Ruta Sepetys

Ruta Sepetys is a critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling American historical novelist whose powerful cross-generational narratives have earned her widespread recognition as a premier literary voice for unearthing forgotten global histories. Born in Detroit, Michigan, as the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, Sepetys formalized her multi-faceted background by earning a Bachelor of Science in International Finance from Grand Valley State University and studying international business at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus in Europe. Before dedicating her career to full-time writing, she spent over twenty years in Los Angeles as a prominent music industry executive, founding her own artist management firm representing Grammy-winning musicians. She achieved instantaneous literary stardom with her debut novel, Between Shades of Gray, a deeply personal exploration of the Soviet mass deportations from the Baltic states during World War II that became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into the feature film Ashes in the Snow. She further cemented her reputation for meticulous historical research with her Carnegie Medal-winning masterpiece Salt to the Sea, which chronicled the catastrophic sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, alongside major international bestsellers like The Fountains of Silence and her chilling exploration of communist Romania, I Must Betray You. Her body of work has been published in over sixty countries, translated into forty languages, and honored with the Lithuanian Order of Merit by the President of Lithuania. Moving dynamically through 2025 and into 2026, Sepetys continues to push the boundaries of historical fiction and creative non-fiction. In late 2025, she launched her highly anticipated novel The House of Whispers, a masterful, suspense-filled historical thriller set against the backdrop of 1930s espionage in the French Riviera, which she has actively promoted throughout her extensive 2026 global lecture and masterclass tours across North America and Europe.