Robin McKinley was born on November 16th in Warren, Ohio. The daughter of a Naval officer, her family traveled the world. She graduated from Bowdoin College. Her first novel, Beauty, was accepted by the first publisher to whom she submitted it and it was published in 1978. Of her many books, The Hero and the Crown won the Newbery medal in 1985 and Blue Sword received a Newbery Honor in 1983. Today, she and her husband, Peter Dickinson, the author, live in Hampshire, England.