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Tamora Pierce

November 14, 2023

Tamora Pierce (born December 13, 1954) is an American writer of fantasy fiction for teenagers, known best for stories featuring young heroines. She made a name for herself with her first book series, The Song of the Lioness (1983–1988), which followed the main character Alanna through the trials and triumphs of training as a knight.

Tamora Pierce
Pierce at the Boskone science fiction convention in Boston, February 2008
Born (1954-12-13) December 13, 1954 (age 68)
South Connellsville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationWriter
GenreChildren's and young adult fantasy
Notable worksThe Song of the Lioness
Notable awardsMargaret A. Edwards Award
2013
Website
tamora-pierce.net

Pierce won the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of the American Library Association in 2013, citing her two quartets Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small (1999–2002). The annual award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".[1]

Pierce's books have been translated into twenty languages.[2][3][4]

Early life and education edit

Pierce was born in South Connellsville, Pennsylvania 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".[5] When she was five, her sister Kimberly (on whom she based Alanna)[6] 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. In June 1963 she and her family moved to California. They first lived in San Mateo on El Camino Real and then moved to the other side of the San Francisco Peninsula, 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's The Lord of the Rings, 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 in Philadelphia.

Career edit

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 in 1983.

Pierce lived with her husband Tim Liebe (Spouse-Creature) in New York City, with their four cats and multiple other pets, until they moved to Syracuse, New York.[7]

In 2008, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.[8][9]

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. [10][11][12][13][14]

Writing process edit

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 after watching his nature documentaries. Fantasy novels and Arthurian legend were the base of the worlds she thought up as a girl, and later she added contemporary issues like youth crime and cholera outbreaks in Africa. In general, Pierce states: "The best way to prepare to have ideas when you need them is to listen to and encourage your obsessions."[15][16]

Pierce draws on elements of people and animals around her for inspiration. The character of Alanna is loosely based on Pierce's sister.[17] 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.[18]

Pierce first started writing to escape from the drama of her parents' divorce. She wrote fan fiction based on her favorite stories, imitating them closely.[17] 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.[19]

Awards and nominations edit

Year Award Nominee/Work Category Result Ref
2011 Goodreads Choice Awards Mastiff Best Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction Nominated [20]
2003 Locus Award Lady Knight Best Young Adult Book Nominated[21]
2004 Trickster's Choice Nominated[22]
2012 Mastiff Nominated[23]
2013 Margaret Edwards Award The Song of the Lioness Series — Won [24]
Protector of the Small Series — Won
2000 Mythopoeic Awards Circle of Magic Series Best Fantasy Series Nominated [25]
2012 Beka Cooper Series Nominated
2005 Skylark Award Tamora Pierce — Won [25]

Accolades edit

Year-end lists
Year Publication Work Category Result Ref
2012 NPR Circle of Magic Series 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels 86 [26]
The Immortals Series 83
Trickster's Choice Duology 81
The Song of the Lioness Series 50
2018 Paste Trickster's Queen The 50 Best Fantasy Books of the 21st Century (So Far) 17 [27]
2019 Trickster's Choice Duology 10 Exceptional Audiobooks Written and Narrated by Women 4 [28]
2020 Time Alanna: The First Adventure 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time — [29]

