Special Guest Ruta Sepetys

Ruta Sepetys (Rūta Šepetys) is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages. Considered a “crossover” novelist, her books are read by both students and adults worldwide. Winner of the Carnegie Medal and honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Ruta is renowned for giving voice to underrepresented history and those who experienced it. Her books have won or been shortlisted for more than fifty book prizes, appear on over forty state reading lists, and are currently in development for film and television.

Ruta is the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee. Born in Michigan, she was raised in a family of artists, readers, and music lovers. She is passionate about the power of history to foster dialogue and global understanding. Her research and writing on human resilience have earned her invitations to speak at NATO, European Parliament, the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, and Embassies worldwide. She has been awarded fellowships from The University of Oxford in England and The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. The New York Times Book Review declared, “Ruta Sepetys acts as champion of the interstitial people so often ignored—whole populations lost in the cracks of history.”

Ruta was bestowed the Cross of the Knight of the Order by the President of Lithuania for her contributions to education and memory preservation and was honored with a postage stamp containing her image. She is deeply grateful for her Baltic heritage— even if it means she has a name that no one can pronounce.

Ruta lives with her family in the hills of Tennessee.