Paying attention to the man behind the curtain!

An interview with wizard-like author Gregory Maguire
Interviewed by Byron Merritt

You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy fantasy stories, and 50 year old author Gregory Maguire proves it. His highly praised novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) was recently made into a Broadway musical. It was Maguire’s first shot at an adult fantasy novel and it turned into a major hit—“An amazing novel,” said John Updike in The New Yorker. He’s taken on an icon of American culture and wowed the literary critics. Well at least most of them. A select few say he’s borrowed from our childhood and taken advantage of our affection toward certain stories (like The Wizard of Oz). I don’t think so. But this hasn’t slowed down Mr. Maguire. No sir. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, a retelling of the Cinderella story (1999)—which received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly, and was made into an ABC/Disney film starring Stockard Channing and Jonathan Pryce—soon followed. Then came Lost, a ghost story (2001) and Mirror, Mirror, a take-off of the poison apple symbol in Snow White (2003). His children’s books include The Hamlet Chronicles, a seven book series that have thus far resulted in Seven Spiders Spinning, Six Haunted Hairdos, Five Alien Elves, Four Stupid Cupids, Three Rotten Eggs, and A Couple of April Fools.

And he doesn’t just stick with fantasy fiction either. He’s contributed articles and essays to the Sunday New York Times Book Review, The Boston Review, Christian Science Monitor, The Horn Book Magazine, and many others. He also helped co-found CLNE (Children’s Literature New England), a nonprofit educational charity whose mission is “to elevate awareness of the significance of literature in the lives of children.” You can find out more about the charity and about this amazing author by visiting his excellent website at www.gregorymaguire.com.

Mr. Maguire was recently married to a very special person in his life and the two have since adopted three children. They currently reside outside Boston, Massachusetts ...somewhere over the rainbow.

Now sit back and enjoy a trip down the yellow brick road. But be warned, it may not be the same road you remember.

FWOMP: First, let me congratulate you on your marriage. I understand that you married someone very special to you. Can you tell us a bit about this?

Greg Maguire: We met seven years ago at an arts colony. He was a painter there and I was working on Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.  We had a whirlwind relationship for about ten months and we knew we’d found something special. We’d both been involved in relationships in the past, but nothing like this. It felt right. We were married in Massachusetts thanks to the new legislation regarding same-sex marriages. We’ve adopted three children and we’re living a very wonderful life together.

FWOMP: Has your spouse been an important part of your writing life?

GM: He’s one of the three people that reads my work before it goes to print, but all he does is check for “speed-bumps” in the manuscript. I have very specific guidelines for him when he looks over my writings. I don’t want him to comment on whether he likes it or not because I think that’d be harmful to me in too many ways. My brother, Joe, and I often take walks together and he’s a great person to bounce ideas off of and get some feedback from. He’s stimulated my imagination quite a few times.

FWOMP: I want to thank you for agreeing to talk with me about your marriage. And now lets talk about what it might mean for your books (past, present and future). There are some real idiotic and naive people out there who disagree—fear is probably a better word—with same-sex marriages. Do you worry that once certain parts of America find out about your marriage they might do some form of boycott against your books?

GM: I’d be surprised but not worried. There’s really no such thing as bad publicity anyway. Boycotting me would probably stimulate sales. The thing with me being gay, though—and the people who read my books—is that I don’t think it’ll matter. A lot of younger people are reading Wicked and seeing the Broadway musical, and I think they accept the fact that people in the arts (like me) may be homosexual or lead a lifestyle that’s outside the “norm”.

FWOMP: In your bio it mentions that you served as artist-in-residence at several places. Can you tell us about your decision to write fantasy fiction versus being an artist?

GM: Well I was a ‘writer-in-residence’, not a painter. But my decision to write fantasy undoubtedly came about because of my upbringing in an Irish Catholic home. My mother passed away after I was born and my father was pretty restrictive. Very Edwardian in nature. I loved reading fantasy, though, and I started in on the genre when I was ten-years-old. The other thing that got me into fantasy (and The Wizard of Oz specifically), is the fact that we weren’t allowed to watch much television growing up. But the one thing that we were allowed to watch—every year—was The Wizard of Oz

FWOMP: Okay, let’s get into Wicked, your most excellent book in my opinion. Did you speak with anyone from L. Frank Baum’s family (author of the original The Wizard of Oz  back in 1900), or have to obtain special permission from someone to use The Wizard of Oz as your setting for Wicked?

GM: This is one of those times when fortune shined down upon me. As luck would have it, L. Frank Baum’s books came out of copyright protection right at the time I sent the manuscript for Wicked to my agent. I did have to be careful with any references to the film, though, as Ted Turner’s company still owns the rights to that. So you’ll note areas where I’m a bit vague on certain items (like the ruby slippers, which I call “pale” and which Baum mentioned as being silver).