Works edit

Main article: List of works by Tamora Pierce

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Edwards Award 2013" 2017-03-24 at the Wayback Machine. Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). American Library Association (ALA).
      "Edwards Award" 2012-04-05 at the Wayback Machine. YALSA. ALA. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  2. ^ "Search results for 'Tamora Pierce' > 'Book'". WorldCat.
  3. ^ "Pierce, Tamora". Index Translationum. UNESCO.
  4. ^ "Tamora Pierce". Goodreads.
  5. ^ Pierce, Tamora. . Tamora Pierce: Author of Young Adult Fantasy. Tamora Pierce. Archived from the original on 5 October 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  6. ^ Bonnie Kunzel & Susan Fichtelberg Tamora Pierce: A Student Companion, Hardcover, Greenwood Press, 2007
  7. ^ Pierce, Tamora. "Acknowledgments." Bloodhound: Beka Cooper Book Two. New York: Random House Children's Books (2009). p 551.
  8. ^ . Northern Illinois University. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20.
  9. ^ "Tamora Pierce Papers, 2006-2017". Northern Illinois University.
  10. ^ . 2001-08-14. Archived from the original on 2001-08-14. Retrieved 2022-12-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. ^ . 2001-07-02. Archived from the original on 2001-07-02. Retrieved 2022-12-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. ^ . 2011-07-20. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2022-12-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. ^ Francis, Madeleine. "Links". Tamora Pierce. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  14. ^ Rosenberg, Alyssa (2011-06-03). "Tamora Pierce on 'Twilight,' Girl Heroes, and Fantasy Birth Control". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  15. ^ . tamora-pierce.com. Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  16. ^ . readergirlz. December 2009. Archived from the original on 2016-07-30. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  17. ^ a b Pierce, Tamora. . Archived from the original on 2013-06-13. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  18. ^ Pierce, Tamora (2006). Terrier. New York: Random House. ISBN 9781439518830.
  19. ^ Kacelnik, Chally (27 December 2010). "Iconography: Tamora Pierce and All the Feminist Fantasy Heroines You Could Want". bitch. bitch media. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  20. ^ "Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction". Goodreads. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  21. ^ "Sfadb: Locus Awards 2003".
  22. ^ "Sfadb: Locus Awards 2004".
  23. ^ "Sfadb: Locus Awards 2012".
  24. ^ "Edwards Award 2013". alga. 23 January 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  25. ^ a b "Tamora Pierce: Lit by Fire". 13 July 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  26. ^ "our Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels". NPR. 7 August 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  27. ^ Jackson, Josh; et al. (11 April 2018). "The 50 Best Fantasy Books of the 21st Century (So Far)". Paste. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  28. ^ Gunderson, Alexis (21 March 2019). "10 Exceptional Audiobooks Written and Narrated by Women". Paste. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  29. ^ "100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time". Time. Retrieved 13 October 2021.

Other sources edit

  • "Podcast Interview about 'White Tiger' with Tamora Pierce and Timothy Liebe" 2006-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
  • "Tiger Tiger Burning Bright: Pierce Talks 'White Tiger'" 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine by David Richards, Comic Book Resources, March 6, 2006
  • "Eye of the White Tiger: Meet Marvel's Tamora Pierce"[permanent dead link] by Newsarama, February 27, 2006
  • Brown, Joanne; St. Clair, Nancy (2002). Declarations of Independence: Empowered Girls in Young Adult Literature, 1990–2001. Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature. Vol. No. 7. Lanham, MD, & London: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4290-4.
  • Cart, Michael, From Romance to Realism: 50 Years of Growth and Change in Young Adult Literature (New York: HarperCollins, 1996) ISBN 0-06-446161-0
  • Dailey, Donna (2006). Tamora Pierce. Who Wrote That?. New York: Chelsea House. ISBN 0791087956.
  • Egoff, Sheila A., Worlds Within: Children’s Fantasy from the Middle Ages to Today (Chicago & London: American Library Association, 1988) ISBN 0-8389-0494-7
  • Melano, Anne L., "Utopias of Violence: Pierce's Knights of Tortall and the Contemporary Heroic" 2011-06-10 at the Wayback Machine (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) ISBN 978-1-84760-037-0
  • -- '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 ISBN 978-1-84760-038-7
  • Sullivan III, C. W., ed., Young Adult Science Fiction (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999 Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy 79) ISBN 0-313-28940-9
  • Trites, Roberta Seelinger, Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000) ISBN 0-87745-857-X

External links edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Tamora Pierce.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tamora Pierce.

