The French fairy tale writers were so popular and prolific that when their stories were eventually collected in the 18th century, they filled forty–one volumes of a massive publication called the Cabinet des Fées. Charles Perrault is the French fairy tale writer whom history has singled out for attention, but the majority of tales in the Cabinet des Fées were penned by women writers who ran and attended the leading salons: Marie–Catherine d’Aulnoy, Henriette Julie de Murat, Marie–Jeanne L'Héritier, and numerous others. These were educated women with an unusual degree of social and artistic independence, and within their use of the fairy tale form one can find distinctly subversive, even feminist subtext.

McKillip illustrated by Brian Froud
The Borderland Series New American Library Tor Books Harper Prism 1985 to present: a Young Adult shared-world series featuring the intersection between Elfland and human lands generally populated by teenagers runaways and exiles. She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales edited by Jack Zipes. Works


Fiction
"The Green Children" The Armless Maiden Tor Books 1995
The Wood Wife Tor Books 1996 (winner of the Mythopoeic Award)
"The Color of Angels" The Horns of Elfland New American Library 1997
The Raven Queen with Ellen Steiber Random House 1999
The Changeling Random House 1995
The Old Oak Wood Series Simon & Schuster (illustrated by Wendy Froud):

A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale 1999
The Winter Child 2000
The Faeries of Spring Cottage 2001

"Red Rock" Century Magazine 2000
The Moon Wife Tor Books forthcoming 2012
Little Owl Viking forthcoming 2012


Nonfiction
"Surviving Childhood" The Armless Maiden Tor Books 1995
"Transformations" Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales (Expanded Edition) Anchor 1998
Co-writer and editor of Brian Froud's Good Faeries/Bad Faeries Simon & Schuster 2000
"On Tolkien and Fairy Stories" Meditations on Middle-Earth St.

As an artist Windling specializes in work inspired by myth folklore and fairy tales. She received the Solstice Award in 2010 which honors "individuals with a significant impact on the speculative fiction field. She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales edited by Jack Zipes.