Gregory Maguire
| Gregory Maguire | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 9, 1954 Albany, New York |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Fantasy, Children's literature |
| Spouse | Andy Newman |
| Website | |
| gregorymaguire |
|
Gregory Maguire (born June 9, 1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and several dozen other novels for adults and children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are inspired by classic children's stories; Wicked transforms the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation into the misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba Thropp. The blockbuster Broadway musical Wicked, at its height running nine companies simultaneously around the world, was inspired by Maguire's first adult novel. The musical is the ninth-longest-running play currently staged in London's West End (as of September 2015), and the tenth-longest-running show in Broadway history.
Maguire, born and raised in Albany, New York, is the middle child of seven. Schooled in Catholic institutions through high school, he received a BA in English and Art from the State University of New York at Albany, an MA in Children's Literature from Simmons College, and a PhD in English and American Literature from Tufts University. His doctoral thesis was about English-language fantasy written for children between 1938 and 1988. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979 to 1986. In 1987, Maguire co-founded a nonprofit educational charity, Children's Literature New England, Inc., and was co-director for twenty-five years. He has been a board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, and has served on boards at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Board of Associates of the Boston Public Library, the Concord Free Press, among others.
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