Marie Lu ’06

Marie Lu

Marie Lu is a YA novelist whose critical and commercial success prompted the New York Timesto call her “a hit factory.” The author of the bestselling Legend and Young Elites trilogies, she began writing science fiction and fantasy stories as a child; video games were another passion for Lu, whose family emigrated to the United States from China in 1989. At USC, however, she put aside her childhood passions to study political science and biology, with an eye towards becoming either a lawyer or a doctor. That all changed once she saw a campus poster seeking videogame designer interns. Not only did Lu secure the internship with Disney Studios Interactive; she went on to work as video game concept artist for five years.

Working in the gaming industry also revived Lu’s interest in writing. In 2011, she published her first novel, the YA dystopian fantasy Legend, which is set in a violent, half-flooded Los Angeles governed by martial law. The first book in a trilogy, Legend was a critical and commercial success that enabled Lu to become a full-time writer. She followed it with two more novels in the trilogy, Prodigy and Champion, and has since written the Young Elites series and Warcross, the first book in a new trilogy. Her most recent YA novel is Batman: Nightwalker, a title in the DC Icons Series. She is currently adapting Batman: Nightwalker as a graphic novel, which will be published in November 2019.