1. Ruta Sepetys is a Lithuanian-American writer of historical fiction.
19 Facts About Ruta Sepetys
1. 2.
Ruta Sepetys is a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellow and the first American writer of young adult literature to speak at the European Parliament and NATO.
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Ruta Sepetys's work has been published in over sixty countries and forty languages and is currently in development for film and television.
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In 2002, Ruta Sepetys was featured in Rolling Stone magazine's "Women in Rock" special issue as a woman driven to make a difference.
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Ruta Sepetys is on the Board of Advisors for the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University and is a director of the Make a Noise Foundation, a national non-profit that raises money for music education.
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Ruta Sepetys published her first novel in 2011 and currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Ruta Sepetys has been described as a "seeker of lost stories" who hopes to give voice to those who weren't able to tell their story.
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Ruta Sepetys's novels are Between Shades of Gray, Out of the Easy, Salt to the Sea, The Fountains of Silence, and I Must Betray You, many of which are critically acclaimed.
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Ruta Sepetys married Michael Smith in 2006, having met two years earlier.
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In March 2013, Ruta Sepetys became the first American author of young adult literature to give a presentation at European Parliament.
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Ruta Sepetys must decide whether to be an informant or resist the regime.
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On June 19,2017, Ruta Sepetys was awarded the Carnegie Medal in a ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.
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Ruta Sepetys won the Shadower's Award on June 21,2023 for "I Must Betray You ".
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Ruta Sepetys has been recognized multiple times by the Children's Book Committee of Bank Street College of Education.
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Ruta Sepetys won the 2023 Josette Frank Award for Fiction for I Must Betray You, which was listed as a Best Children's Book of the Year with Outstanding Merit.
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On June 6,2013, Ruta Sepetys was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania.
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Ruta Sepetys was decorated for her contributions to education and culture in conjunction with her global efforts to share the history of totalitarianism in the Baltics.
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In 2015, Ruta Sepetys was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center residency in Lake Como, Italy.
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In 2025 Ruta Sepetys was awarded the Regina Medal by the Catholic Library Association.