Nevada Writers Hall of Fame to honor Carson City area author Ellen Hopkins

The 28th annual Nevada Writers Hall of Fame welcomes inductee, Ellen Hopkins, author of 11 bestselling novels, numerous stories and more than 20 children’s nonfiction titles. Mark Maynard, author of “Grind,” and Laura McBride, author of “We Are Called to Rise,” will be awarded with the 2015 Silver Pen.

The annual Nevada Writers Hall of Fame event honors Nevada’s finest writers and recognizes emerging writers for their work. This year’s ceremony will take place Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015, in the Milt Glick Ballroom on the fourth floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union at the University of Nevada, Reno. Since 1988, 53 writers have been selected to be a part of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Award
Ellen Hopkins is a poet, freelance writer, and the award-winning author of 20 nonfiction titles and 11 The New York Times bestselling novels-in-verse, including the “Crank” trilogy. She is scheduled to publish her 12th novel in November 2015.

Hopkins has been living in the Reno/Tahoe area since 1985 settling near Carson City in 1990 with her extended family. In 2012, she founded Ventana Sierra, a nonprofit youth housing and resource initiative, as a way of helping young people in need.

She also mentors other writers through her position as a regional adviser for the Nevada chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Hopkins’ young adult novels delve into touchy subjects, such as addiction, religion, suicide and abuse. Her books for adult readers touch on hot button issues like deployment and how it affects those deployed and those left behind. Hopkins is a regular speaker at schools, book festivals and writers conferences across the country and throughout the world.

The Silver Pen Award Recipients: Laura McBride and Mark Maynard
The Silver Pen Award is given to emerging and mid-career writers of promise. The Silver Pen Award was established in 1996.

Laura McBride has been a proud Nevadan since 1986. Her first novel, “We Are Called to Rise,” explores the beautiful and explosive possibilities of Las Vegas, a diverse community in which the conventional social boundaries are unusually fluid. “We Are Called to Rise” was a lead fiction title for Simon & Schuster in 2014 receiving a variety of accolades including the No. 1 IndieNext pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover selection and a BBC Radio2 Book Club choice. The novel has already been chosen for Community-Wide Reading Programs, a program of the American Library Association, in seven states. It is also the 2015-2016 book selection for the Nevada Reads program, as chosen by the Nevada Center for the Book.

McBride is a tenured professor of English at the College of Southern Nevada, where she has been actively involved in all aspects of teaching and college life. She has also volunteered extensively in community organizations and public schools and is a former non-profit consultant and administrator in southern Nevada.

Mark Maynard grew up on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in Incline Village, a very small town that blessed him with enough quirky characters to populate a lifetime of stories. His debut collection, “Grind,” is a collection of linked short stories.

Mark earned his master’s degree in fine arts in creative writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles, Calif. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and he has been featured as part of Sierra Nevada College's Writers in the Woods Series and as part of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Alumni Reading Series.

Mark is the program coordinator the Nevada Humanities Reno Literary Crawl, and the co-founder of the Sierra Literary Alliance. He currently lives in Sparks.

Hall of Fame Awards
The Nevada Writers Hall of Fame was conceived by former Friends of the University Libraries President Marilyn Melton. She envisioned two purposes: an annual event honoring Nevada's finest writers and a stimulus to encourage excellence among emerging writers in the Silver State.

The names of all the authors who have been inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame are prominently displayed on a wall of honor in the Leslie Harvey and Robert George Whittemore Tower Entry and Reception Gallery of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Honorees are selected based on their body of work, critical recognition and a strong connection to Nevada through the themes of their writing or residence in the state. A selection committee of representatives from throughout the state chooses the inductees to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame and the Silver Pen Award recipients.

Tickets This year’s reception and silent auction begin at 6 p.m. followed by the program at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015. Tickets are available for $40 per person. For more information or to make reservations, contact Breanne Standingwater at 775-682-6022 or bstandingwater@unr.edu.

— Nicole Shearer is a Communications Officer for the University of Nevada, Reno. She can be reached at nshearer@unr.edu