Michael Bedard

Born in 1949 in Toronto, Ontario, and the oldest of five siblings, Michael Bedard grew up in a busy home where his limited exposure to books came from the classics he received from his uncle. After determining in high school to become a writer, influenced by the great poets such as T.S. Eliot and Emily Dickinson, Bedard studied English and philosophy at the University of Toronto. He graduated with his Bachelor's in 1971, and took up a job as a librarian at St. Michael's College in Toronto. About this same time, he also married and started his family. In 1978, he began work for a small printing shop, and he discovered a publisher for his first two children's books, Woodsedge and Other Tales, and Pipe and Pearls. Holding onto the philosophy that writers should break down and extend boundaries and labels, Bedard's first books baffled and pleased critics with their fairy tale plots and sophiticated tone. Bedard then turned his skills as an author to novels, biographies of other writers, and retellings of famous fairy tales, much to the pleasure and praise of both reviewers and readers. He has won several Canadian book awards, and he continues to write today.

His books include:

• Woodsedge and Other Tales, 1979
• Pipe and Pearls: A Gathering of Tales, 1980
• A Darker Magic, 1987
• The Lightning Bolt, illustrated by Regolo Ricci, 1989
• Redwork, 1990
• (Reteller) The Tinder Box, illustrated by Regolo Ricci, 1990
• (Reteller) The Nightingale, illustrated by Regolo Ricci, 1991
• Emily (biography), illustrated by Barbara Cooney, 1992
• Painted Devil, 1994
• The Divide (biography), illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully, 1997
• Glass Town: The Secret World of the Brontë Children (biography), illustrated by Laura Fernandez and Rick Jacobson, 1997
• The Clay Ladies, illustrated by Les Tait
• Sitting Ducks,1998
• The Wolf of Gubbio, illustrated by Murray Kimber, 2000
• Stained Glass, 2001
• The Painted Wall and Other Strange Tales: Selected and Adapted from the Liao-Chai of Pu Sung-ling, 2003