MOOSIC – Gregory Maguire, award-winning author of nearly 40 books, will address graduates at Keystone’s 147th commencement exercises on Saturday, May 12 at the Pavilion at Montage Mountain.
Maguire’s best-known work, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” is a New York Times bestseller that inspired the musical that has been entertaining Broadway audiences for nearly 15 years.
His other novels for adults have appeared on national bestseller lists. “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” was made into an ABC television film. Maguire’s work is available internationally in more than 20 languages.
The success of Wicked on stage and in bookstores brought Maguire to the attention of major media outlets across the nation. He was the subject of a profile in the New York Times Magazine and has been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He has been a commentator on National Public Radio and BBC’s Radio Four, and has contributed to many publications, including Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and the Huffington Post.
Born and raised in Albany, N.Y., Maguire has written 18 novels for children and 10 for adults, as well as picture books, short stories, essays, and reviews. He has contributed forewords to reissues of the classics, including “The Little Prince,” “The Wind in the Willows,” “Mary Poppins,” “Tuck Everlasting” and others. He has served on the boards of many non-profit organizations and continues to lecture at colleges and universities in the United States and abroad.
In 2013, he and his husband, painter Andy Newman, established The Elphaba Fund, which supports arts education and literacy effort, environmental protection, and women’s and children’s health. Maguire has lived in the United States, London, and Dublin. Currently, he spends his time in Massachusetts, Vermont, and France with his husband and their three children.
