Rafe Martin author page

Rafe Martin biography

Rafe Martin is an author and storyteller whose work includes children’s books, young adult fiction, retellings, folklore and spiritual stories. He has a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Toronto. His books and audio work have received an ALA Notable Children’s Books distinction, Parents’ Choice Gold Awards, an Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award and an Honor Book for the 1994 Texas Bluebonnet Award.

His picture book The Rough-Face Girl was published by Putnam and is one of his works for children. The Boy Who Lived with the Seals, a 32-page picture book about a lost boy who returns to his tribe after growing up with seals, was published on 21 April 1993.

Martin has written books drawing on Buddhist and Zen traditions. The Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Legends and Jataka Tales was published on 12 June 1984, and One Hand Clapping: Zen Stories for All Ages was published on 15 April 1995. He is also a lay Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani koan line.

His longer fiction includes The World Before This One, a 195-page novel built from a Seneca story cycle and published on 1 November 2002. Birdwing, a 359-page young adult fantasy about Ardwin, a prince left with one wing after a spell turns his brothers into swans, was published on 1 February 2005.