John Green
#1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska; co-author of the New York Times bestseller Will Grayson, Will Grayson
E. Lockhart
New York Times-bestselling author of We Were Liars
Photo credit: Heather Weston
E. Lockhart is the inventor of a DC Comics superhero and wrote the #1 New York Times-bestselling novel We Were Liars, which has been published in 41 countries. She is also the author of the National Book Award finalist The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and the New York Times bestseller and LA Times Book Prize finalist Genuine Fraud. Lockhart's lively presentations empower students’ creativity, and she is a favorite speaker at schools and libraries.
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About E. Lockhart
E. Lockhart is the beloved author of fiercely intelligent novels that explore issues of morality, feminism, and heroism. Her 11 novels include We Were Liars, which was a break-out success and a #1 New York Times bestseller. The novel was named to numerous best-of-the-year lists and won many state awards. It remains on the bestseller list six years after publication. Lockhart is also the inventor of a new Gotham City superhero for DC Comics in graphic novel form; Whistle is the story of a Jewish teenage activist with deep ties to Gotham’s criminal underworld who finds herself gifted with superpowers.
A captivating storyteller, Lockhart speaks to students and aspiring writers on the creative life and techniques for writing fiction and graphic novels. She talks to educators about literature and feminist issues. Her wit and insight make her a popular choice for both adult and young adult audiences, as well as for libraries and community reads programs.
Lockhart’s novel The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks won a Michael L. Printz Honor Award and was a National Book Award finalist. Its feminist themes have led Lockhart to speak about gender politics to groups of girls across the country. Genuine Fraud was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and New York Times bestseller. In her latest novel, Again Again, Lockhart ups the ante with an inventive and romantic story about human connection, forgiveness, self-discovery, and possibility.
Born in New York City and raised in Cambridge, MA and Seattle, Wa, Lockhart has doctorate in English from Columbia University. She has taught writing and literature at Columbia, Barnard, NYU and Hamline University’s MFA Program in Writing for Children. She writes for younger readers under the name Emily Jenkins. Lockhart lives in Brooklyn and shares her office space with a team of cats.
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Speaking Topics
Creative Writing Workshops
Finding Your Voice
Lockhart runs creative writing workshops on tapping your unique voice as a storyteller.How to Be Funny
Yes, you. Yes, really. Lockhart will show you.Artifice, Punctuation, and Other Rogue Techniques of World-Building
An analysis of how certain writers build compelling fictional words using playful or aggressively stylized language and formats, even in popular fiction, and how to be experimental without becoming gimmicky. Lockhart discusses works by Markus Zusak, Walter Dean Meyers, Lauren Myracle, Neil Gaiman and many other great writers of children’s, adult and YA literature.Antiheroes
When we talk about books for young people, we are very often talking about books that teach. The heroes of such books go on moral journeys that offer inspiration and hope to readers. What then, is the place of antihero stories in youth literature? Teenagers love villainous protagonists, but what are we to make of them, and can we understand them in a moral framework? Lockhart’s own Genuine Fraud is an antihero story, and she unpacks the appeal and the value of this kind of tale.
Books are a Feminist Issue
A discussion of assumptions we make about gender and reading in books for children and young adults — and analysis of what the consequences of those assumptions can be. Parents want to protect their children and encourage them to read. Educators want the same. Lockhart explains how these good intentions can end up perpetuating gender inequality.
Escapism and Bibliotherapy
There are two primary ways people talk about books for children and young adults: as escapist, or as bibliotherapeutic. In this talk for teachers and librarians, Lockhart debunks these categories and explains the dangers of thinking of literature for young readers as either candy or medicine. Including personal stories and without shying away from controversy, she puts forward new ways of thinking about kids and books.
Inventing a Superhero
Comics and graphic novels are now widely celebrated in schools and libraries. They’re a great way to engage reluctant readers. So what’s it like to invent a brand-new hero who fights Batman villains? Lockhart takes students inside the creative process on Whistle, and gives a bit of superhero history, as well.
Tapping Your Creativity
Lockhart presents to middle-school and high school students on techniques for accessing the creativity that’s inside all of us. She shares tools she uses to create compelling narratives — specifically, how everyday emotion can be translated into powerful poetry, fiction, song lyrics, comic strips, or film. She touches on her recent novels, but the focus is on empowering students to create.
