Photo of S.E. Hinton

S.E. Hinton

Susan Eloise Hinton wrote her first novel, The Outsiders, as a freshman at the University of Tulsa, in 1967, when she was just 17 years old. She wrote under the gender-neutral guise of her initials, S.E. out of a concern that male readers would not read a book narrated by a boy but written by a woman.

With the success of The Outsiders, the moniker (S.E. Hinton) suddenly became a household name. Today, with more than eight million copies in print, the book is one of the best-selling YA novels in history, and one of the most hauntingly real looks into the minds of teenagers.

Hinton has written several books in her 30-year career, including Tex, Rumblefish, and That Was Then, This Is Now, all runaway successes. She currently lives in Tulsa, the town in which she was raised, with her husband and son.

Books by S.E. Hinton

  • The Outsiders

Awards

S.E. Hinton’s accolades include the ALA Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award.