It was in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the author says, that he turned what had been a thirty-page BOSTON GLOBE serial project called "Gangster Teeth" into a longer novel with a much larger bite. "I found a way to expand a light-winged story that would not, I hoped, make light of children’s suffering or the need to believe in the next good thing that might happen," he says of his latest novel.

Gregory Maguire worked for eight years as a professor and associate director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children’s Literature before receiving his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University. "Nothing serves a writer better than getting to teach children’s books as literature--as an art form that relies on traditions of narrative shapeliness and verbal pizzazz as well as saucy innovation," the author says. He also co-founded and currently co-directs Children’s Literature New England (CLNE), a nonprofit educational charity that promotes awareness of the significance of literature in the lives of children. With those aims in mind, Gregory Maguire has served on the juries for the Caldecott Medal, the National Book Award for Children’s Books, and the NEW YORK TIMES Best Illustrated Books of the Year.

And what advice would he pass along to aspiring young writers? When he himself was growing up, Gregory Maguire mimicked Harriet the Spy’s investigative route. "Get a spy notebook and spy on everyone," he suggests. "Try not to get in trouble. Try not to break the law. But pay attention and write it down. That’s the best training a would-be writer can have."

Gregory Maguire lives with his family outside of Boston, Massachusetts.