Ellen Hopkins

Eileen Hopkins says she learned “from my father the value of hard work and honesty. From my mother, I learned a love of language and reading. She inhaled literature and read to me every day from the time I was a baby.” Hopkins started writing “from the time I knew how to put words on paper.” Her first book, “Crank,” was a New York Times best-seller and is loosely based on her older daughter’s story of drug addiction. Her new novel, “Tilt,” tells the tale of three teens’ turbulent lives.

Previous National Book Festival Appearances

• 2012