Salt to the Sea (Sepetys)

Author Bio
• Birth—November 19, 1967
• Where—Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.S., Hillsdale College
• Currently—lives in Nashville, Tennessee


Ruta Sepetys (Roota Suh-pettys) is the Lithuanian-American author of three novels: Salt to the Sea (2016), a story of refugees on-board the real-life Wilhelm Gustloff; Out of the Easy (2013), set in New Orleans, Louisiana; and Between Shades of Gray (2011), set during the Soviet takeover of Lithuania.

Sepetys was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, who escaped from Stalin's Russia. Her father ended up spending nine years in refugee camps before making his way to the U.S.

Ruta's third novel, Salt to the Sea, has personal relevance to her family. Her father's cousin also fled Latvia and landed in East Prussia. From there, like characters in the novel, she hoped to escape by sea. Scheduled to sail on the Wilhelm Gustloff, fate intervened—she was transferred at the last minute to a different ship, and her life was spared. Decades later later, the cousin and her husband encouraged Ruta to tell the story of the thousands of refugees aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff.

Ruta Sepetys holds a B.S. in International Finance from Hillsdale College. While in school Sepetys also studied at the Centre d'etudes Europeennes in Toulon, France and at the ICN in Nancy, France.

Following graduation Sepetys moved to Los Angeles. In 1994 she launched Sepetys Entertainment Group, Inc., an entertainment management firm representing Grammy-award-winning guitarist Steve Vai, Orange County modern rock band Lit, and Emmy-nominated film composer Niels Bye Nielsen. In 2002 Sepetys was featured in Rolling Stone magazine’s "Women in Rock" special issue as a woman driven to make a difference.

Sepetys is on the Board of Advisors for the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University and is also a director of the Make a Noise Foundation, a national non-profit that raises money for music education. She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 3/14/2016.)