Galinda

GALINDA: A CHARMED CHILDHOOD is the eagerly awaited origin story of Galinda, the pink-clad, effervescent and popular Good Witch. Who was Glinda the Good Witch before she floated down in her bubble to greet Dorothy? Who was Glinda before she became Elphaba Thropp's magnetic and popular roommate at Shiz University? Well, before then, she was Galinda. With a 'ga'. The youngest of four children in a high-born family down on their luck, Galinda is both pampered and ignored. Her natural grace promises to elevate her in the district dance competitions - but these efforts distract her from seeing the growing resentments of local merchants who disapprove of her family and their business. But as her father deftly pivots around the snares and nets laid for him by his rivals, Galinda begins to dance toward a life that might lift her above her proud, if hardscrabble, childhood. Galinda reveals the girl behind the bubbly, shallow cliché - offering fans of Wicked their first glimpse into the true life of a beloved and iconic character.

Gregory Maguire is a bestselling author who has earned rave reviews and a dedicated following for Wicked, the first novel in the Wicked Years quartet (which also included Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men and Out of Oz), that was made into an award-winning musical. He received his doctorate in English Literature from Tufts University, and has taught at Simmons College and other Boston area colleges. He has also served as an artist-in-residence at the Blue Mountain Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Hambridge Center. Gregory has lived in Dublin and London, but now makes his home near Boston, Massachusetts, with his partner, their two sons and daughter.