Gregory Maguire (born June 9, 1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of Wicked, 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. Maguire published his first novel, The Lightning Time, in 1978. Wicked, published in 1995, was his first novel for adults. It was adapted into a popular Broadway musical in 2003, which was later adapted into a two-part musical film, with the first half released in 2024 and the second half scheduled to be released in 2025.
Maguire is married to American painter Andy Newman, in one of the first same-sex marriages performed in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. They have three children.[1]
Biography
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Gregory Maguire is the youngest of four children born to Helen and John Maguire. His mother died from complications suffered giving birth to him, which prompted his father to send him to live with an aunt. His aunt relinquished him to a local orphanage when he was six months old. He was reclaimed from the orphanage at age two, after his father's remarriage. Maguire has three half-siblings from his father's second marriage.[1]
Schooled in Catholic institutions through high school,[2] he received a BA degree in English from the State University of New York at Albany in 1976, an MA degree in children's literature from Simmons College in 1978, and a PhD in English and American literature from Tufts University in 1990, with his dissertation titled "Themes in English Language Fantastic Literature for Children, 1938-1988".[3] His doctoral thesis was on children's fantasy written from 1938 to 1989.
In 1978, at the age of 24, Maguire published his first novel, The Lightning Time. Around the same time, he began to realize he was gay.[1] 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 lived in Dublin, London, and the greater Boston area.[3]
Maguire met American painter Andy Newman in 1997 at the Blue Mountain Center, an artists' and writers' colony. Within a month of meeting, they had fallen in love. They adopted three children: Luke and Alex, originally from Cambodia, and Helen, originally from Guatemala. Maguire and Newman were married in June 2004, shortly after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts.[1] They have lived in Concord, Massachusetts since 1999.[4][5] On April 13, 2009, Maguire and his family were featured on Oprah.[6]
Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker (2017)
A Wild Winter Swan (2020)
Short stories
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.)
