(IC) Lesson Topic 1: S.E. Hinton

S.E. Hinton was, and still is, one of the most popular and best-known writers of young adult fiction. Her books have been taught in some schools, but banned from others. Her novels changed the way people look at young adult literature.

Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She always enjoyed reading but wasn't satisfied with the literature that was being written for young adults, which influenced her to write novels like The Outsiders. This book, her first novel, was published in 1967 by Viking.

Once published, The Outsiders gave her a lot of publicity and fame, and also a lot of pressure. S.E. Hinton was becoming known as "The Voice of the Youth," among other titles. This kind of pressure and publicity resulted in a three-year-long writer's block.

Her boyfriend (now husband) became sick of her being depressed all the time and eventually helped break this block. He made her write two pages a day if she wanted to go anywhere. This eventually led to That Was Then, This Is Now.

How Does S.E. Hinton Approach Writing?

Here is part of an interview with S.E. Hinton that she did with SPEAK and published with the Penguin Group.

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