2020 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists Announced

2020 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists Announced

Posted on December 8, 2020 by David Emerson

The Mythopoeic Society has announced the finalists for the 2020 Mythopoeic Awards. For more information about the awards, visit the Awards section of this site; the finalists for the literature awards, text of recent acceptance speeches, and selected book reviews are also listed in this section. The winners of this year’s awards will be announced in early 2021. (Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mythcon was not held in the summer of 2020, and the awards committees needed extra time to obtain and evaluate nominated books, thus necessitating a delay in the awards processes.)

You may download the official press release, in PDF format, here.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

• P. Djèlí Clark, The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (Tor.com, 2019)
• Theodora Goss, Snow White Learns Witchcraft (Mythic Delirium Books, 2019)
• Alix E. Harrow, The Ten Thousand Doors of January (Redhook, 2019)
• Jo Walton, Lent: A Novel of Many Returns (Tor Books, 2019)
• G. Willow Wilson, The Bird King (Grove Press, 2019)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

• Erin Entrada Kelly, Lalani of the Distant Sea (Green Willow Books, 2019)
• Yoon Ha Lee, Dragon Pearl (Rick Riordan Presents, 2019)
• Hilary McKay, The Time of Green Magic (Macmillan, 2019)
• Suzanne Nelson, A Tale Magnolius (Alfred A. Knopf, 2019)
• Anne Ursu, The Lost Girl (Walden Pond Press, 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)
• Dimitra Fimi and Thomas M. Honegger, Sub-creating Arda: World-building in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work, its Precursors and its Legacies (Walking Tree Publishers, 2019)
• Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson and Michael Partridge, Informing the Inklings: George MacDonald and the Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy (Winged Lion Press. 2018)
• Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, 2018)
• John Rateliff, ed, A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger (Gabbro Head, 2018)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies

• Maria Sachiko Cecire, Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century (University of Minnesota Press, 2019)
• James Gifford, A Modernist Fantasy: Modernism, Anarchism, and the Radical Fantastic (ELS Editions, 2018)
• C. Palmer-Patel, The Shape of Fantasy: Investigating the Structure of American Heroic Epic Fantasy (Routledge, 2019)
• Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games (New York University Press, 2019)
• Mark J.P. Wolf, ed, The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds (Routledge, 2017)

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.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced online in early 2021. A complete list of Mythopoeic Award winners is available on the Society web site: Awards.

The finalists for the literature awards, text of recent acceptance speeches, and selected book reviews are also listed in this on-line section. For more information about the Mythopoeic Awards, please contact the Awards Administrator: Dr. Vicki Ronn, awards@mythsoc.org

Mythopoeic Awards 2020: Call for Nominations

Individual members of the Mythopoeic Society are invited to nominate books for the 2020 Mythopoeic Awards, and/or to volunteer to serve on any of the committees. (You need not join the committee to make nominations.) The deadline for committee volunteers and for nominations (limit of five per person per category, please!) is February 15 2020; please send nominations to the awards administrator (see contact info below) via e-mail (preferred) or U.S. mail. Authors, publishers, and their representatives may not nominate their own books for any of the awards. Books published by the Mythopoeic Press are not eligible for the awards. The Mythopoeic Society does not accept or review unsolicited manuscripts. 

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The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume novel, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2019 that best exemplifies “the spirit of the Inklings”. Books not selected as finalists in the year after publication are eligible for a second year. 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 Children¹s 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 J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and/or Charles Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. For this award, books first published from 2017 through 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.

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Winners of the 2020 Mythopoeic Awards will be announced at the 51^th Annual Mythopoeic Conference (Mythcon 51), to be held July 31-Aug 3, 2020, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  

Please contact Vicki Ronn, the Awards Administrator, to nominate books, volunteer for committees, or ask questions about the Mythopoeic Awards process.

Dr. Vicki Ronn
Friends University2100 W. University Ave.
Wichita KS 67213
awards@mythsoc.org

Belated News: Mythopoeic Award Winners ...and Albuquerque for Mythcon 51.

The Mythopoeic Society website shared the winners of the 2019 Mythopoeic Awards immediately after they were announced at Mythcon 50 but somehow they didn't get mentioned here, on our news blog... oops!

We are THRILLED to announce that the winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and the winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature is Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead.

We are equally thrilled to announce that the winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies is Verlyn Flieger, There Would Always Be a Fairy Tale: More Essays on Tolkien. The winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies is Dimitra Fimi, Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology.

We congratulate all our winners, including Sarah O'Dell, winner of the 2019 Alexei Kondratiev Award, for her paper, “An Unexpected Poet: The Creative Works of Dr. Robert E. Havard” - you can read the full list of 2019 nominees if you scroll down on the 2019 Mythopoeic Award winners page.

