Gregory Maguire

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 Maguires adult novels are inspired by classic childrens 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 Maguire is married to American painter Andy Newman in one of the first samesex marriages performed in the state of Massachusetts They have three children 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 fathers remarriage Maguire has three halfsiblings from his fathers second marriage 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 childrens literature from Simmons College and a PhD in English and American literature from Tufts University His doctoral thesis was on childrens fantasy written from 1938 to 1989 In 1978 at the age of 25 Maguire published his first novel The Lightning Time Around the same time he began to realize he was gay He was a professor and codirector at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Childrens Literature from 1979 to 1986 In 1987 Maguire cofounded a nonprofit educational charity Childrens Literature New England Inc and was codirector for twentyfive years He has lived in Dublin London and the greater Boston area In 1995 Maguire published his first adult novel Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Though the novel was initially unsuccessful it sold 500000 copies by the time the Broadway adaptation opened in 2003 In 2005 ten years after its publication Wicked spent 26 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list Maguire met American painter Andy Newman in 1997 at the Blue Mountain Center art 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 samesex marriage became possible in MassachusettsThey have lived in Concord Massachusetts since 1999 On April 13 2009 Maguire and his family were featured on Oprah Description above from the Wikipedia article Gregory Maguire licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia