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Mythopoeic Awards: 2009 Winners Announced

Mythopoeic Awards: 2009 Winners Announced

July 19, 2009

The Mythopoeic Society has announced the winners for the 2009 Mythopoeic Awards. Download thepress release in PDF format. For more information about the awards, visit the Awards section of this site.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

    Carol Berg, Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone (Roc)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

   Kristin Cashore, Graceling (Harcourt Children’s Books)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

John Rateliff, The History of the Hobbit, Part One: Mr. Baggins; Part Two: Return to Bag-end (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies

Charles Butler, Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children’s Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper (Children’s Literature Association & Scarecrow Press, 2006)

Mythopoeic Awards Finalists

The Mythopoeic Society has announced the finalists for the 2009 Mythopoeic Awards.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced during Mythcon XL, to be held July 17-20, 2009, in Los Angeles, California.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

   Carol Berg, Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone (Roc)

   Daryl Gregory, Pandemonium (Del Rey)

   Ursula K. Le Guin, Lavinia (Harcourt)

   Patricia A. McKillip, The Bell at Sealey Head (Ace)

   Gene Wolfe, An Evil Guest (Tor)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

   Kristin Cashore, Graceling (Harcourt Children’s Books)

   Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins)

   Diana Wynne Jones, House of Many Ways (HarperCollins)

   Ingrid Law, Savvy (Dial)

   Terry Pratchett, Nation (HarperCollins)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

   Gavin Ashenden, Charles Williams: Alchemy and Integration (Kent State, 2008)

   Veryln Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson, eds. Tolkien on Fairy-stories: Expanded Edition, with Commentary and Notes (HarperCollins, 2008)

   John Rateliff, The History of the Hobbit, Part One: Mr. Baggins; Part Two: Return to Bag-end (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)

   Michael Ward, Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford, 2008)

   Elizabeth A. Whittingham, The Evolution of Tolkien’s Mythology: A Study of the History of Middle-earth (McFarland, 2008)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies

   Charles Butler, Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children’s Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper (Children’s Literature Association & Scarecrow Press, 2006)

   Jason Marc Harris, Folklore and the Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction (Ashgate, 2008)

   Farah Mendlesohn, Rhetorics of Fantasy (Wesleyan Univ. Press, 2008)

   Marek Oziewicz, One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle and Orson Scott Card (McFarland, 2008)

   Richard Carl Tuerk, Oz in Perspective: Magic and Myth in the Frank L. Baum Books (McFarland, 2007)

For more information about the Mythopoeic Society please contact:

Edith L. Crowe, Corresponding Secretary

The Mythopoeic Society

PO Box 6707

Altadena, CA 91003

E-mail: correspondence@mythsoc.org

Mythopoeic Awards 2008

The Mythopoeic Society

PRESS RELEASE: August 17, 2008

2008 Mythopoeic Award Winners

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

Catherynne M. Valente, The Orphan’s Tales, consisting of In the Night Garden (Spectra) and In the Cities of Coin and Spice (Spectra)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

J.K. Rowling, The Harry Potter series, consisting of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s [Sorcerer’s] Stone (Bloomsbury); Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Bloomsbury); Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Bloomsbury); Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Bloomsbury); Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Bloomsbury); Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bloomsbury); and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Bloomsbury)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Diana Pavlac Glyer; appendix by David Bratman, The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community (Kent State University Press, 2007)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies

"The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous (Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (Series), V. 291.)" (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance S)

T.A. Shippey, editor, The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm’s Mythology of the Monstrous (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005)

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2007 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 younger readers (from “Young Adults” to picture books for beginning readers), 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.

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 (2005–2007) 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 were announced at Mythcon XXXIX in New Britain, Connecticut, on August 17,

2008. A complete list of Mythopoeic Award winners is available on the Society web site:

www.mythsoc.org/awards.html

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

---

As a member of the Inklings Studies committe, I was particularly pleased. The Glyer book is a fascinating read.
David+

awards, books, cs lewis, mythopoeic, tolkien

Geeky Reviews

A few quick geeky reviews of things I am using that I find interesting....

First of all, the Amazon Kindle I received as a Christmas present (although it arrived in late January.) There are all sorts of general reviews of the Kindle all over the web, so I'm not going to go over the pros and cons. This device is obviously a 1.0 release and has some bugs in design and needs some features. But how has it changed my reading over the last few months? First of all, the electronic delivery though the cell network is brilliant. I can order a book and have it a few seconds later. I get Newsweek delivered before it hits the newsstands. I love it. The reading experience takes some getting used to, but I got over that quickly. It's great to be able to carry around Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver (which is a thick book), Philbrick's Mayflower, and Newsweek in the same small package. I really am finding my Kindle to be a great way to read, and I look forward to what Amazon does with future releases.

