Ellen Hopkins

Ellen Louise Hopkins (born March 26, 1955) is a novelist who has published several New York Times bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience.

Personal life Hopkins was adopted by Albert and Valeria Wagner when they were 72 and 42 respectively. Her first poem was published in the Palm Springs Desert Sun when she was nine. She also considers her fifth-grade teacher the first person to encourage her to become a professional writer.

Later in life, Hopkins found her biological mother, Toni Chandler, who was also a writer and poet.

Education

Santa Ynez Valley Union High School (graduated 1973) Crafton Hills College, UCSB Institute of Children's Literature

Writers groups

1995-1997 WNCC Lone Mountain Writers Group 1997-1999 Breakaway Writers Group 1998–present Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators; served as regional adviser for the Nevada chapter for ten years and currently sits on the Board of Advisers. 1999-2005 Unnamed Writers; served on the board, 2005 2001-2002 Chairman of the Board, New Writers of the Purple Sage 2002–present Ash Canyon Poets She started with nonfiction books for children, including Air Devils and Orcas: High Seas Supermen.

Hopkins has since written several verse novels exposing teenage struggles such as drug addiction, mental illness, and prostitution, including Crank, Burned, Impulse, Identical, Glass, Tricks, Tilt, and Fallout. Glass is the sequel to Crank, and Fallout, the third and final book in the series, was released on September 14, 2010. Perfect was released on September 13, 2011, and is a companion novel to Impulse. Tilt, was released September 11, 2012, and is a companion from the point of view of the teens mentioned in Triangles. Hopkins felt they needed their own story after the release of Triangles.

Her second adult novel, Collateral, came out in the fall of 2012. In 2013, she released the sequel to her bestselling book Burned titled Smoke. Rumble released August 2014, is about a boy questioning his faith after his brother commits suicide. In 2015, she released Love Lies Beneath, about a woman who falls in love with a sociopath, and Traffick , a sequel to her bestseller Tricks. People Kill People was released in September 2018.

In 2006, Hopkins was recognized with a Silver Pen Award (for emerging writers) from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. She was inducted as a full member into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2015.

Inspiration Hopkins's primary inspiration for her first novels (i.e., the Crank series) comes from her eldest daughter, who "was addicted to crystal methamphetamine and spent two years in prison." In 2007, her daughter had been sober for five years. They have since been on speaking terms.

Ellen's daughter, Cristal, who is the inspiration for the character Kristina Snow in the Crank series, is now married and is a realtor. She has a YouTube channel under the name "Cristal Thetford", where she openly addresses her experiences with drug addiction.

Some of the themes discussed in Identical are inspired by friends of Hopkins who have suffered sexual abuse. In 2010, Crank made the top ten list.

In 2022, five of Hopkins's novels (Crank, Fallout, Impulse, People Kill People, and Tilt) were listed among 52 books banned by the Alpine School District following the implementation of Utah law H.B. 374, “Sensitive Materials In Schools." Forty-two percent of removed books “feature LBGTQ+ characters and or themes.” The material "is patently offensive in the description or depiction of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sadomasochistic abuse, or excretion" The material, on the whole, "does not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."

Publications (YA) = Young Adult (A) = Adult

Crank trilogy Crank (2004) (YA) Glass (2007) (YA) Fallout (2010) (YA)

Burned series Burned (2006) (YA) Smoke (2013) (YA)

Impulse series Impulse (2007) (YA) Perfect (2011) (YA)

Triangles and Tilt (YA Companion) Triangles (2011) (A) Tilt (2012) (YA) [companion novel]

Tricks series Tricks (2009) (YA) Traffick (Fall 2015) (YA)

Love Lies Beneath novels Love Lies Beneath (2015) (A) A Sin Such as This (2018) (A)

Other novels Identical (2008) (YA) Collateral (2012) (A) Rumble (2014) (YA) The You I've Never Known (January 2017) (YA) People Kill People (2018) (YA) Closer to Nowhere (2020) What About Will (2021) (YA) Sync (2024) (YA)