2009 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists

Now a lot of people are probably going to give me a hard time with this post considering it has nothing to do with science fiction and more to do with fantasy than anything else. Nevertheless, since there are many commonalities between the two genres and both are inclusive to all readers I thought people would be genuinely interested.

The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given by the Mythopoeic Society to authors of outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas. The winners of this year’s awards will be announced during Mythcon XL to be held from July 17-20, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.

Nevertheless, it looks like an impressive list for each award. It seems there’s no shortage of good fantasy out there to read, this award only confirms that. Here are the nominees for your viewing pleasure.

ADULT LITERATURE
• Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone, Carol Berg (Roc)
• Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
• Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
• The Bell at Sealey Head, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
• An Evil Guest, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
• Graceling, Kristin Cashore (Harcourt Children’s)
• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
• House of Many Ways, Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins)
• Savvy, Ingrid Law (Dial)
• Nation, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)

INKLINGS STUDIES
• Charles Williams: Alchemy and Imagination, Gavin Ashenden (Kent State, 2008)
• Tolkien on Fairy-stories: Expanded Edition, with Commentary and Notes, Veryln Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson, eds. (HarperCollins, 2008)
• The History of the Hobbit, Part One: Mr. Baggins; Part Two: Return to Bag-end, John Rateliff (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)
• Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis, Michael Ward (Oxford, 2008)
• The Evolution of Tolkien’s Mythology: A Study of the History of Middle-earth, Elizabeth A. Whittingham (McFarland, 2008)

MYTH AND FANTASY STUDIES
• Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children’s Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper, Charles Butler (Children’s Literature Association & Scarecrow, 2006)
• Folklore and the Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction, Jason Marc Harris (Ashgate, 2008)
• Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press, 2008)
• One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle and Orson Scott Card, Marek Oziewicz (McFarland, 2008)
• Oz in Perspective: Magic and Myth in the Frank L. Baum Books, Richard Carl Tuerk (McFarland, 2007)