Categories: Bestselling Author Speakers, Young Adult Author Speakers -
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Praise for E. Lockhart
Praise for Again Again
E. Lockhart takes this deep, philosophical theory and uses it as a wonderfully inventive device… such a fantastic concept… devastatingly beautiful…Again Again is more than a young adult romance novel. It’s a portrait of complex emotion and the lasting effects of being consumed by love, grief, anger, and forgiveness, and the frightening and exhilarating range of possibilities that life can give us.
— Booktopia (AU)Lockhart takes her penchant for plot twists to a new level, with a narrative that explores the idea of the multiverse, those infinite worlds loosed by paths taken and not taken. Key scenes are imagined and then reimagined, laying out an iterative feast of ideas about art, possibility, and the creative process for readers hungry for big concepts. Others will simply luxuriate in the storytelling: Adelaide’s ups and downs, the sweetly individual personalities of the dogs she walks, and the dreamy atmosphere of the nearly deserted summertime campus.
— Publishers Weekly, top YA summer readsAccessible, intriguing, and original…E. Lockhart has done it again with the deceptively simple story that allows the reader to ruminate on the nature of life, love, art, and connection.
— YALSAThe author of the cult favorite We Were Liars returns with a touching and absorbing drama of the many differing forms that love can take. Featuring a warm and relatable protagonist and a narrative full of welcome surprises, Again Again is the perfect summer read for young and old readers alike.
— WaterstonesMoving, high-concept…wonderfully illuminating.
— Booklist, starred reviewThe intertextual references, another hallmark of a Lockhart novel, remind us not to worry so much about which timeline is ‘real’ … but what is ‘true’…Ultimately it impacts on both heart and head.
— Irish TimesLockhart captures the complexity of teenage life in richly layered and sometimes darkly thrilling novels — but this has a poignancy that pierces the heart…Moving and witty.
— Daily MailFunny, incredibly sad, and extremely thought-provoking.
— Lamont BooksSurprising and charming.
— Shelf AwarenessIn every universe, [Adelaide] is big sister to Toby, a relapsed addict. If Adelaide can heal that relationship, the pieces of her complicated love life just might fall into place. An offbeat, philosophical, multiverse love story.
— The Horn Book, top ten YA summer readsLockhart’s latest book highlights her creativity in both writing and format… Adelaide is a delightful character who makes the plot completely believable in all the worlds in which she exists. Verdict: A lyrical read that’s also fun as it addresses myriad truths.
— School Library Journal, starred reviewCleverly constructed…It’s a complicated concept, but it unfolds with surprising grace and ease, and the alternatives are as deftly characterized as the main narrative, illustrating how many plausible ways we could all react in any situation and what a difference it makes.
— The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred reviewA thoughtfully subversive exploration of the diverging pathways of the human heart.
— Kirkus ReviewsE. Lockhart has done it again in this twisty, inventive, philosophical and romantic story about the many ways a person can find, lose, and understand love.
— Gayle Forman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of If I StayMy favorite books are those that are hilarious, poignant, utterly unique and brimming with realistic, loveable characters (preferably including dogs). This book doesn’t just have all these elements. It has them in multiple universes. I loved it.
— Jaclyn Moriarty, author of Gravity is the ThingPraise for Genuine Fraud
This thriller from the author of We Were Liars (2014) will challenge preconceptions about identity and keep readers guessing.
— Kirkus Reviews, Starred ReviewAn excellent choice recommended for teens and adults who love twisty mysteries, stories about class conflict, and tough-as-nails teen girls.
— SLJ, Starred ReviewCaptivating . . . bewitching.
— Booklist, Starred ReviewA bracing pace, a slew of far-flung locations, and a storyline that runs mostly in reverse will keep readers on their toes, never entirely sure of what these girls are responsible for or capable of.
— Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewPraise for We Were Liars
Irresistible premise for this ticking time bomb of a novel.
— New York Times Book ReviewLockhart has created a mystery with an ending most readers won’t see coming, one so horrific it will prompt some to return immediately to page one to figure out how they missed it. At the center of it is a girl who learns the hardest way of all what family means, and what it means to lose the one that really mattered to you.
— Publishers Weekly, starred reviewThrilling, beautiful, and blisteringly smart. We Were Liars is utterly unforgettable
— John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our StarsHaunting, sophisticated mystery...a novel so twisty and well-told that it will appeal to older readers as well as to adolescents
— The Wall Street Journal -
Books by E. Lockhart
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Featured Title
Again Again
“[Lockhart’s] prose and storytelling ability are unparalleled in YA; she guides readers through her narratives like a masterful, seasoned director guides the viewer’s eye in a film. At this point, I want to read every story she decides to tell.”— BookPage
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