Nicholas Sparks

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Nicholas Sparks and his family moved around the United States frequently as his father pursued graduate studies in Minnesota and California. After graduating as the valedictorian of Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, California, Sparks enrolled at the University of Notre Dame. Sparks graduated early after meeting the woman who would become his wife in 1988. Shortly thereafter, the two of them moved to New Bern, North Carolina—a place neither of them had ever been to. The town of New Bern would become the setting for Sparks’s first novel, The Notebook, which he wrote in his spare time while working in the pharmaceutical industry. Sparks was an undiscovered writer when he sold The Notebook for $1 million advance in 1996. The book hit The New York Times Best Seller list in its first week of publication, and Sparks’s career as a lauded writer of romance novels began. The author of over 20 novels (and 11 New York Times bestsellers) including A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, and The Last Song, Sparks’s romantic books have been widely adapted into movies starring Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Miley Cyrus, Richard Gere, and numerous other lauded actors and actresses. As of 2020, Sparks is rumored to be working on a TV follow-up to the wildly successful film version of The Notebook.