Comments: As usual for the Mythopoeic Award, the nominees in the two fiction categories are a strong set of fantasy works that are both varied and interesting. The collection of fiction works does highlight one of the persistent oddities of the Mythopoeic Award by making the Inkling Studies category look quite limited in its horizons: Two of the nominated works in that category are revisions of works originally written by J.R.R. Tolkien, while two others are books about C.S. Lewis. To a certain extent, a category devoted to scholarship about the Inklings - a group that consisted of (depending on who is counted as being a "member") a dozen to just over two dozen men - is going to be quite focused in the works it chooses to honor. When one considers that the bulk of academic interest in the group is probably limited to four subjects (Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, and Green), the limited range of works is even more apparent. This creates a strange dichotomy, where most of the categories of the award feature works that are diverse and sometimes experimental, while the Inklings Studies category is stuck rehashing the same very limited aspect of the past over and over again.
Best Adult Fantasy Literature
Other Nominees:
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston
Best Children's Fantasy Literature
Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon
Other Nominees:
Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley
The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst
Serafina and The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty
Tiffany Aching series (Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight, and The Shepherd’s Crown) by Terry Pratchett
Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies
Charles Williams: The Third Inkling by Grevel Lindop
Other Nominees:
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary Together with Sellic Spell by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
C.S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet by Alistair E. McGrathJoy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis by Abigail Santamaria
The Story of Kullervo by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Verlyn Flieger
Myth and Fantasy Studies
The Evolution of Modern Fantasy: From Antiquarianism to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series by Jamie Williamson
Other Nominees:
English Poetry and Old Norse Myth: A History by Heather O’Donoghue
George MacDonald: Divine Carelessness and Fairytale Levity by Daniel Gabelman
Here Be Dragons: Exploring Fantasy Maps and Settings by Stefan Ekman
Science in Wonderland: The Scientific Fairy Tales of Victorian Britain by Melanie Keene
Go to previous year's nominees: 2015
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2017
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