Sharon Flake

“I’m still pinching myself, thankful as I can be, that I’ve been blessed to be a young adult author.” So says Sharon Flake, whose new book is “Pinned” (Scholastic). Flake went to college thinking she would become a pediatrician but ended up with a major in English instead. “Good thing, because I absolutely did not have what it took to be an M.D.,” she says. Flake worked for 18 years at her alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, and while there wrote her first book, “The Skin I’m In.” She is now a full-time author.

Previous National Book Festival Appearances

• 2012