The Writers of Wales Database

FISHER, CATHERINE

Website: www.catherine-fisher.com
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Poet and children’s novelist. Catherine was born in Newport and graduated from the University of Wales in 1980. She has worked in teaching and archaeology, lecturing creative writing at the University of Glamorgan, and is now a full–time writer specialising in myth and history. Her poetry has appeared in leading periodicals and anthologies, and she has published numerous award-winning novels including her quartet The Book of the Crow, a classic of fantasy fiction and the Oracle trilogy, which blends Egyptian and Greek elements of magic and adventure.

Catherine was winner of the Welsh Arts Council Young Writer’s Prize 1989, the Cardiff International Poetry Competition in 1989 and the Tir na nOg Prize in 1995. She was shortlisted for both the Smarties Prize and WH Smith Prize. The Oracle (Hodder Children’s Books, 2003) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Books prize. The Oracle trilogy has become an international bestseller, having appeared in over twenty languages. Corbenic (Definitions, 2002), a modern re-inventing of the Grail legend was shortlisted for the 2003 Tir na nOg Prize and her futuristic novel Incarceron (Hodder Children's Books, 2007) won the Mythopoeic Society of America's Children's Fiction Award and was selected by The Times as its Children's Book of the Year. The sequel, Sapphique (Hodder Children's Books, 2008) was published in September 2008.
 
Catherine regularly gives readings to groups of all ages. She leads sessions for teachers and librarians and is an experienced broadcaster and adjudicator. In October 2011 she was announced by Literature Wales as the first ever Young People's Laureate for Wales, a post she held until March 2013. Catherine is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy.

Reviews:

"…A writer of rare talent…"
Sunday Times

"…One novel stands out above all others - Catherine Fisher's Incarceron. One of the best fantasy novels written for a long time…"
The Times


Selected Publications:
Children’s Fiction
The Conjuror’s Game (Bodley Head Children’s Books, 1990)
Fintan’s Tower (Bodley Head Children’s Books, 1991)
Snow-Walker’s Son (Bodley Head Children’s Books, 1993)
Candle Man (Bodley Head Children’s Books, 1994)
The Hare and Other Stories (Pont, 1994, reprinted 2006)
The Empty Hand (Snow Walker’s Son) (Bodley Head Children’s Books, 1995)
The Soul Thieves (Bodley Head Children’s Books, 1996)
Belin’s Hill (Red Fox, 1997)
The Relic Master (Book of the Crow Series) (Red Fox, 1999)
The Lammas Field (Hodder Children’s Books, 1999)
The Interrex (Book of the Crow Series) (Bodley Head Children’s Books, 1999)
Darkwater Hall (Hodder Silver Series) (Hodder Children’s Books, 2000)
The Interrex (Red Fox, 2000)
Flain’s Coronet (Book of the Crow Seroes) (Bodley Head Children’s Books, 2000)
Corbenic (Definitions, 2002)
The Oracle (Hodder Children’s Books, 2003)
The Snow-walker Trilogy: The Snow-walker’s Son, The Empty Hand, The Soul Thieves (Red Fox, 2003)
The Glass Tower: Three Doors to the Otherworld (Red Fox, 2004)
The Archon (Hodder Children’s Books, 2004)
The Oracle Betrayed (Oracle Prophecies) (Greenwillow Books, 2004)
Snow-Walker (Eos, 2004)
The Sphere of Secrets: Book Two of the Oracle Prophecies (Oracle Prophecies) (Greenwillow Books, 2005)
The Scarab (Oracle Series) (Hodder Children’s Books, 2005)
Darkhenge (Definitions, 2006)
Day of the Scarab (Oracle Prophecies) (Greenwillow Books, 2006)
Y Wisg Enfys (Gomer, 2006)
The Weather Dress (Pont, 2006)
Incarceron (Hodder Children’s Books, 2007)
The Pickpocket’s Ghost (Gr8reads) (Barrington Stoke, 2008)
Sapphique (Hodder Children’s Books, 2008)
Crown of Acorns (Hodder Children’s Books, 2010)
The Magic Thief (Barrington Stoke, 2010)
The Obsidian Mirror (Hodder Children's Books, 2012)

Poetry
Immrama (Seren, 1988)
The Unexplored Ocean (Seren, 1994)
Altered States (Seren, 2000)
Folklore (Smith/Doorstop Books, 2006)