen and William Shakespeare, she wrote Twilight soon afterwards. After many rejections, Little, Brown and Company offered her a $750,000 three-book deal which led to a four-book series, two spin-off novels, a novella, and a series of commercially successful film adaptations. Aside from young adult novels, Meyer has ventured into adult novels with The Host (2008) and The Chemist (2016). She has worked in film production and co-founded production company Fickle Fish Films, producing both parts of Breaking Dawn, the Twilight film series' finale, and two other novel adaptations. Meyer's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shaped her novels. Themes consistent with Meyer's religion, including agency, mortality, temptation, and eternal life, are prominent in her work. Critics have called Meyer's writing style overly simplistic, but her stories have received praise, and she has acquired a fan following. Meyer was included on Time magazine's list of the top 100 most influential people in 2008 and Forbes's list of the top 100 most powerful celebrities in 2009, with her annual earnings exceeding $50 million.
Stephenie Morgan was born on December 24, 1973, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, the second of six children born to financial officer Stephen Morgan and homemaker Candy Morgan. She was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale. In 1992, Meyer won a National Merit Scholarship, which helped fund her undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature in 1997. Although she began and finished her degree at BYU, Meyer took classes at Arizona State University in fall 1996 and spring 1997. She met her future husband, Christian "Pancho" Meyer, in Arizona when they were both children. The couple married in 1994 and have three sons, born 1997, 2001, and 2003. Christian retired from his job as an auditor to take care of their children full time. Before writing her first novel, Twilight, Meyer considered going to law school because she felt that she had no chance of becoming a writer. Meyer later said that the birth of her oldest son, Gabe, in 1997 changed her mind: "Once I had Gabe, I just wanted to be his mom." Before becoming an author, Meyer's only professional work was as a receptionist at a property company.
According to Meyer, the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003, about a human girl and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the draft of what became chapter 13 of the book. She wrote from chapter 13 to the end of the novel and then backfilled the first 12 chapters, in secret, without an ideal audience in mind or the intention to publish the novel. Meyer researched the Quileute Native Americans to include their legends and traditions in the novel, though some Quileute tribe members found her use of their legends offensive. Meyer joined the American Night Writers Association (ANWA) for aspiring Latter-day Saint female writers. She completed the novel in three months. Her sister's response to the book was enthusiastic, and she persuaded Meyer to send the manuscript to literary agencies. Of the 15 letters she wrote, five went unanswered, nine brought rejections, and the last was a positive response from Jodi Reamer of Writers House. Eight publishers competed for the rights to publish Twilight in a 2003 auction. By November, Meyer had signed a $750,000 three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company. Twilight was published in 2005 with a print run of 75,000 copies. Bimonthly book signings and events at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, early in her writing career helped cultivate her fanbase. Twilight reached No. 5 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books within a month of its release, and later rose to #1. The novel was named the Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Editor's Choice. Despite its success, Twilight was one of the most challenged books of 2009 according to the American Library Association for being sexually explicit, age-inappropriate, and for religious views; some schools and libraries were asked to remove the books from their shelves. Upon publishing Twilight, Meyer had already outlined a story for a sequel. However, her publisher insisted that she follow Twilight with two sequels following Bella and Edward in college. Consequently, Meyer expanded the story into a series with three more books: New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008). The original story she pitched for the sequel would later be published in Breaking Dawn. Meanwhile, Meyer wrote a short story, "Hell on Earth", about demons at prom night, which was published in April 2007 in Prom Nights from Hell, a collection of stories about bad prom nights with supernatural effects. Meyer's fans urged her to expand "Hell on Earth" into a full novel, but Meyer was occupied finishing Eclipse. In its first week after publication, New Moon reached No. 5 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books, and in its second week rose to the No. 1 position, where it remained for the next 11 weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list. In May 2007, Meyer held two promotional prom events at an Arizona State University gymnasium to celebrate the special edition release of New Moon and the release of Eclipse. For the event, Meyer wore a blood-red evening gown and signed over 1,000 books. Meyer's red dress was later auctioned for $5,500 at a fundraiser for a book seller's battle with breast cancer called Project Book Babe. After the release of Eclipse, the first three "Twilight" books spent a combined 143 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. The fourth installment of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, was released with an initial print run of 3.7 million copies. Over 