Secondly, I had the need to generate a 19th-Level Dungeons and Dragons character a couple of weeks ago, which can be a pretty daunting task. Luckily, I happened across The Only Sheet, an Excel worksheet that assists with character generation. It uses Visual Basic, so you have to be running a Windows version of Excel (I run Excel 2003 under Parallels Desktop). It is amazing. You can download class and race files for just about everything in all the books, and changing one thing changes everything on the Character Sheet. It made generating the character a small task, rather than one that could take hours. It even has a live play mode that allows you to use your laptop during play and add "buffs" as you go. I highly reccomend it to anyone who is serious about D&D.

David+

books, D&D, gaming, kindle

2007 Mythopoeic Awards

2007 Mythopoeic Award Winners

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

"Solstice Wood" (Patricia A. McKillip)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

"Corbenic" (Catherine Fisher)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

"J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (Two Volume Box Set)" (Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies

"Gemstone of Paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram's Parzival" (G. Ronald Murphy)

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the
fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for
adults published during 2006 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 younger
readers (from “Young Adults” to picture books for beginning readers),
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.

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 (2004–2006) 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 were announced at Mythcon XXXVIII in
Berkeley, California, on August 5, 2007. A complete list of Mythopoeic
Award winners is available on the Society web site:

www.mythsoc.org/awards.html

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: Eleanor M.
Farrell, P.O. Box 320486, San Francisco, CA 94132-0486,
awards@mythsoc.org.

Technorati Tags: books, inklings, mythopoeic, tolkien

Harry Potter Followup

WARNING! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!!!

We had not received our copy from Amazon in the morning on the 21st, so the family went to Wal-Mart to shop. While there, I made the decision that I should go ahead and buy another copy. Otherwise, I would be hounding Micky, screaming "KEEP READING!!!" for several days. I finished it in two days, despite a heavy work schedule. What a roller coaster! The Harry Potter books usually have a decent amount of "fluff" at the beginning of the book, but after a short, final visit to the Dursleys, you get a Death-Eater chase and the action does not stop. There are none of the Tolkienian resting points that most fantasy writers use.

So, how did I do?

1. Harry does survive, though at the cost of Hedwig, Dobby, Fred, Lupin and Tonks (Don't forget Colin Creevey!) Harry was a horcrux, which is something Micky had suggested to me at the end of the last book. Ginny survives and she and Harry marry and have children somewhere between the proper end of the book and the epilogue. According to a USA Today article I read, early drafts had Mr. Weasley die, but Rowling (Who I also read is pronounced "rolling." I'll have to adjust my pronunciation like I did with Tolkien...) couldn't do it and "traded out" Fred, Lupin and Tonks. Harry does indeed pay a price for victory in the death of many close friends. A happy ending, but not without sadness.
2. Ron and Hermione do survive and marry.
3. I am extraordinarily happy with Snape's redemption in the book. He's the primary reason I own a Slytherin tee shirt.
4. Sirius Black does not come back, except as a phantom when Harry activates the ring.

I was very happy with this book. I'm not sure I have ever been as satisfied at the end of a series. I have minor quibbles about the Epilogue, but they truly are minor. I am currently re-reading the section from Snape's death to the end with care, especially the chapter "King's Cross" which Nick Knisely has pointed out has definite overtones of Gregory of Nyssa's atonement theory. (I've asked Nick to expand on this.)

So if Rowling is working in a Mythopoeic style, what does she emphasize in the primary world? She has a Tolkienian "Short-Term-Defeat, extremely long-term-victory" style that does not deny the reality of death and suffering. Her heroes, even Dumbledore (who was untouchable until Half-Blood Prince) have human foibles that lead to further suffering. She emphasizes that love is the most powerful force in the universe. It is Voldemort's complete inability to understand it that is his undoing. Love is what saves Harry from Voldemort in the first place, and love, even though somewhat twisted, is what brings Snape to defy Voldemort. (Did you catch that at the last Snape wanted to stare into Harry's eyes - Lilly's eyes?) Friendship is a version of this love. When Harry pushes his friends away, he gets in trouble. When he trusts them, he succeeds. Even though trust sometimes fails, as in the case of Harry's parents, it is worth it in the end.

These are the same rules that Christians hold that the primary world operates by. There are those right-wind fundamentalists frothing about the use of magic in the Harry Potter series, usually without thought of what this means about the Chronicles of Narnia or the Lord of the Rings, but I would be willing to say that I think this series is Christian literature in it's very best form. It teaches Gospel values in an unobtrusive way. I cannot imagine that children who have internalized this saga have not been positively changed.

