Marijane Agnes Meaker (May 27, 1927 – November 21, 2022) was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novels on that theme in the 1950s.

"[citation needed] Meaker's books feature complex characters that have difficult relationships and complicated problems, who rail against conformity.

Meaker said of this approach, " I remember being depressed by all the neatly tied-up, happy-ending stories, the abundance of winners, the themes of winning, solving, finding — when around me it didn't seem that easy.

"[5] As a high-school junior she began submitting stories to women's magazines under the name "Eric Rantham McKay" and was soundly rejected.

Upon graduation, she worked as a file clerk with Dutton Publishing, then as a proofreader with Gold Medal Books, and began writing mostly mystery novels as Vin Packer.

According to her autobiographical young adult book ME ME ME ME: Not a Novel (1984), Meaker began her professional writing career by posing as a literary agent, whose "clients" consisted of her own pen names.

Two books by Packer were loosely based on the Emmett Till murder and the aftermath of the investigation: 3-Day Terror and Dark Don't Catch Me.

Unlike other popular crime writers in the pulp market, Packer's books were less based on action, and more "psychologically dense" and "insidious".

[6] One mystery critic said of Packer's books, "Her probing accounts of the roots of crime are richly detailed snapshots of their times, unconventional, intensely readable, and devoid of heroes, villains, or pat solutions.

"[7] As Vin Packer, Meaker wrote the groundbreaking romance novel Spring Fire, published in 1952, which along with Tereska Torres' Women's Barracks is credited with launching the genre of lesbian "pulp" fiction.

Eager to continue their financial success, editor Dick Carroll asked Meaker to write a book with a lesbian theme.

'"[9] Writer Ann Bannon has credited her beginnings as an author of lesbian fiction to discovering the Vin Packer novels in the 1950s.

Meaker states she got "boxes of mail" from women who were thrilled to see a book that addressed a lesbian relationship; gay audiences weren't considered a market at this time.

[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] In 1970, Gene Damon of The Ladder referred to Meaker as "the evil genius" for her excellent writing about unpleasant and unsatisfactory lesbian themes.

[18] Meaker was persuaded to try young adult fiction at the suggestion of author Louise Fitzhugh (Harriet the Spy), and chose to do so after reading Paul Zindel's The Pigman.

She still addressed topics not usually covered by children's books: racism, AIDS, homosexuality, absent parents, social class differences, and her characters still had problems that had no easy solutions.

"[2] Kerr's books addressed functions and dysfunctions in relationships between parents and children, teachers and students, friends, and she often wrote about first loves.

"[citation needed] The novel would later be turned into an ABC Afterschool Special (as "Dinky Hocker)" in 1979 with Wendie Jo Sperber in the title role.

Is That You, Miss Blue?, published in 1975, involves a girl in a Virginia Episcopal boarding school who develops a crush on her religiously devout teacher.

[8]: 2  She is named by literary scholar Yvonne Keller as one of a small group of writers whose work formed the subgenre of "pro-lesbian" pulp fiction; others include Ann Bannon, Sloane Britain, Paula Christian, Joan Ellis, March Hastings, Marjorie Lee, Della Martin, Rea Michaels, Claire Morgan, Randy Salem, Artemis Smith, Valerie Taylor, Torres, and Shirley Verel.

She wrote about this relationship in the 2003 nonfiction memoir, Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s,[20] and discussed it and her own pulp fiction novels in interviews around the time of the book's release.

Meaker won the award in 2013 and joined the likes of Ann Bannon, Sarah Aldridge, Jane Rule, Ellen Hart, and many others as guiding lights of lesbian literature.

The ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".

Fell Back Night Kites (1986) ‡ Deliver Us from Evie Slap Your Sides (‡) The young-adult librarians cited four novels when Kerr won the 1993 Edwards Award.