Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire (born June 9, 1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of the novels Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and many other novels for adults and children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are revisionist retellings of classic children's stories: for example, in Wicked he transformed the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaption into the misunderstood protagonist Elphaba. Wicked was turned into a successful Broadway musical of the same name. One of Maguire's short stories is featured in the 2004 compilation Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales.

Biography [edit]

Maguire was born in Albany, New York. He received his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany and his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University.^[1] He wrote his doctoral thesis on children’s fantasy from 1933 to 1989.^[2] He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979 to 1985. In 1987, Maguire co-founded Children's Literature New England and he continues to serve as its co-director.^[1] He is also a board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance^[3] a national not-for-profit that actively advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries.

Maguire is married to painter Andy Newman. They have adopted three children, two from Cambodia and one from Guatemala.^[4]

Bibliography [edit]

For children [edit]

• The Lightning Time (1978)
• The Daughter of the Moon (1980)
• Lights on the Lake (1981)
• The Dream Stealer (1983)
• I Feel like the Morning Star (1989)
• Lucas Fishbone (1990)
• Missing Sisters (1994)
• "The Honorary Shepherds", in Am I Blue?: Coming Out From the Silence
• Oasis (1996)
• The Good Liar (1997)
• "Beyond the Fringe", in A Glory of Unicornz
• Crabby Cratchitt (2000)
• Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales (2004)
• Hamlet Chronicles
  • Seven Spiders Spinning
  • Six Haunted Hairdos (1999)
  • Five Alien Elves (1995)
  • Four Stupid Cupids (2000)
  • Three Rotten Eggs (2002)
  • A Couple of April Fools (2004)
  • One Final Firecracker (2005)
• What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy (2007)
• Missing Sisters (2009)

For adults [edit]

• The Wicked Years
  • Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995)
  • Son of a Witch (2005)
  • A Lion Among Men (2008)
  • Out of Oz (2011)
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (1999)
• Lost (2001)
• Mirror, Mirror (2003)
• The Next Queen of Heaven (2010)

Short stories [edit]

• Scarecrow (2001), published in Half-Human edited by Bruce Coville (Note: This is the life story of the Scarecrow from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but is not a part of The Wicked Years.)
• Fee, Fie, Foe et Cetera (2002), published in The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest
• The Oakthing (2004), published in The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm
• Chatterbox, published in I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes With Religion
• The Honorary Shepherds (1994), published in Am I Blue?:Coming Out From The Silence
• Beyond the Fringe (1998) published in A Glory of Unicorns
• The Seven Stage a Comeback (2000) published in A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales
• Matchless: A Christmas Story (2009)
• The Silk Road Runs Through Tupperneck, N.H. (2009), published in How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity
• In That Country (2012), published in Parnassus Literary Arts Magazine

Non-fiction [edit]

• Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation (2009)

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Gregory Maguire official website
• NCBLA Gregory Maguire bio
• NCBLA Gregory Maguire interview
• Official publisher web page
• Gregory Maguire at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• "American Fairy Tales" A Conversation with Gregory Maguire