1.3 million copies were sold on the first day. The novel won Meyer a British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year, despite competition from J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard. In 2009, Meyer faced plagiarism accusations for Breaking Dawn. Author of The Nocturne, Jordan Scott, claimed the circumstances around Bella's supernatural pregnancy and subsequent transformation into a vampire were similar to the storyline of her novel and indicated that Meyer plagiarized the plot of The Nocturne. Meyer dismissed the accusation, claiming she had not heard of the writer nor the novel. Scott failed to produce a copy of the novel to support her accusation; The Nocturne is not available on Amazon and is listed as "temporarily sold out" on her website. The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide in 37 languages. In 2008, the four Twilight books were in the top four spots on USA Today's year-end bestseller list. Meyer was the bestselling author of 2008 and the first author to have books in all four of the top-selling spots. The Twilight novels held the top four spots on USA Today's year-end list again in 2009. The success of the Twilight series has been attributed to the Internet, which allowed Meyer to directly reach out to her fans, leading the series to be called "the first social networking bestseller". According to scholar Lykke Guanio-Uluru, the Twilight series "popularized and helped redefine, the paranormal romance subgenre".
In 2004, Paramount's MTV Films and Maverick Films optioned Twilight before the book was published in order to maximize its potential profits. The written script deviated greatly from the novel. However, the film was put into turnaround. In 2006, Erik Feig, president of Summit Entertainment, attempted to make a deal with Meyer by assuring her that the film would be true to the novel and that "no vampire character [would] be depicted with canine or incisor teeth longer or more pronounced than may be found in human beings". In 2007, the rights were sold to Summit Entertainment. Catherine Hardwicke was chosen to direct the film, and Melissa Rosenberg wrote the new script. Kristen Stewart was cast first as Bella Swan, and Robert Pattinson was cast as Edward Cullen after an audition with Stewart and Pattinson revealed they had good chemistry. Taylor Lautner was cast in the role of Jacob Black. Released on November 21, 2008, the film received favorable reviews; Roger Ebert called the film, "lush and beautiful" and Peter Bradshaw said it was, "wildly enjoyable". The film was a box-office success and became the fourth-highest-grossing November opening weekend release up to that time. Meyer makes a brief cameo appearance in a diner scene. The same year, Meyer began her work in film with a Jack's Mannequin music video "The Resolution", which she co-directed with Noble Jones. Following the success of Twilight, Summit greenlit a film adaptation of the sequel, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Each novel adaptation was headed by a different director. Chris Weitz directed New Moon, which was released on November 20, 2009. On opening night, New Moon broke the record for the highest single-day domestic gross on opening day, which had previously been set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Despite its commercial success, the film received poor reviews; Roger Ebert criticized the slow pace of the film, and Tim Robey of The Telegraph similarly said, "the movie gives us all the requisite looks of tortured longing, and not a lot else". Directed by David Slade, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, an adaptation of the third book in the series, was released on June 30, 2010. An article from The Guardian reported that it was the best film of the series according to critical consensus for being more "cinematic" and striking a better balance between romance and the supernatural. However, an article from The Telegraph rebutted The Guardian's claim, arguing that Twilight remained the best film in the series due to the "entirely straight-faced contrast between the forces of eternal darkness and the rigors of high school". Having already obtained the rights to Breaking Dawn, Summit approved a two-part adaptation. In 2011, Meyer started her own production company, Fickle Fish Films, with producer Meghan Hibbett. Meyer spent much of 2011 producing both parts of Breaking Dawn, as well as the film adaptation of Shannon Hale's novel Austenland. Breaking Dawn: Part 1 was released on November 18, 2011, and the second part was released on November 16, 2012. Part one of the film received mixed reviews. Part two of the film received more positive reviews with Roger Ebert calling the ending "sensational". Critics also praised the acting, particularly that of Stewart. The Twilight Saga was successful in the box office. With a combined budget of $373 million, the five-film series earned $3.341 billion worldwide. Despite the commercial success, the films were extensively criticized. Breaking Dawn: Part II won seven Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzie awards) including Worst Picture, Worst Sequel, and Worst Screen Couple (for Taylor Lautner and Mackenzie Foy). The series spawned two parody films: Vampires Suck and Breaking Wind, which were critical failures. In 2009, Stephenie Meyer was included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities, entering at No. 26. Her annual earnings exceeded $50 million. The same year, Meyer was ranked No. 5 on Forbes' list of "Hollywood's Top-Earning Women", the only author on the list, and it was noted that the "Twilight series of young-adult vampire books have taken the publishing and film worlds by storm". In 2010, Forbes ranked her as the No. 59 most powerful celebrity with annual earnings of $40 million.
