Favorite Author

For an education class that I am in I had to make something called a “literary timeline,” or a timeline of types of books I have read throughout my life.  It got me thinking about all my favorite authors.  My all time favorite author has to be Ellen Hopkins.  She writes prose in poetry form.  She takes advantage of white space, of creating images with her words.  My favorite book by her is titled “burned.”  It is about a Mormon girl who acts out against her religion.  If you are looking for something poetic to read but not necessarily poetry, Ellen Hopkins is a perfect choice.  Her imagery and writing style apply particularly to the senses.  I have attached an excerpt from “burned” when the narrator realizes her father is sending her away for the summer as punishment for acting against her religion.

4 Replies to “Favorite Author”

  1. Great introduction to Ellen Hopkins, Arianna. I’m curious to know more on what makes “prose in poetry form”: it LOOKS like poetry. What makes you feel it’s prose? Just the author’s claim, or something else?

  2. This actually reminded me of some of the poetry we have been recently reading in class, namely Mei-mei Berssenbrugge. I noticed when reading this poetry that she has a rather prose-like style. Maybe this is more common than I am aware of, but I had never seen poems like this before. Berssenbrugge uses many full sentences and prose-like punctuation, and I find it really intriguing. It makes me re-think the way I view poetry, just as Ellen Hopkins makes us re-think the way we view prose. These two writers blur the line that divides different types of creative writing, which I find very thought-provoking.

  3. I loved Ellen Hopkins in high school (& even to this day)–I would always try & track down new books of hers when I knew they had come out. People always groan when they have to do the “poetry unit” in high school, but I knew a ton of people who loved Ellen Hopkins’s work, even though it looked very poetic. Perhaps an idea to push poetry into the “mainstream”?

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