Tamora Pierce (born December 13, 1954) is an American writer of

fantasy fiction 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 drama. ...

for

teenagers Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

, known best for stories featuring young heroines. She made a name for herself with her first

book series A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...

, '' The Song of the Lioness'' (1983–1988), which followed the main character Alanna through the trials and triumphs of training as a knight. Pierce won the

Margaret A. Edwards Award The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an American Library Association (ALA) literary award that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named afte ...

from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of 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 a ...

in 2013, citing her two

quartets In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

'' Song of the Lioness'' and ''

Protector of the Small The ''Protector of the Small'' quartet is a series of books written by Tamora Pierce that tells the story of Keladry of Mindelan, a heroine in the fictional kingdom of Tortall. This is the third series written in the Tortallian Universe, but fo ...

'' (1999–2002). The annual award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". Pierce's books have been translated into twenty languages.

Early life and education

Pierce was born in

South Connellsville, Pennsylvania South Connellsville is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,919 at the 2020 census, down from 1,970 at the 2010 census. Geography South Connellsville is located in northeastern Fayette County at (39.9 ...

in Fayette County, on December 13, 1954. Her mother wanted to name her "Tamara" but the nurse who filled out her birth certificate misspelled it as "Tamora". When she was five, her sister Kimberly (on whom she based Alanna) was born and a year later her second sister, Melanie, was born. From the time she was five until she was eight, she lived in

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...

. In June 1963 she and her family moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. They first lived in San Mateo on El Camino Real and then moved to the other side of the

San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo A ...

, in Miramar. They lived in Miramar for half a year, in El Granada a full year, and then three years in Burlingame. She began reading when she was very young and started writing when she was in the sixth grade. Her interest in fantasy and science fiction began when she was introduced to

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'', and so she started to write the kind of books that she was reading. After her parents divorced, her mother moved her and her sisters back to Fayette County in 1969, where she spent two years at Albert Gallatin Senior High. When her family moved again, she spent her senior year at Uniontown Area Senior High School, acting, singing, and writing for the school paper. She is an alumna of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Career

While at the University of Pennsylvania, Pierce wrote the books that became ''The Song of the Lioness'' quartet. The first book of this quartet, '' Alanna: The First Adventure'' was published by

Atheneum Books Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Athene ...

in 1983. Pierce lived with her husband Tim Liebe (Spouse-Creature) in

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 ...

, with their four cats and multiple other pets, until they moved to

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

. In 2008, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...

. Pierce was also actively involved in moderating and discussing her novels on a message board called Sheroes Central from about 2001-2006, at which point it was acquired by a third party.

Writing process

On her homepage, Pierce states she gets most ideas from things she stumbles upon. Her concept of magic as a tapestry of threads comes from her experiences in crocheting, and in her world, all mages are somehow based on British naturalist

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

after watching his nature documentaries.

Fantasy novels Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...

and

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

were the base of the worlds she thought up as a girl, and later she added contemporary issues like youth crime and

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

outbreaks in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. In general, Pierce states: "The best way to prepare to have ideas when you need them is to listen to and encourage your obsessions." Pierce draws on elements of people and animals around her for inspiration. The character of Alanna is loosely based on Pierce's sister. Thayet's appearance is based on a friend of Pierce's. Beka's pigeon friends in ''Provost's Dog'' are all based on actual pigeons of Pierce's acquaintance. Pierce first started writing to escape from the drama of her parents' divorce. She wrote

fan fiction Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settin ...

based on her favorite stories, imitating them closely. Pierce says she decided to write her stories about strong female characters because she noticed a lack of them in the books she read when she was young.

Awards and nominations

Accolades

Works

References

Other sources

"Podcast Interview about 'White Tiger' with Tamora Pierce and Timothy Liebe"

"Tiger Tiger Burning Bright: Pierce Talks 'White Tiger'"
by David Richards, ''Comic Book Resources'', March 6, 2006
"Eye of the White Tiger: Meet Marvel's Tamora Pierce"
by ''Newsarama'', February 27, 2006 * *Cart, Michael, ''From Romance to Realism: 50 Years of Growth and Change in Young Adult Literature'' (New York: HarperCollins, 1996) * * Egoff, Sheila A., ''Worlds Within: Children’s Fantasy from the Middle Ages to Today'' (Chicago & London: American Library Association, 1988) *Melano, Anne L.
"Utopias of Violence: Pierce's Knights of Tortall and the Contemporary Heroic"
(''Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics'', vol 3 issue 2, 2009) * Lennard, John, ''Tamora Pierce: The Immortals'' (Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007) * -- 'Of Stormwings and Valiant Women: The Tortallan World of Tamora Pierce', in ''Of Modern Dragons and other essays on Genre Fiction'' (Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007), pp. 191–228 *Sullivan III, C. W., ed., ''Young Adult Science Fiction'' (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999 Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy 79) * Trites, Roberta Seelinger, ''Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature'' (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000)