In August 2009, USA Today revealed that Meyer broke J. K. Rowling's record on their bestseller list; the four Twilight books had spent 52 straight weeks in the top 10. In all, the books have spent more than 235 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. Upon the completion of the fourth entry in the series, Meyer indicated that Breaking Dawn would be the final novel to be told from Bella Swan's perspective. In 2015, she published a new book in honor of the 10th anniversary of the best-selling franchise titled Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, with the genders of the original protagonists switched. On March 30, 2010, it was announced that Meyer had written a 200-page novella entitled The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. The book was released on June 5, 2010, by Atom and was available for free between June 7 and July 5 on the official website. Following the release of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Stephenie Meyer donated $1.5 million to the American Red Cross Relief Fund to aid victims of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. Those who took advantage of the free e-book were also encouraged to make donations to the Red Cross. Midnight Sun was to be a companion novel to the Twilight series. The novel was intended to be a retelling of the events of the novel Twilight, but from the perspective of Edward Cullen. Meyer had hoped to have Midnight Sun published shortly after the release of Breaking Dawn, but after an online leak of a rough draft of its first 12 chapters, Meyer chose to delay the project indefinitely. Upset by the release of a draft she called "messy and flawed", Meyer decided to pursue books unrelated to Twilight. She made the unedited and unfinished manuscript of a lengthy character development exercise of Midnight Sun available on her website. The release of Midnight Sun was tentatively re-planned after re-visiting the Twilight series with Life and Death, a gender-swapped retelling of the novel in 2015. However, the release of Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian in 2015 halted and soured Meyer's plans to release the Midnight Sun because Grey was also told from the male perspective. Meyer stated in a New York Comic-Con panel that it was "a literal flip the table moment", admitting that "Midnight Sun is kind of cursed". This led to the novel being on indefinite hold. According to an article from The Guardian in 2018, Midnight Sun was "no longer in the pipeline". However, in May 2020, it was announced that Midnight Sun would be released on August 4, 2020. Following its release, it sold over one million copies, was number two on Amazon's "most sold" list, and was number one on USA Today's bestseller list one week after its release date. Meyer has mentioned having several other book ideas on file, including a ghost story titled Summer House, a novel involving time travel, as well as another about mermaids.
In May 2008, Meyer's adult sci-fi novel The Host was released by the adult division of Little, Brown and Company. It follows the story of Melanie Stryder and Wanderer, a young woman and an invading alien "soul", who are forced to work as one. The Host debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list and remained on the list for 26 weeks. Despite having expressed intention to write a trilogy, with the second and third books being called The Soul and The Seeker, respectively, Meyer has not published any follow-up novels to The Host as of 2026. In April 2009, Meyer took part in Project Book Babe, a benefit designed to help pay her friend Faith Hochhalter's medical bills after Hochhalter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Meyer donated many advance reader copies and original manuscripts for auction. The Host was adapted into a film with Andrew Niccol directing, and Saoirse Ronan starring as Melanie Stryder, Max Irons as Jared Howe and Jake Abel as Ian O'Shea. The film was released on March 29, 2013, to generally negative reviews. It received poor critical reviews and was a box office flop compared to the Twilight film series.
