Happy birthday this week to Tamora Pierce! Happy birthday to the woman who helped pioneer YA fantasy and pushed female heroes to the forefront of her work. Truly, she is a champion of speculative fiction. For her, speculative fiction should be (and can be!) for everyone.
The thing that surprises me is that more people don’t read fantasy because if you think about it, up until 4th grade or so, most of us read what would be called at an older age, fantasy. We’re reading about talking caterpillars, kids who draw their way out to an adventure and back home again, and little people who live on the heads of mushrooms. Fantasy, and even science fiction, are most of what we read up until we’re in 4th grade. But that’s what I continued to read…
–Tamora Pierce, interview with The Speculative Craft
Today, I invite you to grow young again, age down and see the fantasy around you. See it. Write it. Champion your art.