Robin McKinley

Robin McKinley (born November 16, 1952) is an American author best known for her fantasy novels and fairy tale retellings.

Robin McKinley was born as Jennifer Carolyn Robin McKinley on November 16, 1952, in Warren, Ohio.

Her father William McKinley was an officer in the United States Navy and her mother Jeanne Turrell McKinley was a teacher.

As a result of her father's changing naval posts, McKinley grew up all over the world, including in California, New York, Japan, and Maine.

She was educated at Gould Academy, a preparatory school in Bethel, Maine.

McKinley went on to attend college, first at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1970–1972 and later at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1975.

Robin McKinley lives in the United Kingdom.

Short stories set in Damar include: "The Healer" (1982), "The Stagman" (1984), "The Stone Fey" (1998), "A Pool in the Desert" (2004)

Her 1984 novel The Hero and the Crown won the Newbery Medal as the year's best new American children's book.

In 2022, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 39th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy.

Her husband was author Peter Dickinson; they were married from 1991 until his death in 2015.

They had no children, though Dickinson had children from his first marriage.

After graduating from college, she remained in Maine for several years working as a research assistant and later in a bookstore.

During this time, she completed her first book, Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast.

It was accepted for publication by the first publisher it was sent to and upon publication immediately pushed McKinley to prominence.

The book was named an American Library Association Notable Children's Book and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

Robin McKinley has written a variety of novels, mostly in the fantasy genre.

Several of her novels are her own personal renditions of classic fairy tales with a "feminist twist".

These retellings usually feature a strong female protagonist who does not wait to be rescued but instead takes an active role in determining the course of her own life.

Beauty and Rose Daughter are both versions of Beauty and the Beast, Spindle's End is the story of Sleeping Beauty, and Deerskin and two of the stories in The Door in the Hedge are based on other folk-tales.

Besides adapting classic fairy tales, McKinley wrote her own rendition of the Robin Hood story in her novel The Outlaws of Sherwood.

McKinley has written two novels set in the imaginary land of Damar, The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown.

Her contribution to the Imaginary Lands anthology and the stories in A Knot in the Grain are also set there.

Her standalone novels include Sunshine, Shadows, and Dragonhaven.

McKinley says she writes about strong heroines because she feels very strongly about the potential for girls to be "doing things", and she feels that the selection of fantasy literature featuring girls is scarce and unsatisfactory.

According to biographer Marilyn H. Karrenbrock, "McKinley's females do not simper; they do not betray their own nature to win a man's approval. But neither do they take love lightly or put their own desires before anything else. In McKinley's books, the romance, like the adventure, is based upon ideals of faithfulness, duty, and honor."

(Note: Earth and Air (2012), the third collection in the Elemental Spirits series, was written entirely by Peter Dickinson.)

Selected scholarly works about McKinley

Selected interviews