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

fantasy fiction Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

for teenagers, 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 publ ...

, '' 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 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. History 19th century ...

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". Pierce's books have been translated into twenty languages.

Early life and education

Pierce was born in South Connellsville, Pennsylvania in Fayette County, on December 13, 1954 to Wayne and Mary Lou Pierce. 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 Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...

. In June 1963 she and her family moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. 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 Los Altos and Mountain View, ...

, 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 philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'', 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 (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

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 it acquired Macmillan in 1994, and it created Atheneum ...

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

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, 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, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

. 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, United States. It was founded as "Northern Illinois State Normal School" in 1895 by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, initially to provide the state with c ...

. 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 writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

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 (paranormal), Magic, the supernatural and Legendary creature, magical creatures are common i ...

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. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

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 Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

outbreaks in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. 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 known as fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF, is fiction typically written in an amateur capacity by fans as a form of fan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted ...

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

Merchandise

In November 2018, the first line of officially licensed merchandise was created in partnership with Dual Wield Studio: pins, apparel and accessories developed in collaboration with creators from the Tamora Pierce fanbase. The collection expanded in 2020 to include a rendition of the map of Tortall. At the end of 2023, Dual Wield Studio announced a new collection celebrating the 40th anniversary of ''Alanna: The First Adventure.''

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)