Juliet Marillier
Encyclopedia
Juliet Marillier is a New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

-born writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

, especially historical fantasy
Historical fantasy
Historical fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy and related to historical fiction, which makes use of specific elements of real world history. It is used as an umbrella term for the sword and sorcery genre and sometimes, if fantasy is involved, the sword-and-sandal genre too...

. She currently lives in Western Australia. While Marillier writes mostly for adults, her recent books have included Cybele's Secret
Cybele's Secret
Cybele's Secret is a 2007 young-adult fantasy novel by Juliet Marillier. It follows the story of Paula who is accompanying her father to Istanbul to purchase a rare artifact of a lost pagan cult...

, a sequel to her novel for young adults Wildwood Dancing
Wildwood Dancing
Wildwood Dancing is a young adult fantasy novel written by author Juliet Marillier and published by Pan Macmillan Australia in 2006. The publication of Wildwood Dancing follows soon on the heels of previous highly-anticipated collections by Juliet Marillier : The Sevenwaters Trilogy and The Bridei...

. Cybele's Secret won a 2008 Sir Julius Vogel Award
Sir Julius Vogel Award
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are awarded each year at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science fiction fandom...

 for Best Novel - Young Adult. Her latest release is "Seer of Sevenwaters", the second companion novel to the Sevenwaters trilogy.

Life and education

Juliet Marillier was born 27 July 1948 in Dunedin, New Zealand and grew up surrounded by Celtic music
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...

 and stories
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...

. Her own Celtic-Gaelic roots inspired her to write her first series, the Sevenwaters Trilogy. Marillier was educated at the University of Otago
University of Otago
The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

, where she majored in music and languages, graduating BA and a B Mus (Hons). She has said in interviews that this academic training strengthened her writing, and that her lifelong interest in history, folklore and mythology has had a major influence on her storytelling style.

She lives in a hundred-year-old cottage in a riverside suburb of Perth. She shares her home with two dogs and a cat. She has four adult children and four grandchildren, all of whom live in Australia. She has been a fulltime writer since 2002, having previously worked at a variety of jobs including music teaching at both secondary and tertiary levels and in the Public Service.

Marillier was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2009. She has since completed a course of chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....

, and in August 2009 will start a six week course of Radiotherapy.

Writing style

Several of Marillier's books are written in the first person. One of her strengths is her ability to use this point-of-view skillfully, allowing the reader to form a close bond with the main character. Her characters are well rounded and the reader becomes familiar with their strengths and weaknesses, which again encourages immersion in the characters' world. Marillier is also noted for writing sequels that can stand alone: readers of the earlier books in a series will recognise old friends while new readers will quickly feel at home with characters old and new.

Marillier has said that it takes her about a year to finish a novel and that she is often researching one book while writing another and editing a third. She also says that she usually bases a story on two elements: what the main character learns about herself and her world that makes this adventure personally significant; and the bigger picture, showing this character’s role in something outside herself, such as saving a community or forging peace between two warring tribes. The first idea reinforces the second, making the writing both personal and realistic.

Juliet Marillier's books have won many awards, such as the American Library Association’s Alex Award for Daughter of the Forest
Daughter of the Forest
Daughter of the Forest is an historical fantasy novel by Juliet Marillier first published in 1999 It is loosely based on "The Six Swans" . A girl must sew six shirts from a painful nettle plant in order to save her brothers from a witch's enchantment, remaining completely mute until the task is...

and the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel for Son of the Shadows
Son of the Shadows
Son of the Shadows is an historical fantasy novel by Juliet Marillier and the second book in the Sevenwaters Trilogy first published in 2000. It follows the path of Sorcha and Red's third child, Liadan, a girl who lives outside the pattern of the 'Fair Folk', also known as Túatha Dé Danann...

, Blade of Fortriu and Wildwood Dancing.

External links

  • Official site
  • In-depth interview with Juliet Marillier at Writer Unboxed, where Juliet also blogs.
  • Interview with Juliet Marillier at Slow Glass Books shortly after Daughter of the Forest
    Daughter of the Forest
    Daughter of the Forest is an historical fantasy novel by Juliet Marillier first published in 1999 It is loosely based on "The Six Swans" . A girl must sew six shirts from a painful nettle plant in order to save her brothers from a witch's enchantment, remaining completely mute until the task is...

     was published.
  • Interview with Juliet Marillier at Pan MacMillian Australia after Foxmask
    Foxmask
    Foxmask is a fantasy novel by Juliet Marillier. It is the second book of the Saga of the Light Isles.- Plot summary :When Thorvald turns 18, his mother Margaret decides to tell her son the truth about his father's identity. Upon learning that Somerled was his father, Thorvald decided to find the...

     was published (September 2003).
  • Book covers and reviews at FantasyLiterature.net
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