James Smith Dashner is an American author of many children's fantasy series and adult books, including The 13th Reality series and the Jimmy Fincher Saga. Dashner also wrote the first book of the Infinity Ring series and it is anticipated that he will write the last book as well. Dashner's novel The Journal of Curious Letters was chosen for a 2008 Borders Original Voices pick. He has been published by Cedar Fort, Inc. and by Shadow Mountain Publishing, known for their popular children's novels series Leven Thumps and Fablehaven. However, Delacorte—a division of Random House— published his new series, The Maze Runner, the first of which was released Fall 2009.