Ernest Cline

Ernest Christy Cline (born March 29, 1972) is an American science fiction novelist, slam poet, and screenwriter. He is known for his novels Ready Player One and Armada; he also co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg.

Cline was born and raised in Ashland, Ohio, the son of Faye Imogene (née Williams) and Ernest Christy Cline. As a youth in the 1970s and 1980s, Cline was "addicted to video games and movies," especially Star Wars, the films of John Hughes, and the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons. He worked in information technology in his twenties and worked on screenwriting in his spare time.

Spoken word

From 1997 to 2001, Cline performed his original work at Austin Poetry Slam venues. He was the Austin Poetry Slam Champ in 1998 and 2001 and competed on the Austin Poetry Slam Teams at the 1998 Austin National Poetry Slam and the 2001 Seattle National Poetry Slam. His most popular spoken-word pieces include "Dance, Monkeys, Dance," "Nerd Porn Auteur," and "When I Was a Kid." Cline subsequently reworked "Dance Monkeys Dance" into a faux educational filmstrip, which became a popular viral video that has now been translated into 29 different languages.

In 2001, Cline self-published a chapbook collection of his spoken-word writing, The Importance of Being Ernest, and released an album, The Geek Wants Out. In fall 2013 Write Bloody Publishing published a new edition of The Importance of Being Ernest with new cover art by Gary Musgrave and new interior illustrations by Len Peralta.

Books

In June 2010, Cline sold his first novel, Ready Player One, a book that takes place in a dystopian vision of the 2040s. The book is about a kid who tries to solve the keys to find a billionaire's wealth in a sort of competition. The book was sold in a bidding war to the Crown Publishing Group (a division of Random House). The film rights to the novel were sold the following day, to Warner Bros., with Cline co-writing the screenplay. Ten months later, with the hardcover release coinciding with the paperback release, Cline revealed on his blog that both the paperback and hardcover editions of Ready Player One contain an elaborately hidden Easter egg. This clue formed the first part of a series of staged video gaming tests, similar to the plot of the novel. Cline also revealed that the competition's grand prize would be a 1981 DeLorean. The prize was awarded in 2012. The paperback is currently in its 17th printing.

Cline's second novel, Armada, was released on July 14, 2015, by Crown Publishing Group. On December 7, 2015, Cline announced the sale of the film rights to Armada to Universal Pictures for a reported seven-figure sum.

A third novel was announced in August 2015. It has been confirmed that this novel is to be a sequel to Ready Player One. It is set to be released on November 24, 2020.

Personal life

In 2016, he married poet/nonfiction writer Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, whom he met at the 1998 National Poetry Slam.

Cline's all-time favorite video game is Black Tiger, which figures prominently in the plot of Ready Player One.

• Ready Player One (2018), film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on novel Ready Player One