Maggie Stiefvater ’03
Photo by Robert Severi
You don’t have to be psychic to know that the latest novel by Maggie Hummel Stiefvater ’03 is headed for fame. Warner Brothers’ New Line Cinema acquired film rights to the first of the bestselling young-adult-fantasy author’s new four-book series, The Raven Boys, before it hit the shelves in September. Producer Akiva Goldsman of A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code is slated for the project.
The Raven Boys, based on magic and Welsh mythology, revolves around an ill-fated romance between the daughter of the town psychic in fictional Henrietta, Va., and a rich boy from the exclusive Aglionby Academy.
Stiefvater writes full time now but recalls “a tumultuous past as a history major, calligraphy instructor, wedding musician, technical editor, and equestrian artist.”
Her Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, about a supernatural romance, boasts 1.7 million copies, according to the global publishing company Scholastic, with rights to more than 36 foreign editions licensed to the series’ first book, Shiver. The second installment, Linger, debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best-sellers list. The series, along with Stiefvater’s highly acclaimed The Scorpio Races, published last year, also was optioned by Warner Brothers.
Stiefvater, an award-winning colored-pencil artist and master of multiple musical instruments, lives in Montross, Va., with her husband and two children. She also creates musical compositions and animated trailers for her books.
“I write for myself; I write for my sister, who is 10 years younger than me; and I write for my mother, who…is 25 years older than me,” she said in a recent NPR interview. “If I hit all of those…I consider myself happy.”