Patrick Ness facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Patrick Ness FRSL
Ness in 2025
Born	(1971-10-17) 17 October 1971 (age 53) Fort Belvoir, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation	Author writer producer
Nationality	American-British
Alma mater	University of Southern California
Genre	Young adult
Spouse	Unknown ​ ​ (m. 2013, divorced)​ Nick Coveney ​ (m. 2022)​

Patrick Ness (born 17 October 1971) is an American-British author, journalist, and screenwriter. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Patrick Ness was born in the United States but later moved to London. He now has citizenship in both countries.

He is most famous for his exciting books for young adults. These include the Chaos Walking trilogy, which was published between 2008 and 2010, and the powerful novel A Monster Calls from 2011.

Patrick Ness has won the important Carnegie Medal twice. He received it in 2011 for Monsters of Men and again in 2012 for A Monster Calls. This makes him one of only seven writers to win the Medal more than once, and the second to win it two years in a row.

He also wrote the movie script for the 2016 film based on his book A Monster Calls. In addition, he created and wrote the Doctor Who spin-off TV series called Class.

About Patrick Ness's Life

His Early Years

Patrick Ness was born near the Fort Belvoir Army base in Alexandria, Virginia. His father was a Sergeant in the US Army. His family moved to Hawaii, where he lived until he was six years old. After that, he spent ten years in Washington before moving to Los Angeles. Patrick Ness studied English Literature at the University of Southern California.

After college, he worked as a writer for a cable company. He published his first short story in a magazine called Genre in 1997. He was working on his first novel when he moved to London in 1999.

His Writing Career

Patrick Ness's first novel, The Crash of Hennington, came out in 2003. A year later, he released a short story collection called Topics About Which I Know Nothing.

His first young adult novel was The Knife of Never Letting Go. This book won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2008. This book was followed by The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men. These three books together form the popular Chaos Walking trilogy.

Patrick Ness also wrote three short stories that take place in the Chaos Walking world. These are "The New World" and "The Wide, Wide Sea," which are prequels, and "Snowscape," which happens after Monsters of Men. You can download these short stories for free as ebooks. They were also included in the UK print versions of the novels in 2013.

How A Monster Calls Was Created

The idea for A Monster Calls came from another Irish writer, Siobhan Dowd. She had been diagnosed with cancer and could not finish the story before she passed away in 2007. Siobhan Dowd and Patrick Ness had the same editor at Walker Books, Denise Johnstone-Burt. After Dowd's death, Walker Books asked Patrick Ness to complete the story using her notes. Ness said his main goal was to write a book that he thought Siobhan Dowd would have liked. Jim Kay was chosen to draw the pictures for the book. Ness and Kay finished the book without ever meeting in person.

A Monster Calls made history when Patrick Ness won the Carnegie Medal and Jim Kay won the Kate Greenaway Medal for his illustrations. This was the first time one book had won both of these major awards.

Other Works and Projects

Patrick Ness wrote an e-short story called Tip of the Tongue. It featured the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa from Doctor Who. This story was part of Puffin's eleven Doctor Who e-shorts released in 2013 to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary.

His fourth young adult novel, More Than This, was published in 2013. It was later shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2015.

The Crane Wife, his third novel for adults, was published in 2014.

In 2014, Patrick Ness gave the main speech at the Children's and Young Adult Program of the Berlin International Literature Festival.

His book The Rest of Us Just Live Here was released in 2015 in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, and later in Canada and the United States.

In 2015, the BBC announced that Patrick Ness would be writing a Doctor Who spin-off series called Class. The series had eight episodes and aired online in late 2016. The BBC decided to cancel Class after its first season.

His book Release was published in 2017. Patrick Ness described it as a "private and intense book" that was inspired by his own personal experiences more than any of his previous works.

In 2021, it was reported that Ness was working on a script for a prequel movie to the Napoleonic sea adventure film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. This movie would be based on the books by Patrick O'Brian.

Personal Life

Patrick Ness became a British citizen in 2005. He entered into a civil partnership in 2006. In October 2022, he married Nick Coveney in Las Vegas. He also shared that he had gotten divorced in the years before his marriage to Nick.

Ness used to teach creative writing at the University of Oxford. He has also written articles and reviews for newspapers like The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. He was a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and the first Writer in Residence for BookTrust.

In 2023, Patrick Ness was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Awards and Recognition

Patrick Ness has received many awards for his writing. Here are some of them:

The Rest of Us Just Live Here also received many positive reviews and was named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus.

Patrick Ness's Books

Novels for Young Adults

Chaos Walking series

1. The Knife of Never Letting Go (2008)
2. The Ask and the Answer (2009)
3. Monsters of Men (2010)

• Short stories from the Chaos Walking world:

  1.5. "The New World" (2009)

  2.5. "The Wide, Wide Sea" (2013)

  3.5. "Snowscape" (2013)

The New World Trilogy

1. Piper at the Gates of Dusk (Coming in Spring 2026)

Standalone Novels

• A Monster Calls (2011)
• More Than This (2013)
• The Rest of Us Just Live Here (2015)
• Release (2017)
• Burn (2020)
• Different for Boys (2020)
• The Boys (2021)
• The Girls (2022)
• The Girls (2023)
• The Girls (2024)
• The Girls (2025)

Short Stories

• "Different for Boys", found in Losing it (2010)
• "Doctor Who: Tip of the Tongue" (2013), found in Thirteen Doctors, 13 Stories (2019)
• "This Whole Demoing Thing", found in Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales (2014)

Short Story Collections

• Topics About Which I Know Nothing (2004), a collection of 11 short stories.

Film and TV Work

Patrick Ness has also worked on movies and TV shows:

External Links

• Patrick Ness at British Council: Literature
• The Knife Of Never Letting Go, chapter one
• Opening speech by Ness at the children and youth program of the International Literature Festival Berlin

See also

In Spanish: Patrick Ness para niños