November 14, 2023
tamora, pierce, born, december, 1954, american, writer, fantasy, fiction, teenagers, known, best, stories, featuring, young, heroines, made, name, herself, with, first, book, series, song, lioness, 1983, 1988, which, followed, main, character, alanna, through,. Tamora Pierce born December 13 1954 is an American writer of fantasy fiction for teenagers known best for stories featuring young heroines She made a name for herself with her first book series The Song of the Lioness 1983 1988 which followed the main character Alanna through the trials and triumphs of training as a knight Tamora PiercePierce at the Boskone science fiction convention in Boston February 2008Born 1954 12 13 December 13 1954 age 68 South Connellsville Pennsylvania U S OccupationWriterGenreChildren s and young adult fantasyNotable worksThe Song of the LionessNotable awardsMargaret A Edwards Award 2013Websitetamora pierce wbr netPierce won the Margaret A Edwards Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association YALSA of the American Library Association in 2013 citing her two quartets Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small 1999 2002 The annual award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature 1 Pierce s books have been translated into twenty languages 2 3 4 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2 1 Writing process 3 Awards and nominations 3 1 Accolades 4 Works 5 See also 6 References 6 1 Other sources 7 External linksEarly life and education editPierce was born in South Connellsville Pennsylvania 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 5 When she was five her sister Kimberly on whom she based Alanna 6 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 In June 1963 she and her family moved to California They first lived in San Mateo on El Camino Real and then moved to the other side of the San Francisco Peninsula 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 s The Lord of the Rings 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 in Philadelphia Career editWhile 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 in 1983 Pierce lived with her husband Tim Liebe Spouse Creature in New York City with their four cats and multiple other pets until they moved to Syracuse New York 7 In 2008 she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University 8 9 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 10 11 12 13 14 Writing process edit 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 after watching his nature documentaries Fantasy novels and Arthurian legend were the base of the worlds she thought up as a girl and later she added contemporary issues like youth crime and cholera outbreaks in Africa In general Pierce states The best way to prepare to have ideas when you need them is to listen to and encourage your obsessions 15 16 Pierce draws on elements of people and animals around her for inspiration The character of Alanna is loosely based on Pierce s sister 17 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 18 Pierce first started writing to escape from the drama of her parents divorce She wrote fan fiction based on her favorite stories imitating them closely 17 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 19 Awards and nominations editYear Award Nominee Work Category Result Ref2011 Goodreads Choice Awards Mastiff Best Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction Nominated 20 2003 Locus Award Lady Knight Best Young Adult Book Nominated 21 2004 Trickster s Choice Nominated 22 2012 Mastiff Nominated 23 2013 Margaret Edwards Award The Song of the Lioness Series Won 24 Protector of the Small Series Won2000 Mythopoeic Awards Circle of Magic Series Best Fantasy Series Nominated 25 2012 Beka Cooper Series Nominated2005 Skylark Award Tamora Pierce Won 25 Accolades edit Year end lists Year Publication Work Category Result Ref2012 NPR Circle of Magic Series 100 Best Ever Teen Novels 86 26 The Immortals Series 83Trickster s Choice Duology 81The Song of the Lioness Series 502018 Paste Trickster s Queen The 50 Best Fantasy Books of the 21st Century So Far 17 27 2019 Trickster s Choice Duology 10 Exceptional Audiobooks Written and Narrated by Women 4 28 2020 Time Alanna The First Adventure 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time 29 Works editMain article List of works by Tamora PierceSee also editPortals nbsp Children s literature nbsp Comics nbsp FantasyReferences edit Edwards Award 2013 Archived 2017 03 24 at the Wayback Machine Young Adult Library Services Association YALSA American Library Association ALA Edwards Award Archived 2012 04 05 at the Wayback Machine YALSA ALA Retrieved 2015 02 08 Search results for Tamora Pierce gt Book WorldCat Pierce Tamora Index