I look forward to seeing some analysis from better commentators than I - maybe an updated version of "The Gospel According to Harry Potter." Until then, I'm just going to continue to enjoy the sweet aftertaste of a most remarkable series of books.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling!

David+

"The Gospel According to Harry Potter: Spirituality in the Stories of the World's Most Famous Seeker" (Connie Neal)

Technorati Tags: anglican, books, episcopal, harry potter, mythopoeic

Mythopoeic Potter Predictions

Since tomorrow is "Harry Potter Day," I thought it might be interesting to put down my predictions of what will happen, based on my observation of Rowling's Mythopoeic method. Let's see how I do....

1. Harry Potter survives, although it may be at great cost. I doubt Rowling has the heart to kill him off. I see Potter in the end like Frodo at the end of Lord of the Rings. Victorious, but deeply wounded. Could that wounding be the death of Ginny Weasley, whom he has begun to form an attachment to? She, too, has been touched by Voldemort in a way that no one else has.
2. Ron and Hermione survive and finally form a romantic relationship. C'mon, Ross and Rachael!!!
3. Snape redeems himself. Dumbledore would never have begged for his life. His, "Severus, please" was a petition for Snape to kill him so that Draco Malfoy would not and fall into Voldemort's complete power. I believe Snape will redeem himself defending Harry, possibly dying in the process, although he will never like Harry. Snape is one of my favorite characters - morally complex.
4. Back is Black? Does Sirius come back from (literally) "Beyond the vale?" His "death" was so offhand that I could see him coming back, although I don't feel strongly about it.

The book arrives tomorrow and Micky has first dibs. I'll be hopping up and down.....

David+

Technorati Tags: books, harry potter, literature, mythopoeic

Mythopoeic Awards Finalists Announced

I'm on the Mythopoeic Society's awards committee for the Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies and the Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies. What this has meant is a lot of reading in Inklings studies. If you know me, you'll understand how much of a non-sacrifice this is. Here are the finalists for the Society's awards this year:

The Mythopoeic Society
PRESS RELEASE: June 9, 2007
2007 Mythopoeic Award Finalists

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

"The Line Between" (Peter S. Beagle)

"The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories" (Susanna Clarke)

"The Stolen Child: A Novel" (Keith Donohue)

"Solstice Wood" (Patricia A. McKillip)

"The Necessary Beggar" (Susan Palwick)

"Three Days to Never: A Novel" (Tim Powers)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children s Literature

"Corbenic" (Catherine Fisher)

"Spirits That Walk in Shadow" (Nina Kiriki Hoffman)

"The Pinhoe Egg: A Chrestomanci Book" (Diana Wynne Jones)

"Keturah And Lord Death" (Martine Leavitt)

"Wintersmith" (Terry Pratchett)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

"Perilous Realms: Celtic And Norse in Tolkien's Middle-Earth" (Marjorie Burns)

"Interrupted Music: The Making Of Tolkien's Mythology" (Verlyn Flieger)

"The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary" (Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, Edmund Weiner)

"J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (Two Volume Box Set)" (Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond)

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies

"Owen Barfield: Romanticism Come of Age - a Biography" (Simon Blaxland De Lange)

"The Meanings of "Beauty & The Beast" A Handbook" (Jerry Griswold)

"Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper" (Charles Butler)

"Gemstone of Paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram's Parzival" (G. Ronald Murphy)

"The Lure Of The Vampire: Gender, Fiction And Fandom From Bram Stoker To Buffy" (Milly Williamson)

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2006 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 younger readers (from Young Adults to picture books for beginning readers), 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.

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 (2004–2006) 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 XXXVIII, to be held from August 3-6, 2007, in Berkeley, California. A complete list of Mythopoeic Award winners is available on the Society web site:

http://www.mythsoc.org/awards.html

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: Eleanor M. Farrell, awards@mythsoc.org.

Technorati Tags: awards, books, inklings, literature, mythopoeic, sci fi

Ents. Elves and Eriador

One of the books I am currently reading is :

"Ents, Elves, And Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J. R. R. Tolkien (Culture of the Land)" (Matthew T Dickerson, Jonathan Evans)

I have barely started it, but I am already impressed. Whereas almost every book on Tolkien devotes a chapter to Tolkien and his environmental themes, this book plumbs the subject in depth. It is part of an Agrarian series that has an editorial board which includes Wendell Barry, Ellen Davis and Bill McKibben. Tom Shippey wrote an afterwards.

I will review it in detail once I finish, but I think I can recommend it at even this early stage. It explores the relationship between Christianity and Ecology using Tolkien's Mythopoeic methods and is a fascinating study.

David+

Technorati Tags: anglican, christianity, environment, episcopal, mythopoeic, tolkien, Wendell Barry