Ann Downer (1960–2015) was an American writer, principally of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

novels for children and young adults, as well as short fiction and poetry.

Biography

Ann Downer was born in Arlington, Virginia in 1960 and grew up in Manila and Bangkok and recalled avidly reading fantasy fiction. Her first published work was a trilogy published in the late 1980s and early 1990s (''The Spellkey'', ''The Glass Salamander'', and ''The Books of the Keepers''), collected in a revised edition in 1995 as ''The Spellkey Trilogy''. A second series for middle-grade readers, begun in 2003 with the novel ''Hatching Magic'', continues with ''The Dragon of Never-Was'' (2006). The Spellkey series is high fantasy, taking place wholly in an invented world and chronicling a good-versus-evil story of two foundlings, a stableboy and an ostracized seer. ''Hatching Magic'' and its sequel, ''The Dragon of Never-Was'', are contemporary fantasies with elements of

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

. The series follows a young girl, Theodora Oglethorpe, as she discovers a world of wizardry and magic. While Downer's books are frequently compared to the work of

Patricia A. McKillip Patricia Anne McKillip (February 29, 1948 – May 6, 2022) was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. She has been called "one of the most accomplished prose stylists in the fantasy genre", and wrote predominantly standalone fantasy n ...

and

Diana Wynne Jones Diana Wynne Jones (16 August 1934 – 26 March 2011) was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually de ...

, she has cited the influence of

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...

Earthsea ''The Earthsea Cycle'', also known as ''Earthsea'', is a series of high fantasy books written by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Beginning with ''A Wizard of Earthsea'' (1968), ''The Tombs of Atuan'', (1970) and ''The Farthest Shore'' ( ...

books and the

Chronicles of Prydain ''The Chronicles of Prydain'' is a pentalogy of children's high fantasy Bildungsroman novels written by American author Lloyd Alexander and published by Henry Holt and Company. The series includes: ''The Book of Three'' (1964), ''The Black Cauld ...

Lloyd Alexander Lloyd Chudley Alexander (January 30, 1924 – May 17, 2007) was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been tran ...

in shaping her outlook and prose style. She was diagnosed with

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

in 2014 and died on 19 November 2015 in Boston, MA.

Bibliography

Spellkey series *''The Spellkey'' (1987), jacket by Caldecott-medal winner

David Wiesner David Wiesner (born February 5, 1956) is an American illustrator and writer of children's books, known best for picture books including some that tell stories without words. As an illustrator he has won three Caldecott Medals recognizing the year ...

, also a UK paperback edition from Futura/Macmillan. *''The Glass Salamander'' (1989), jacket by Caldecott-medal winner

*''The Books of the Keepers'' (1993) All three books were collected into a paperback omnibus edition, ''The Spellkey Trilogy'', published by

Baen Books Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher an ...

in 1995. Hatching Magic series U.S. edition jackets by Omar Rayyan *'' Hatching Magic'' (2003; Scholastic Book Club selection; translated into German, Czech, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Thai, and Spanish; additional languages pending) *''The Dragon of Never-Was'' (2006) Other Fiction *"Somnus’s Fair Maid" (short-listed for the

James Tiptree Jr. Alice Bradley Sheldon (born Alice Hastings Bradley; August 24, 1915 – May 19, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author better known as James Tiptree, Jr., a pen name she used from 1967 to her death. It was not publicly known un ...

prize), a

Regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

retelling of the

Sleeping Beauty ''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...

fairy tale, in ''Black Thorn, White Rose'', edited by

Terri Windling Terri Windling (born December 3, 1958 in Fort Dix, New Jersey) is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoke ...

and

Ellen Datlow Ellen Datlow (born December 31, 1949) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award (Horror Writers Association). Career Datlow began her career ...

*Short stories and poetry in

Gargoyle Magazine ''Gargoyle Magazine'' is a literary magazine based in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1976 by Russell Cox, Richard Peabody, and Paul Pasquarella. By 1977, Peabody was the only remaining original editor. He continued running the magazine un ...

in the late 1980s, including excerpts from an unpublished novel. *"Bread-and-Butterflies" in ''Alice Redux'' (2006), a collection of short fiction inspired by

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

and edited by

Richard Peabody Richard Peabody is a poet, editor, and publisher, based in Washington, D.C. Biography A native of the Washington DC metropolitan region, Peabody received a B.A. in English from the University of Maryland in 1973 and a M.A. in Literature from Am ...

References

External links

Author blogBibliography on fantasticfiction.co.uk
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Downer, Ann 1960 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American children's writers American women novelists Smith College alumni Harvard University staff American women children's writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Neurological disease deaths in Massachusetts Deaths from motor neuron disease