2020 Mythopoeic Awards Winners Announced

On Sunday, we announced the winners of the 2020 Mythopoeic Awards on our new YouTube channel.

Congratulations to our 2020 winners!

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

• Theodora Goss, Snow White Learns Witchcraft (Mythic Delirium Books, 2019)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

• Yoon Ha Lee, Dragon Pearl (Rick Riordan Presents, 2019)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies

• Amy Amendt-Raduege, “The Sweet and the Bitter”: Death and Dying in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (The Kent State University Press, 2018)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies

• James Gifford, A Modernist Fantasy: Modernism, Anarchism, and the Radical Fantastic (ELS Editions, 2018)

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2018 or 2019 that best exemplifies the spirit of the Inklings. Books are eligible for two years after publication if selected as a finalist during the first year of eligibility. Books from a series are eligible if they stand on their own; otherwise, the series becomes eligible the year its final volume appears.

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature honors books for beginning readers to age thirteen, in the tradition of The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia. Rules for eligibility are otherwise the same as for the Adult literature award. The question of which award a borderline book is best suited for will be decided by consensus of the committees. Books for mature “Young Adults” may be moved to the Adult literature category.

The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies is given to books on Tolkien, Lewis, and/or Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. For this award, books first published during the last three years (2017–2019) are eligible, including finalists for previous years.

The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies is given to scholarly books on other specific authors in the Inklings tradition, or to more general works on the genres of myth and fantasy. The period of eligibility is three years, as for the Inklings Studies award.

A complete list of Mythopoeic Award winners, acceptance speeches, and selected book reviews are available in the Awards section the Society web site. For more information about the Mythopoeic Awards, please contact the Awards Administrator: Dr. Vicki Ronn, awards@mythsoc.org

An Interview with Erin Entrada Kelly 2020 Mythopoeic Award for Children's Fantasy Finalist

  

Erin Entrada Kelly is a finalist for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature for her book Lalani of the Distant Sea. She was raised in Lake Charles, La., but now lives in suburban Philadelphia. Her mother was the first in her family to emigrate from the Philippines. Erin's books have won several awards, including the APALA Award for Children's Literature, the Golden Kite Honor Award, and the Gold Award for Fiction from the Parents Choice Foundation.

An Interview with Anne Ursu 2020 Mythopoeic Award for Children's Fantasy Finalist

 

Anne Ursu is a finalist for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature for her book 
The Lost Girl. She is the author of several books for young readers and is the 2013 recipient of the McKnight Fellowship in Children’s Literature. Anne’s latest book, The Real Boy, is an Indie Next pick and on the 2013 longlist for the National Book Award. She is also the author of Breadcrumbs, which was acclaimed as one of the best books of 2011 by the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com, and the Chicago Public Library. It was also on the IndieBound Next List and was featured on NPR’s Backseat Book Club. Anne is also the author of the three books that comprise The Cronus Chronicles: The Shadow Thieves, The Siren Song, and The Immortal Fire.

Anne teaches at Hamline University's MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and lives in Minneapolis with her son and three cats.

An Interview with Alix Harrow, 2020 Mythopoeic Award in Adult Fantasy Literature Finalist

 

Alix Harrow is a finalist for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Fantasy Literature for her book 
The Ten Thousand Doors of January. She is an ex-historian with lots of opinions and excessive library fines, currently living in Kentucky with her husband and their semi-feral children. She won a Hugo for her short fiction, and has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards.

An interview with Suzanne Nelson, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature 2020 finalist

Suzanne Nelson is a finalist for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature for her book
A Tale Magnolious. She is also the author of Serendipity's Footsteps, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book and CCBC Choice for Young Adult Fiction, and also known for her foodie romance middle grade novels, including Cake Pop Crush, Macarons at Midnight, and Hot Cocoa Hearts. She is a shameless fan of The Sound of Music, Hershey's kisses, Charlotte Bronte, and Jane Austen, and can often be caught daydreaming of romping about gothic castles in lovely Victorian gowns. She was born in New Jersey, grew up in Southern California, attended college in Texas, and spent eight years as a children's book editor in New York City. She now lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut.