E. Lockhart – Author Biography
Early Life
E. Lockhart is the pen name of Emily Jenkins, born in 1967 in New York. She studied English literature at Vassar College and Columbia University, earning a PhD, and worked in children’s publishing before writing full time.
Career
As Emily Jenkins, she wrote acclaimed picture books and middle-grade novels, including the Toys trilogy. As E. Lockhart, she turned to young adult fiction: the Ruby Oliver books, beginning with The Boyfriend List (2005), established her witty voice, but it was We Were Liars (2014) — a haunting, twist-driven story of privileged teenagers on a private island — that made her a bestseller and a staple of YA discourse. She followed it with the prequel Family of Liars (2022) and the adult thriller The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (2008), a National Book Award finalist.
Major Works
We Were Liars (2014) and Family of Liars (2022) are her best-known works, alongside The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (2008).
Writing Style and Themes
Lockhart writes elegant, elliptical prose — fairy-tale cadences colliding with contemporary teen voices. Her recurring themes are wealth and its moral rot, unreliable memory, guilt, and the stories families tell to protect themselves. We Were Liars is famous for a twist that forces readers to re-read the entire book.
Legacy
Lockhart helped define the literary YA thriller, proving that young-adult fiction could sustain sophisticated unreliable narration. We Were Liars remains one of the most discussed YA novels of the 2010s and was adapted for television.
