Ellen Hopkins
Truth teller about the troubled lives of teens

Featured Speaker, Saturday, Oct. 4, EPAC
"Talking Teen Problems: Making Connections in Troubled Times"

A Nevada poet and non-fiction writer, Hopkins has published four “novels in verse” for young adults that have won spots on The New York Times’ bestseller lists. She gives paradoxically fictional, yet true-to-life, glimpses of society’s challenges for the teens of today, including addiction to crystal meth, attempted suicide, and unwanted, inappropriate “attention” from adults. Her latest novel is “Identical.” Her other books include “Burned,” “Crank,” “Glass,” and “Impulse.” Hopkins feels that she ought to write “problem” novels for young adult readers because it “is important to be a voice for people who experience problems like addiction or thoughts of suicide” so these people will “hopefully realize they are not alone and that there’s help if they just go looking for it.” Because poetry is such a personal, intimate expression of self, writing her novels in verse allows Hopkins to “get into her characters’ heads and take a good look around,” Hopkins writes. Adopted as a child, Hopkins grew up in Palm Springs, California, where some of her neighbors were Elvis Presley and Kirk Douglas. After studying journalism for a time at a California college, Hopkins decided to raise a family instead. The mother of four children, Hopkins has worked fulltime as a freelance writer since 1984. A former journalist for a small newspaper in Tahoe, Nevada, she is the author of twenty non-fiction titles for young readers, including “Air Devils,” a book about women aviation pioneers.

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