We also invite you to stay tuned as more details are finalized regarding Mythcon 51, which will be held next summer in Albuquerque, New Mexico ...www.mythcon.org will forward to the new page as soon as we've got solid news.

Mythopoeic Awards Finalists for 2019 Announced

The finalists for the Mythopoeic Awards have been announced. The Society's webpage about the 2019 finalists is here or you may download a PDF of the announcement directly.  The winners will be announced at Mythcon 50, to be held August 2-5, 2019, in San Diego - we invite you to join us at our annual Mythopoeic conference and attend the banquet, at which the awards will be presented.

The press release follows:

The Mythopoeic Society 

2019 Mythopoeic Award Finalists 

June 3, 2019 

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature Finalists:

• Mishell Baker, The Arcadia Project series: Borderline; Phantom Pains; Impostor Syndrome (Saga Press)  
• Sarah Rees Brennan, In Other Lands: A Novel (Big Mouth House)  
• Ruthanna Emrys, The Innsmouth Legacy series: "Litany of Earth” in New Cthulhu 2: More Recent Weird (Prime Books); Winter Tide (Tor.com); Deep Roots (Tor.com)  
• Madeline Miller, Circe: A Novel (Little, Brown)  
• Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver (Del Rey)  

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature Finalists:

• Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado, The Chronicles of Claudette series: Giants Beware!; Dragons Beware!; Monsters Beware! (First Second) 
• Jonathan Auxier, Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster (Harry N. Abrams) 
• Sarah Beth Durst, The Stone Girl’s Story (Clarion Books) 
• Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, Bob (Feiwel and Friends) 
• Emily Tetri, Tiger vs. Nightmare (First Second) 

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies  Finalists:

• Jane Chance, Tolkien, Self and Other: “This Queer Creature” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) 
• Lisa Coutras, Tolkien's Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)  
• Verlyn Flieger, There Would Always Be a Fairy Tale: More Essays on Tolkien (Kent State University Press, 2017) 
• Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, 2018) 
• Jonathan S. McIntosh, The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faërie (Angelico Press, 2017)  

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies Finalists:

• Dimitra Fimi, Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children's Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology (Springer Nature, 2017) 
• Elizabeth Sanders, Genres of Doubt: Science Fiction, Fantasy and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (McFarland, 2017) 
• Jonas Wellendorf, Gods and Humans in Medieval Scandinavia: Retying the Bonds (Cambridge University Press, 2018) 
• Mark J. P. Wolf, The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds (Routledge, 2018) 
• Helen Young, Race and Popular Fantasy Literature: Habits of Whiteness (Routledge, 2016)   

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2017 or 2018 that best exemplifies the spirit of the Inklings. Books are eligible for two years after publication if not 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 (2016–2018) 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.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced during Mythcon 50, to be held from August 2-5, 2019, in San Diego, California. 

A complete list of Mythopoeic Award winners is available on the Society web site at http://www.mythsoc.org/awards/.

The finalists for the literature awards, text of recent acceptance speeches, and selected book reviews are also listed in this on-line section. For more information about the Mythopoeic Awards, please contact the Awards Administrator: Vicki Ronn, awards@mythsoc.org.

Mythcon 50 PR#1 Available

The first Progress Report for Mythcon 50 is now available online, both as a webpage and as a downloadable PDF. This will also be emailed to members of the conference.

Additionally, Mythcon 50 Room & Board packages are now available for sale! 

If you haven't joined the conference, we encourage you to join us in San Diego, August 2-5, 2019. Please note: the Council of Stewards has decided that non-Society members will receive membership in the Society for the year of the Mythcon they join. We've always encouraged folks to join the Society and then join Mythcon at the MythSoc members' rate - but now we save you that extra step. Please indicate whether or not you want to be listed in Mything Persons, the Society's membership directory.

Finally, if you serve on the Mythopoeic Awards committee(s), please remember the DEADLINE for nominations is February 16 ...which is coming right up! Read the initial blog post here, for details.

Mythcon 49 Hotel Block CLOSES SOON!

If you're coming to the 49th Annual Mythopoeic Conference in Atlanta next month (July 20-23) and you haven't booked your hotel room yet, PLEASE do so now! Our room block and special rate of $159 per room, per night, ends on Wednesday, June 20th.

Go to the  website for Mythcon 49 and scroll down to "Location" for instructions.

In a nutshell: Guests can contact the Ritz-Carlton call center at 1-800-241-3333 and state that they are coming to The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta (Downtown), for Mythcon July 2018 and provide the agent with their requested dates of stay; the agent will identify your group rate of $159.00.

Guests can also reserve online at http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Atlanta/Default.htm - enter their desired dates of stay, enter the seven letter Group/Promotion code MCJMCJA and click find to complete the reservation process.

