Editing Tamora Pierce (section)

==Early life and education==
Pierce was born in [[South Connellsville, Pennsylvania]] in [[Fayette County, Pennsylvania|Fayette County]], on December 13, 1954 to Wayne and Mary Lou Pierce.<ref>Pierce, Tamora. "Acknowledgments." ''Power in the Storm, The''. Scholastic Press (1999)</ref> Her mother wanted to name her "Tamara" but the nurse who filled out her birth certificate misspelled it as "Tamora".<ref name=Pierce>{{cite web|last1=Pierce|first1=Tamora|title=Tamora Pierce Biography|url=http://tamorapierce.com/bio.html|website=Tamora Pierce: Author of Young Adult Fantasy|publisher=Tamora Pierce |access-date=20 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141005205032/http://tamorapierce.com/bio.html |archive-date=5 October 2014}}</ref> When she was five, her sister Kimberly (on whom she based Alanna)<ref>Bonnie Kunzel & Susan Fichtelberg ''Tamora Pierce: A Student Companion'', Hardcover, Greenwood Press, 2007</ref> was born and a year later her second sister, Melanie, was born. From the time she was five until she was eight, she lived in [[Dunbar, Pennsylvania|Dunbar]]. In June 1963 she and her family moved to [[California]]. They first lived in [[San Mateo, California|San Mateo]] on [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]] and then moved to the other side of the [[San Francisco Peninsula]], in Miramar. They lived in Miramar for half a year, in [[El Granada, California|El Granada]] a full year, and then three years in [[Burlingame, California|Burlingame]].

She began reading when she was very young and started writing when she was in the sixth grade. Her interest in fantasy and science fiction began when she was introduced to [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', and so she started to write the kind of books that she was reading. After her parents divorced, her mother moved her and her sisters back to Fayette County in 1969, where she spent two years at Albert Gallatin Senior High. When her family moved again, she spent her senior year at Uniontown Area Senior High School, acting, singing, and writing for the school paper. She is an alumna of the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in [[Philadelphia]].