“A writer's life is not very exciting - usually you're alone in a room with your tools - paper, pen, imagination.

I walk the dog, ride my horse, wander the grocery store wondering what to cook for dinner.

So much for my glamourous life.”

Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 22, 1948. She wrote “The Outsiders” at the age of 16 while still in high school. The publisher of that book advised her to use her initials instead of her full name so that her book was not brushed aside by male book publishers. 

Hinton is credited with creating the Young Adult genre. She started writing because as an avid reader, she was disappointed that there weren’t more books that appealed to teenagers. 

After writing “The Outsiders” and having it become successful quickly, S.E. Hinton experienced writer’s block. Her husband helped her overcome this telling her to write two pages per day before she went anywhere. This routine helped her overcome the block, and she published her second book in 1971. Hinton wrote and published five young adult novels between 1967 and 1988. She took a break from writing and then restarted her career with a couple of children’s picture books. Most recently, she has written two books for adults. To learn more about S.E. Hinton, check out her website. 

The King Middle School Library has the following books by S.E. Hinton: “The Outsiders,” “Rumblefish,” “Taming the Star Runner,” “Tex,” “That Was Then, This Is Now,” and “The Puppy Sister.”