Hailed as both the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century, Jane Yolen, with her first publication, the non-fiction book about women pirates Pirates In Petticoats (1963), embarked on amazing career of over three hundred and seventy books (and counting). Her impressive and acclaimed output includes children’s fiction, poetry, short stories, graphic novels, nonfiction, fantasy, and science fiction.

Among her many honors are the Christopher Medal (The Seeing Stick [1977], How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? [2000]), Nebula (“Sister Emily’s Lightship” [1998], Lost Girls [1999]), World Fantasy (Favorite Folktales From Around The World [1987], THE EMERALD CIRCUS [2018]), Mythopoeic (Cards Of Grief [1985], Briar Rose [1993], The Young Merlin Trilogy [1998, Passager, Hobby, and Merlin]), Golden Kite (The Girl Who Cried Flowers & Other Tales [1974]), and National Jewish Book Award (The Devil’s Arithmetic [1989]). Yolen received the World Fantasy Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Rhysling Science Fiction Poetry Grand Master Award, the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, and Jeremiah Ludington Memorial Award.

Many of Yolen’s shorter works have been collected in numerous works including The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales (1974), The Hundredth Dove and Other Tales (1977), Dream Weaver (1979), The Whitethorn Wood and Other Magicks (1984), Storyteller (1992), Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast (1997), Sister Emily’s Lightship and Other Stories (2000), Once Upon A Time (She Said) (2005), The Last Selchie Child (2012), THE EMERALD CIRCUS (2017), HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE (2018), and the forthcoming MIDNIGHT CIRCUS. Several volumes of her poetry exist including  The Three Bears Rhyme Book (1987), The Originals: Animals that Time Forgot (1998), Least Things: Poems about Small Natures (2003), Before the Vote After (2017), On Gull Beach (2018), Fly with Me: A Celebration of Birds Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories (2018, with Heidi E.Y. Stemple, Adam Stemple, and Jason Stemple).

Her editorial endeavors include the anthologies Zoo 2000 (1973), Favorite Folktales from Around the World (1986), Werewolves: A Collection of Original Stories (1988 with Martin H. Greenberg), 2041: Twelve Short Stories About the Future by Top Science Fiction Writers (1991), Xanadu (1993), The Haunted House: A Collection of Original Stories (1995 with Martin H. Greenberg), Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around The World (1998 with Kathleen Ragan), Gray Heroes: Elder Tales from Around the World (1999), and Mightier Than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys (2003).

The prolific Yolen continues to produce acclaimed, award winning work at a prodigious pace. In 2019 alone she published 7 books: Eek, You Reek!: Poems about Animals That Stink, Stank, Stunk, A Kite for Moon, THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS (with Adam Stemple), Merbaby’s Baby, the first book in the six book School of Fish series, and What to Do with a String. Her first books for 2020, Emily Writes and Miriam at the River, came out on February 4. Her newest collection of short stories, MIDNIGHT CIRCUS, comes out in the fall.

Because she apparently never sleeps, Yolen is also a teacher of writing and a book reviewer. She lives in Western Massachusetts and St. Andrew, Scotland.

All of us at Tachyon, wish the incredible Jane a happy birthday. May your mythic journeys never end.