Margaret Stiefvater ( ; Hummel) is an American writer of

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

, known mainly for her series of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving 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 literature and d ...

novels '' The Wolves of Mercy Falls'' and ''

The Raven Cycle The Raven Cycle is a series of four contemporary fantasy novels written by American author Maggie Stiefvater. The first novel, ''The Raven Boys'', was published by Scholastic in 2012, and the final book, ''The Raven King'', was published on 26 ...

''. She currently lives in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

Life and career

Early life

As a child, Stiefvater was a voracious reader who enjoyed writing. By age 16, she was submitting manuscripts to publishers. After being home-schooled from sixth grade on, Stiefvater attended

Mary Washington College The University of Mary Washington (UMW) is a public liberal arts university in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the Fredericksburg Teachers College, the institution was named Mary Washington College in 1938 after Mary Ball Washing ...

, graduating with a B.A. in history. By the time she had entered college, she had already written over 30 novels, including four thrillers about the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

, a historical blockade runner novel, and a high-fantasy novel about "impassioned enchanters fighting among civil unrest." At 16, she legally changed her first name to Margaret. Her maiden name was Hummel. After graduating, she worked as a portrait artist, specializing in equestrian art. In 2010, she gave a TEDx Talk for NASA entitled "How Bad Teens Become Famous People", in which she reflects on her youth as a "Bad Teen" and how those years have impacted her.

Writing career

Stiefvater published her first novel, ''Lament'', in 2008. Before ''Lament'' had been released, she sold the rights to ''Ballad,'' the sequel to ''Lament,'' and to ''Shiver,'' the first book in the trilogy '' The Wolves of Mercy Falls''. ''Shiver'' spent more than 40 weeks on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. There are over 1.7 million copies of ''The Wolves of Mercy Falls'' series in print and more than thirty-six foreign editions have been licensed. In 2011, Stiefvater published ''The Scorpio Races'', which received 5 starred reviews and was named a Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book. Stiefvater has been very open about sharing her techniques and methods when writing. She has a series of blog posts entitled
how i write
describing her different approaches and sharing advice. In 2018 and 2019, Maggie Stiefvater gave writing seminars entitled Portraits & Dreams: Writing with Maggie Stiefvater. It included a lecture and a Q&A. She gave this lecture in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

Music

Stiefvater plays various musical instruments. She recorded original compositions for the audio books of ''The Scorpio Races'' and ''

''. She has a SoundCloud account where she releases her original tracks. Stiefvater is very connected to music and has released playlists for some of her novels of songs she listened to while writing.

Art

Before turning to writing full-time, Stiefvater was a professional portrait artist, specializing in colored pencil. She currently has her own Etsy page and Society6 page where she sells her original art. Stiefvater also created a Tarot card deck, The Raven's Prophecy Tarot Cards, in September 2015. She was asked to create a poster for the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

to promote reading. The poster includes characters from ''

'' and the phrase "The future belongs to those who read."

Cars

Stiefvater greatly enjoys cars, especially fast ones. She has completed a stunt driving class. She has worked as an automotive journalist. Stiefvater has frequently used her passion for vehicles to promote her novels. To promote the second book of ''

'', ''The Dream Thieves'', Stiefvater spray-painted her own car. She later allowed fans to also spray-paint the vehicle at the book's launch in Kansas City on September 18, 2013. She repeated this for another event in October 2016, where she let fans paint her

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X is the tenth and final generation of the Lancer Evolution, a sports sedan produced by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors. By September 2005, Mitsubishi introduced a concept version of the next-gen Evolution ...

. In 2013 Stiefvater went

rally racing Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sports ...

in a race car printed with the cover of ''The Raven Boys''. In 2015, Stiefvater drove her

in a race against fellow author

John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author, YouTube content creator, podcaster, and philanthropist. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including '' The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is ...

at the Princeton Speedway. Both their vehicles caught fire.

Personal life

Stiefvater has a personal blog where she shares her life events. Stiefvater is married to a "straight-laced husband" and has two children. She has four dogs named Winnie, Parsifal, Jane, and Rose. She also has nine goats and a horse.

Bibliography

Novels

''Books of Faerie''

*''Lament'' (2008) *''Ballad'' (2009) *''Requiem'' (TBD)

''The Wolves of Mercy Falls''

*''Shiver'' (2009) *''Linger'' (2010) *''Forever'' (2011) *''Sinner'' (2014)

''The Raven Cycle''

*''The Raven Boys'' (2012) *''The Dream Thieves'' (2013) *''Blue Lily, Lily Blue'' (2014) *''The Raven King'' (2016) *''Opal'' (2018)

''The Dreamer Trilogy''

*''Call Down The Hawk'' (2019) *''Mister Impossible'' (2021) *''Greywaren'' (2022) ''Pip Bartlett - with

Jackson Pearce Jackson Pearce (born 1984) is an American author. She writes young adult fiction and also publishes as J. Nelle Patrick. Personal life and education Pearce was born in Raleigh, North Carolina and, , lives in Decatur, Georgia. She started writing ...

