Chuck Palahniuk

Born from "stolen moments under truck chassis and on park benches," Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club began as an underground hit before its film adaptation flopped at the box office. The movie, however, later gained cult status on DVD, which boosted the book's sales. Palahniuk's career took off with the success of Choke (2001), his first New York Times bestseller. His writing, which often draws from personal experience, continued to thrive with novels like Lullaby, a book he wrote to cope with the death of his father, and the bestselling Rant, Snuff, and Doomed. In addition to his novels, Palahniuk is also dedicated to helping other writers. In 2004, he began sharing writing essays and "homework assignments" on his website, which taught the minimalist writing style he learned from Tom Spanbauer. He later expanded this to include reviewing fan-submitted stories, with some of the best being published in the anthology Burnt Tongues.