Dune Child
Born in the Great Depression, author Ella Thorp Ellis grew up in a collective bohemian community on the California coast. Resident artists and writers, including her father and mother, were frequently visited by well-known figures including Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Edward Weston, and Meher Baba. Former lecturer at San Francisco State University, Ella Thorp Ellis has been celebrated for her young adult novels, six of which were American Library Honor Books of the Year. Married, with three sons and nine grandchildren, she divides her time between Berkeley and Santa Cruz, California.