https://locusmag.com/2026/06/jane-yolen-1939-2026/
"Author Jane Yolen, 87, died peacefully in her home, surrounded by family, in
Hatfield MA on June 11, 2026.
Jane Hyatt Yolen was born February 11, 1939 in New York City NY. She graduated
Smith College with a BA in 1960, at which time she was already writing poetry
and articles, and received a master’s in education from the University of
Massachusetts in 1978. Between degrees, in 1962, she married David W. Stemple,
and they were married for 44 years before he died of cancer in 2006. She gained
attention as a writer through children’s book
Pirates in Petticoats (1963),
published on her 22nd birthday and went on to write over 450 books and a
monumental oeuvre of short fiction and poetry. From 1986 to 1988, she was
president of the Science Fiction Writers Association and later was named a
Damon Knight Grand Master. She ran her own young adult fiction imprint at
Harcourt Brace from 1990 to 1996, and she was on the board of directors for the
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for over 25 years. She
lived in Western Massachusetts and had a house in Scotland which she would
visit for a part of the year.
Yolen’s more than 40 novels were mostly aimed at young adults and children, and
she produced many series: To name a few, the Mythopoeic Award-winning
Young
Merlin trilogy included
Passager (1996),
Hobby (1996), and
Merlin
(1997); the
Great Alta series included
Sister Light, Sister Dark (1988),
White Jenna (1989), and
The One-Armed Queen (1998); the
Pit Dragon series
included
Dragon’s Blood (1982),
Heart’s Blood (1984),
A Sending of
Dragons (1987), and
Dragon’s Heart (2009); and the
Seelie Wars series,
written with her son Adam, was
The Hostage Prince (2013),
The Last
Changeling (2014), and
The Seelie King’s War (2016). She also wrote
standalones
The Devil’s Arithmetic (1988), which was nominated for a Nebula
Award and a World Fantasy Award; adult fantasy
Briar Rose (1992), which won a
Mythopoeic Award and was nominated for Locus, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards;
and Locus Award winner
Pay the Piper (2005), among many others."
Via <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Yolen> and Esther Schindler.
RIP,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
