2024 Annual Celebration of the Humanities!

Gregory Maguire had been an author of children’s books for almost two decades when, in 1995, he published his first novel for adults, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The novel initially sold 500,000 copies before the 2003 opening of the blockbuster Broadway adaptation. By 2005, ten years after its original publication, Wicked spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list. The stage adaptation of his book will be released as a movie on November 22. 

Born and raised in Albany, NY, Gregory Maguire was schooled in Catholic institutions through high school, received a B.A. in English and art from the State University of New York at Albany, an M.A. in children's literature from Simmons College, and a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Tufts University. His doctoral thesis was on children's fantasy literature written from 1938 to 1989. 

By returning us to Frank Baum’s Land of Oz, Maguire taps into powerful imagery and mythology to upend our assumptions about good and evil, political power, and personal strength. Maguire’s magical storytelling explores contemporary issues ranging from the deeply personal – living as an outsider – to the global as individuals struggle in the face of authoritarianism and political control. In conversation with writer and UNH professor Jaed Coffin, we will learn how Maguire’s life, childhood, and love of children’s literature shaped him as an author and storyteller.

About the interviewer:
Jaed Coffin is an assistant professor of creative writing (nonfiction/fiction) at the University of New Hampshire. His first book, A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants (2008), chronicles the summer he spent as a Buddhist monk in his mother's village in central Thailand. His next book, Roughhouse Friday (2019), explored the year he won the middleweight title of a barroom boxing show in Juneau, Alaska. Coffin has lectured widely on multiculturalism, masculinity, and the environment. He has also served as the artist in residence at the Telling Room, a nonprofit storytelling foundation that empowers refugee communities in Maine. Coffin has published over forty articles and essays in a range of journals and magazines. He has also served as the Wilson Fellow in Creative Writing at Deerfield Academy, a Resident Fellow at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska, and the William Sloane Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and was a storyteller on the MOTH Radio Hour.