The shortlists for the 2023 Mythopoeic Awards were revealed May 17.

The winners will be announced at the Mythopoeic Society’s Online Midsummer Seminar 2023, “Fantasy Goes to Hell,” which runs August 5-6.

MYTHOPOEIC FANTASY AWARD FOR ADULT LITERATURE

• Kelly Barnhill, When Women Were Dragons (Doubleday, 2022)
• Alex Jennings, The Ballad of Perilous Graves (Redhook, 2022)
• Sacha Lamb, When the Angels Left the Old Country (Levine Querido, 2022)
• GennaRose Nethercott, Thistlefoot (Anchor Books, 2022)
• Peng Shepherd, The Cartographers (William Morrow, 2022)

2023 MYTHOPOEIC FANTASY AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

• Tracy Badua, Freddie vs. the Family Curse (Clarion, 2022)
• Kelly Barnhill, The Ogress and the Orphans (Algonquin Young Readers, 2022)
• Kate DiCamillo, The Beatryce Prophecy (Candlewick Press, 2021)
• Brian Farrey, The Counterclockwise Heart (Algonquin Young Readers, 2022)
• L. D. Lapinski, Strangeworlds Travel Agency trilogy (2021-2022)
• Sofiya Pasternack, Black Bird, Blue Road (Versify, 2022)
• Christina Soontornvat, The Last Mapmaker (Candlewick, 2022)

2023 MYTHOPOEIC SCHOLARSHIP AWARD IN INKLINGS STUDIES

• Paul S. Fiddes, Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis: Friends in Co-inherence (Oxford UP, 2021)
• John Garth, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth (Princeton UP, 2020)
• Peter Grybauskas, A Sense of Tales Untold: Exploring the Edges of Tolkien’s Literary Canvas (Kent State UP, 2021)
• Thomas Kullmann and Dirk Siepmann, Tolkien as a Literary Artist (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
• John Rosegrant, Tolkien, Enchantment, and Loss: Steps on the Developmental Journey (Kent State UP, 2022)

2023 MYTHOPOEIC SCHOLARSHIP AWARD IN MYTH AND FANTASY STUDIES

• Brian Attebery, Fantasy: How It Works (Oxford UP, 2022)
• Taylor Driggers, Queering Faith in Fantasy Literature (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022)
• Hadas Elber-Aviram, Fairy Tales of London: British Urban Fantasy, 1840 to the Present (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021)
• Daniel Ogden, The Dragon in the West: From Ancient Myth to Modern Legend (Oxford UP, 2021)
• Matthew Oliver, Magic Words, Magic Worlds: Form and Style in Epic Fantasy (McFarland, 2022)
• Marek Oziewicz, Brian Attebery, and Tereza Dědinová, editors. Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene: Imagining Futures and Dreaming Hope in Literature and Media (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022)

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2023 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.

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 (20 00–2023) 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 is available on the Society website. The finalists for the literature awards, text of recent acceptance speeches, and selected book reviews are also listed in this on-line section.

[Based on a press release.]

The shortlists for the 2022 Mythopoeic Awards were revealed May 17.

MYTHOPOEIC FANTASY AWARD FOR ADULT LITERATURE

• Katherine Addison, The Witness for the Dead (Tor, 2021)
• Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars (Tor Books, 2021)
• P. Djèlí Clark, A Master of Djinn (Tordotcom, 2021)
• Susanna Clarke, Piranesi (Bloomsbury, 2020)
• Garth Nix, Terciel and Elinor (Katherine Tegen Books, 2021)
• Jo Walton, Or What You Will (Tor 2020)

MYTHOPOEIC FANTASY AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

• Sayantani DasGupta, The Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond trilogy (Scholastic, 2018–2020)
• Regina Hansen, The Coming Storm (Athenium, 2021)
• Lori M. Lee, Pahua and the Soul Stealer (Rick Riordan Presents, 2021)
• Eden Royce, Root Magic (Walden Pond Press, 2021)

MYTHOPOEIC SCHOLARSHIP AWARD IN INKLINGS STUDIES

• Paul S. Fiddes, Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis: Friends in Co-inherence (Oxford UP, 2021)
• John Garth, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth (Princeton UP, 2020)
• Peter Grybauskas, A Sense of Tales Untold: Exploring the Edges of Tolkien’s Literary Canvas (Kent State UP, 2021)
• Holly Ordway, Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (Word on Fire, 2021)

MYTHOPOEIC SCHOLARSHIP AWARD IN MYTH AND FANTASY STUDIES

• Philip Ball, The Modern Myths: Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination (U of Chicago P, 2021)
• Hadas Elber-Aviram, Fairy Tales of London: British Urban Fantasy, 1840 to the Present (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021)
• Daniel Ogden, The Dragon in the West: From Ancient Myth to Modern Legend (Oxford UP, 2021)
• Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games (New York UP, 2019)
• Joseph Rex Young, George R. R. Martin and the Fantasy Form (Routledge, 2019)

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi -volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2021 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.

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 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 (2019–2021) 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 52, to be held July 29-August 1 at Albuquerque, NM.

[Based on an official statement.]

The shortlists for the 2021 Mythopoeic Awards were revealed August 1 during the Virtual “Halfling” Mythcon.

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth & Fantasy Studies

• The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960 by Kathryn Hume.
• Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology by Adrienne Mayor
• The Shape of Fantasy: Investigating the Structure of American Heroic Epic Fantasy by C. Palmer-Patel
• The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
• Fantasies of Time and Death: Dunsany, Eddison, Tolkien by Anna Vaninskaya

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

• Tolkien’s Lost Chaucer by John M. Bowers
• Tolkien’s Library: An Annotated Checklist by Oronzo Cilli
• The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth by John Garth
• Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth edited by Catherine McIlwaine
• A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger edited by John Rateliff

Mythopoeic Fiction Award in Children’s Literature

• The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman
• Snapdragon by Kat Leyh
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
• When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
• Sal and Gabi duology (Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, & Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe) by Carlos Hernandez
• A Game of Fox and Squirrels by Jenn Reese

Mythopoeic Fiction Award in Adult Literature

• Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

The 2020 Mythopoeic Awards finalists were posted December 8.

The Mythopoeic Awards are chosen from books nominated by individual members of the Mythopoeic Society, and selected by a committee of Society members.

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.

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, 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.

[Via Locus Online. How could it be otherwise?]

The 2019 Mythopoeic Awards finalists were posted June 6.

The Mythopoeic Awards are chosen from books nominated by individual members of the Mythopoeic Society, and selected by a committee of Society members.

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 novel, or single-author story collection for adults published during the previous year 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 (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. 

Update 06/17/2019 Corrected one the category definitions per Lynn Maudlin’s comment.