ALSO don't forget to buy your banquet ticket!  You'll want to be there for the Annual Mythopoeic Awards and all the other fun activities which take place Sunday evening.

Hope to see you next month at Mythcon 49!

Call for nominations: 2018 Mythopoeic Awards

Individual members of the Mythopoeic Society are invited to nominate books for the 2018 Mythopoeic Awards, and/or to volunteer to serve on any of the committees. (You need not join the committee to make nominations.) The deadline for committee volunteers and for nominations (limit of five per person per category, please!) is February 10, 2018; please send nominations to the awards administrator (see contact info below) via e-mail (preferred) or U.S. mail. Authors, publishers, and their representatives may not nominate their own books for any of the awards. Books published by the Mythopoeic Press are not eligible for the awards. The Mythopoeic Society does not accept or review unsolicited manuscripts.

Congratulations to our 2017 Mythopoeic Award Winners

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature
Patricia A. McKillip, Kingfisher (Ace)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature
Adam Gidwitz, The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and their Holy Dog (Dutton)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies
Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies
Richard Firth Green, Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016)

More information about the Mythopoeic Awards here

2017 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists Announced

The Mythopoeic Society has announced the finalists for the 2017 Mythopoeic Awards. More information about the awards, can be found in the Awards section of the Mythopoeic Society's website and in the press release for the 2017 finalists. The winners of this year’s awards will be announced during Mythcon 48, to be held July 28-31, 2017, in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Mythopoeic Awards Call for Nominations: Extended Deadline

Individual members of the Mythopoeic Society are invited to nominate books for the 2017 Mythopoeic Awards, and/or to volunteer to serve on any of the committees. (You need not join the committee to make nominations.) The deadline for committee volunteers and for nominations (limit of five per person per category, please!) has been extended to February 24, 2017; please send nominations to the awards administrator (see contact info below) via e-mail (preferred) or U.S. mail. Authors, publishers, and their representatives may not nominate their own books for any of the awards. Books published by the Mythopoeic Press are not eligible for the awards. The Mythopoeic Society does not accept or review unsolicited manuscripts.

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The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume novel, or single-author story collection for adults published during in 2016 that best exemplifies “the spirit of the Inklings”. Books not selected as finalists in the year after publication are eligible for a second year. 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 Children¹s 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 J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and/or Charles Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. For this award, books first published from 2014 through 2016 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.

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Winners of the 2017 Mythopoeic Awards will be announced at the 48^th Annual Mythopoeic Conference (Mythcon 48), to be held July 28-31, 2017 at Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Please contact David Oberhelman, the Awards Administrator, to nominate books, volunteer for committees, or ask questions about the Mythopoeic Awards process.

     David Oberhelman
     306 Edmon Low Library
     Oklahoma State University
     Stillwater, OK 74078
     Email: awards@mythsoc.org

Mythopoeic Awards 2017: Call for Nominations

Individual members of the Mythopoeic Society are invited to nominate books for the 2017 Mythopoeic Awards, and/or to volunteer to serve on any of the committees. (You need not join the committee to make nominations.) The deadline for committee volunteers and for nominations (limit of five per person per category, please!) is February 10, 2017; please send nominations to the awards administrator (see contact info below) via e-mail (preferred) or U.S. mail. Authors, publishers, and their representatives may not nominate their own books for any of the awards. Books published by the Mythopoeic Press are not eligible for the awards. The Mythopoeic Society does not accept or review unsolicited manuscripts.

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The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume novel, or single-author story collection for adults published during in 2016 that best exemplifies “the spirit of the Inklings”. Books not selected as finalists in the year after publication are eligible for a second year. 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 Children¹s 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 J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and/or Charles Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. For this award, books first published from 2014 through 2016 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.

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Winners of the 2017 Mythopoeic Awards will be announced at the 48^th Annual Mythopoeic Conference (Mythcon 48), to be held July 28-31, 2017 at Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Please contact David Oberhelman, the Awards Administrator, to nominate books, volunteer for committees, or ask questions about the Mythopoeic Awards process.

     David Oberhelman
     306 Edmon Low Library
     Oklahoma State University
     Stillwater, OK 74078
     Email: awards@mythsoc.org

CONGRATULATIONS, 2016 Mythopoeic Award Winners

Congratulations to the 2016 Mythopoeic Award Winners!

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature
     Naomi Novik, Uprooted (Del Rey)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature
     Ursula Vernon, Castle Hangnail (Dial Books)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies
     Grevel Lindop, Charles Williams: The Third Inkling (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies
     Jamie Williamson, The Evolution of Modern Fantasy: From Antiquarianism to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)

The awards were announced August 7th at the Mythcon 47 banquet in San Antonio, Texas.