FWOMP: In the original The Wizard of Oz  novel by L. Frank Baum, the Wicked Witch of the West is a fairly minor character when compared to Dorothy and her comrades. Why’d you decide to focus on “Elphaba”?

GM: The proper pronunciation of Elphaba is with the stress on the first syllable (i.e., EL-phaba), by the way. I should’ve put that in the book somewhere. I felt that the film left a lot out about her and I wanted to know more about this person. It all really harkens back to my love of the film and growing up watching it every year on TV. I dreamt a lot about Margaret Hamilton and that green skin. It was both terrifying and intriguing at the same time.

FWOMP: The film The Wizard of Oz  has become an American icon of sorts. More people have seen it than have read the books by Baum, I’m sure. Was there ever any worry on your part— while you were writing, or before or after you’d finished—that you might be tampering with something almost hands-off when it came to literature?

GM: I wasn’t worried, but some critics were. A New York Times reviewer mentioned that I’d taken a “sacred cow” and used it to my literary advantage. Some newspaper in Chicago called it “heretical”. But I had a love for the material, and that’s why I wrote Wicked. Some people read the first thirty or so pages of the book and put it away saying, “This isn’t The Wizard of Oz I know!” But those who’ve gotten through the book have generally enjoyed it and told me so.

FWOMP: Let’s talk about differences in the film, Baum’s book, and Wicked. In Baum’s book Glinda’s the Good Witch of the South, and in the film she’s of the North. You have her as North, too. Can you tell us how much the film influenced your writing?

GM: The film influenced me quite a bit (as stated earlier). Again, that green colored skin impacted me greatly. MGM made her green because Technicolor had just come out (and that’s why they made the slippers ruby-colored, too). It’s not really clear in Baum’s book that she’s green, you just know she’s different. I wanted to know why she was different, so I decided to write about her and create a believable life for Elphaba.

FWOMP: What is Yackle’s role in the destiny of The Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch of the West ?

GM: That’s a good question. When I first wrote Yackle, I imagined her as a type of female demon. Then later I pictured her more like one of the Greek fates; an agent of the universe. But I just re-read Wicked myself (after ten years) and now I see her as less demonic. She’s under no one’s thumb. I left her character open to interpretation by the reader so that they could come to their own conclusions.

FWOMP: There are a lot of moral questions that pop up in Wicked (what rights do animals have, the nature of good versus evil, the corruption of power, etc.). If you had to pick one thing that you’d like readers to come away with after reading Wicked, what would it be and why?

GM: I think it’s important to keep asking the question ‘What is the nature of good and evil?’. But I think the one message I’d like readers to take away from this book is that they need to question authority. Always. With what happened in the Gulf War when George Senior was president, and now with his son in power, I think this message is even more critical.

FWOMP: What type of positive and negative feedback have you gotten from people regarding Wicked?

GM: It’s been ten years since Wicked was released and I still get e-mails from fans. 98% of it is positive. Most of my negative feedback has been sent to me in anonymous letters (some are even sexual comments that immediately end up in the trash). The thing about Wicked, though, is that the range of people who read it is pretty broad. I’ve got a lot of women’s reading clubs who’ve read it, as well as men in their 70's or older and, now that the musical is out, young girls who range from eleven to twelve years old and up.

FWOMP: If you could invite any characters (from any of your books) to a dinner party, whom would you invite and why?

GM: Oh, that’s tough to say. Um ...Elphaba would be too intimidating for me, I think. She’s like my alter-ego. She wouldn’t be a good choice. I’m fond of Glinda, but I’m not sure about the conversation. I think I’d pick Margarethe from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. She’s not a villain, but she is a complicated peasant with strong moral fiber. She’d be interesting to speak and eat with.

FWOMP: As mentioned previously, Wicked was turned into a musical on Broadway. Did you feel comfortable with this adaptation of your book?

GM: I’m almost unrelenting in my support for the musical. Almost. I feel that they “Glinda-fied” it a bit, but the director had to take certain liberties in order to adapt it. The thing about Wicked (the book) is that it’s a tragedy. But the stage version really isn’t. They had to dramatize it, but I’m okay with that. The musical has given new life to the sales of the book, too.

FWOMP: Are there any more Greg Maguire books coming out that we should watch for?

GM: I’m always writing my children’s books, so those come out pretty regularly. But I am working on something. I was troubled by some letters I got from young girls asking me what had happened to Liir, Elphaba’s son. They want to know and I feel obligated to give them a good answer. So I’m writing a new novel that takes place ten years after the death of the Wicked Witch of the West . It’s entitled Son of a Witch.

FWOMP: Great title! Thank you for the interview, Mr. Maguire. I’m sure our readers will enjoy it, too.

GM: You’re welcome.