'' * ''Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures'' (2015) * ''Pip Bartlett's Guide to Unicorn Training'' (2017) * ''Pip Bartlett's Guide to Sea Monsters'' (2018)

Other novels

*''The Scorpio Races'' (2011) *''Spirit Animals Book 2: Hunted'' (2014) *''All the Crooked Saints'' (2017) *''Bravely'' (2022)

Anthologies

*''The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories'' - with

Tessa Gratton Tessa is a feminine given name, sometimes a shortened form of Theresa. It may refer to: People * Tessa Albertson (born 1996), American actress * Tessa Balfour, Countess of Balfour (born 1950), British aristocrat * Tessa Blanchard (born 1994), A ...

and

Brenna Yovanoff Brenna may refer to: People * Brenna Hassett, American British bioarchaeologist * Brenna O'Brien (born 1991), Canadian actress * Brenna Sakas (born 1984), American beauty queen * Giuseppe Brenna (1898–1980), Italian cyclist * Troy Brenna (born ...

(2012) *''The Anatomy of Curiosity'' - with Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff (2015)

Short fiction

*''The Hounds of Ulster'' (2010) - a short story in the anthology ''Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love'' *''Non Quis, Sed Quid'' (2011)

Graphic Novels

*
Swamp Thing: Twin Branches
-'' with artist Morgan Beem (October 2020)

Film adaptations

Unique Features, in association with Paramount optioned ''Shivers film rights shortly after the book was released. A screenplay was written by Nick Pustay. It was reported in 2011 that David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith’s KatzSmith Productions would produce a film of ''Scorpio Races''. New Line Cinema, in conjunction with Weed Road, optioned the film rights for ''The Raven Boys'' shortly before the book's release in September 2012. In 2019, Stiefvater wrote the pilot for a TV show of ''

''.

Recognition

''Shiver''

* Debuted at #9 on the New York Times bestseller list * Indies Choice Book Award Finalist * ALA 2010 Best Books for Young Adults * ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers * Amazon Top Ten Books for Teens * Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2009 * Border's Original Voices Pick & Finalist * Barnes & Noble 2009 Top Twenty Books for Teens * CBC Children's Choice Awards Finalist * 2010

SIBA Book Award Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize (formerly the SEBA Book Award and SIBA Book Award) is an literary award given by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA). It was first awarded in 1999.Summer, Bob (1999). "SEBA presents first book award ...

, Finalist * Glamour's Best Book to Curl Up With * VOYA's Perfect Ten, 2009 * BDB Top Young Reads of 2009

''Lament''

* ALA 2010 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults * ALA 2010 Best Books for Young Adults * SIBA Book Award Nominee * Starred review, Publishers Weekly * Starred review, Booklist * Starred review, KLIATT

''The Scorpio Races''

*Michael L. Printz Award Honor, 2012 *The Odyssey Honor Award 2012 for Best Audio Production *Los Angeles Times Book Times Award Finalist, 2012 *ALA Notable Books for Children, 2012 *''The New York Times'' Notable Children's Books of 2011 *''Publishers Weekly'' Best Children's Books of 2011 *Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best, 2012 *Amazon's Best Books for Teens 2011 *''School Library Journals Best Books of the Year *''Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year (2011) *''Horn Book'' Best Books of 2011 *Children's Book Committee 2012 Best Children's Books of the Year *Finalist, 2012 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature *YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2012 *YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults, 2012 *2012 NCTE/ CLA Notable Children's Book in the English Language Arts

''The Raven Boys''

*Number 1 NYT Bestselling Series *TIME Magazine Season's Most Anticipated Reads *Junior Library Guild Selection *Amazon Books Editors' Selection: Fall Favorites *Autumn 2012 Kids' Indie Next List Pick *Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award *Bram Stoker Award nominee

''The Dream Thieves''

Detcon1 Detcon1 was the 11th occasional North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC). It was held in Detroit, Michigan, from July 17–20, 2014, in the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center. This NASFiC was scheduled because London, England, w ...

Member Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction *School Library Journal's Best Books of 2013 *Chapters-Indigo Best Books of 2013

''Blue Lily, Lily Blue''

* TIME Magazine Season's Most Anticipated Reads * Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2012 * Junior Library Guild Selection * Amazon Books Editors' Selection: Fall Favorites * 2013 YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults * Autumn 2012 Kids' Indie Next List Pick * Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award * Audiofile's Best Audiobooks of the Year for 2012 * Indigo Top 25 of 2012 * BCCB Blue Ribbons 2012 * Leserpreis 2013, Best Fantasy * One of Rolling Stone's Best 40 YA Novels

References

External links

*
''Merry Sisters of Fate: Fiction that Runs with Scissors''
blog by Tessa Gratton, Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff
Stiefvater at Live Journal
(to August 21, 2013)
Steifvater at Greywaren Art
(to August 5, 2009; art blog to September 2008) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stiefvater, Maggie 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American women novelists American writers of young adult literature Novelists from Virginia Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Women science fiction and fantasy writers 21st-century American women writers Women writers of young adult literature People from Harrisonburg, Virginia University of Mary Washington alumni Writers from Virginia