Cecily von Ziegesar

Cecily von Ziegesar
Ziegesar at the 2012 Brooklyn Book Festival
Born Cecily Brooke von Ziegesar
(1970-06-27) June 27, 1970
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Novelist
Period 2002–present
Genre Drama, comedy, short, romance
Notable works Gossip Girl series
The It Girl series
Spouse Richard Griggs[1]
Children Oscar Griggs, Agnes Griggs

Cecily Brooke von Ziegesar (/ˌvɒn zɪˈɡeɪzər/ VON zi-GAY-zər; born June 27, 1970) is an American author best known for the young adult Gossip Girl series of novels.

Early life and education

Cecily von Ziegesar was born in New York City into a family descended from the German nobility. Her childhood dream was to grow up to be a ballerina; she began lessons at age three and auditioned for the School of American Ballet at age eight, but was rejected.[2] As a teenager, she commuted to Manhattan at 6:00 a.m. every day to attend The Nightingale-Bamford School.[3] After graduating from Nightingale, Ziegesar attended Colby College. Then she spent a year in Budapest working for a local radio station. She then returned to the United States to study creative writing at the University of Arizona, only to drop out shortly thereafter.[3]

Career

Gossip Girl

Book series

In New York City, while working at book-packaging firm Alloy Entertainment, she became inspired to create the Gossip Girl series, which presents a view of high-end teenage lifestyles. The series climbed to the top of The New York Times Best-Sellers list in 2002. A spin-off book series, The It Girl, made the list in 2005.

The Constance Billard [sic] School for Girls is based on an exaggerated version of Ziegesar's own alma mater, Nightingale.

In October 2011, Ziegesar released a spin-off of her first novel: Psycho Killer.

Television series

Gossip Girl was adapted for television in 2007. The show premiered to mixed reviews and lost more than a million viewers from episode one to two, from 3.65 million[4] to 2.55 million.[5] The rest of the season's viewers went up and down, the highest being 3 million viewers for the season finale and the lowest being 1.80 million viewers for episode eleven.

Controversy and criticism surrounding the show surfaced due to the fact that it failed to show much of the books' plots, character personalities, and other major and minor facts, thus disappointing many fans of the novels. However, Ziegesar told ABC News that her major plot lines were there and that "at least it takes place in New York City".[6]

In early 2011, The CW renewed the series for a fifth season. On May 16, 2011, Ziegesar herself made a cameo appearance in the fourth season finale.[7]

Graphic novel series

In December 2009, Yen Press announced that it was working with South Korean artist Baek Hye-Kyung to create a graphic novel adaptation of the series titled Gossip Girl: For Your Eyes Only. Rather than adapting the original novels, however, the graphic novels will feature original stories with the same characters. It will be serialized in the company's anthology magazine Yen Plus, with the first chapter appearing in the January 2010 issue.[8]

Personal life

Von Ziegesar resides in the Columbia Street Waterfront District, a neighborhood in Brooklyn with her husband Richard, who is Chief Operating Officer of the Judd Foundation,[9] their children Agnes Belle von Ziegesar Griggs and Oscar von Ziegesar Griggs,[10] and their Cornish Rex cat. Her children attend Millennium Brooklyn High School and Bay Ridge Prep. She also owns a westie named Frosty the Snowman.

Books

Gossip Girl

  1. Gossip Girl (2002)
  2. You Know You Love Me (2002)
  3. All I Want Is Everything (2003)
  4. Because I'm Worth It (2003)
  5. I Like It Like That (2004)
  6. You're the One That I Want (2004)
  7. Nobody Does It Better (2005)
  8. Nothing Can Keep Us Together (2005)
  9. Only in Your Dreams (2006) (written by ghost-writer)
  10. Would I Lie To You? (2006) (written by ghost-writer)
  11. Don't You Forget About Me (2007) (written by ghost-writer)
  12. I Will Always Love You (2009) (written by ghost-writer)
  • PREQUEL It Had To Be You (2007)
  • Psycho Killer (Spin-Off the original first novel; October 2011)

The It Girl

This series was written by a ghost-writer, with guidance from Cecily von Ziegesar.

  1. The It Girl
  2. Notorious
  3. Reckless
  4. Unforgettable
  5. Lucky
  6. Tempted
  7. Infamous
  8. Adored
  9. Devious
  10. Classic

Gossip Girl: The Carlyles

This series is actually written by Annabelle Vestry, though Cecily von Ziegesar's name is on the spine and front.

  1. Gossip Girl: The Carlyles (2008)
  2. You Just Can't Get Enough (2008)
  3. Take A Chance on Me (2009)
  4. Love the One You're With (2009)

Cum Laude

  1. Cum Laude (June 1, 2010 from Hyperion)[11][12] republished under the name "Class" in 2011.

References

  1. ↑ "Colby Magazine". Colby Magazine.
  2. ↑ Ziegesar, Cecily von (December 18, 2008). "At 'Nutcracker' With My Family, a Duck Amid the Swans". The New York Times.
  3. 1 2 "Psst, Serena is a slut. Pass it on". NYMag.com.
  4. ↑ http://www.abcmedianet.com/Web/progcal/dispDNR.aspx?id=092507_06%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 17, 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
  7. ↑ Gonzalez, Sandra (May 16, 2011). "'Gossip Girl' author Cecily von Ziegesar guests on season finale – EXCLUSIVE PHOTO". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Yen Press to Adapt von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl Novels". Anime News Network. December 4, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
  9. ↑ "About - Judd Foundation".
  10. ↑ "Colby Magazine". Colby Magazine.
  11. ↑ Lee, Felicia R. (June 6, 2008). "'Gossip Girl' Author Aims Older". The New York Times.
  12. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 3, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2009.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.