This event happened on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 at Noon PDT. Watch a replay below.
Nevada Humanities featured Ellen Hopkins and her novel, Closer to Nowhere, as our selection for the 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival. The National Book Festival took place over 10 days, from September 17-26, with the theme "Open a Book, Open the World."
During this online event, UNLV professor and YA literature expert Steven Bickmore converses with Ellen Hopkins about what inspired her to write Closer to Nowhere and the importance of related themes of family, compassion, etc. in YA literature today.
Ellen Hopkins is a poet, former journalist, and the award-winning author of twenty nonfiction books for young readers, fourteen bestselling young-adult novels, and four novels for adult readers. This is her second middle-grade novel. Ellen lives with her extended family, two brilliant German shepherds, and a couple of ponds (not pounds) of koi in the eastern shadow of the Northern Nevada Sierra.
Steven T. Bickmore is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he has been teaching since 2015. Prior to UNLV he was at Louisiana State University for seven years. His research interests include how pre-service and novice English teachers negotiate the teaching of literature using young adult literature, especially around the issues of race, class, and gender. This agenda is furthered by his weekly academic blog, Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday. He is past editor of The ALAN Review (2009-2014) and co-editor of Study and Scrutiny: Research in Young Adult Literature (2016-present). He is the co-editor of six books. His publications appear in English Education, The English Journal, The ALAN Review, Taboo, and other journals.
R. Marsh Starks/UNLV Photo Services.