Ernest Christy Cline (born March 29, 1972) is an American science fiction novelist, slam poet and screenwriter.

[2] Cline co-wrote the screenplay for Fanboys, based on a storyline he had developed in the late 1990s while his mother was dying of cancer.

[9] In 2001, Cline self-published a chapbook collection of his spoken-word writing, The Importance of Being Ernest, and released an album, The Geek Wants Out.

[citation needed] In June 2010, Cline sold his first novel, Ready Player One, a book that takes place in a dystopian 2040s.

[18][19] It is Cline's first children’s novel, described as a “'mostly true tall tale' about a recently orphaned young girl named Opal B Flats, who forms an unexpected friendship with a music-loving colony of bats and helps them find a new home against all odds.

[22][23] In 2016, he married poet/nonfiction writer Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, whom he met at the 1998 National Poetry Slam and began dating in 2013.

[24] Cline's all-time favorite video game is the arcade classic Black Tiger,[25] which features prominently in the plot of Ready Player One.