Translationum UNESCO Tamora Pierce Goodreads Pierce Tamora Tamora Pierce Biography Tamora Pierce Author of Young Adult Fantasy Tamora Pierce Archived from the original on 5 October 2014 Retrieved 20 October 2014 Bonnie Kunzel amp Susan Fichtelberg Tamora Pierce A Student Companion Hardcover Greenwood Press 2007 Pierce Tamora Acknowledgments Bloodhound Beka Cooper Book Two New York Random House Children s Books 2009 p 551 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America SFWA Collection Northern Illinois University Archived from the original on 2011 07 20 Tamora Pierce Papers 2006 2017 Northern Illinois University Sheroes Central Women Heroes in Real Life and Fiction 2001 08 14 Archived from the original on 2001 08 14 Retrieved 2022 12 27 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Sheroes Central Home Page 2001 07 02 Archived from the original on 2001 07 02 Retrieved 2022 12 27 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Welcome to Sheroes 2011 07 20 Archived from the original on 2011 07 20 Retrieved 2022 12 27 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Francis Madeleine Links Tamora Pierce Retrieved 2022 12 27 Rosenberg Alyssa 2011 06 03 Tamora Pierce on Twilight Girl Heroes and Fantasy Birth Control The Atlantic Retrieved 2022 12 27 Frequently Asked Questions Tamora Pierce tamora pierce com Archived from the original on 20 April 2016 Retrieved 27 April 2018 Book Buzz readergirlz December 2009 Archived from the original on 2016 07 30 Retrieved 27 April 2018 a b Pierce Tamora Tamora Pierce Biography Archived from the original on 2013 06 13 Retrieved 2013 08 15 Pierce Tamora 2006 Terrier New York Random House ISBN 9781439518830 Kacelnik Chally 27 December 2010 Iconography Tamora Pierce and All the Feminist Fantasy Heroines You Could Want bitch bitch media Retrieved 2019 12 16 Best Young Adult Fantasy amp Science Fiction Goodreads Retrieved 13 October 2021 Sfadb Locus Awards 2003 Sfadb Locus Awards 2004 Sfadb Locus Awards 2012 Edwards Award 2013 alga 23 January 2014 Retrieved 13 October 2021 a b Tamora Pierce Lit by Fire 13 July 2012 Retrieved 13 October 2021 our Favorites 100 Best Ever Teen Novels NPR 7 August 2012 Retrieved 13 October 2021 Jackson Josh et al 11 April 2018 The 50 Best Fantasy Books of the 21st Century So Far Paste Retrieved 13 October 2021 Gunderson Alexis 21 March 2019 10 Exceptional Audiobooks Written and Narrated by Women Paste Retrieved 13 October 2021 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time Time Retrieved 13 October 2021 Other sources edit Podcast Interview about White Tiger with Tamora Pierce and Timothy Liebe Archived 2006 11 06 at the Wayback Machine Tiger Tiger Burning Bright Pierce Talks White Tiger Archived 2007 03 11 at the Wayback Machine by David Richards Comic Book Resources March 6 2006 Eye of the White Tiger Meet Marvel s Tamora Pierce permanent dead link by Newsarama February 27 2006 Brown Joanne St Clair Nancy 2002 Declarations of Independence Empowered Girls in Young Adult Literature 1990 2001 Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature Vol No 7 Lanham MD amp London The Scarecrow Press ISBN 0 8108 4290 4 Cart Michael From Romance to Realism 50 Years of Growth and Change in Young Adult Literature New York HarperCollins 1996 ISBN 0 06 446161 0 Dailey Donna 2006 Tamora Pierce Who Wrote That New York Chelsea House ISBN 0791087956 Egoff Sheila A Worlds Within Children s Fantasy from the Middle Ages to Today Chicago amp London American Library Association 1988 ISBN 0 8389 0494 7 Melano Anne L Utopias of Violence Pierce s Knights of Tortall and the Contemporary Heroic Archived 2011 06 10 at the Wayback Machine 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 ISBN 978 1 84760 037 0 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 ISBN 978 1 84760 038 7 Sullivan III C W ed Young Adult Science Fiction Westport CT Greenwood Press 1999 Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy 79 ISBN 0 313 28940 9 Trites Roberta Seelinger Disturbing the Universe Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature Iowa City University of Iowa Press 2000 ISBN 0 87745 857 XExternal links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Tamora Pierce nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tamora Pierce Official Website Tamora Pierce at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database ISFDB Tamora Pierce at Library of Congress with 58 library catalog records Publisher Science Fiction Book Club SFBC at ISFDB Publisher Page Goodreads Amazon Facebook Twitter Tumblr Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tamora Pierce amp oldid 1175317548, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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