The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given annually for outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas.
Established by the Mythopoeic Society in 1971, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award is given for "fiction in the spirit of the Inklings", and the Scholarship Award for non-fiction work.[1][2] The award is a statuette of a seated lion, with a plaque on the base. It has drawn resemblance to, and is often called, the "Aslan".[3]
Quick Facts Awarded for, Presented by ...
| Mythopoeic Awards |
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 Statuette used as award trophy. |
| Awarded for | Outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas |
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| Presented by | Mythopoeic Society |
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| First awarded | 1971 |
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| Most recent winners | |
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| Website | mythsoc.org/awards.htm |
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The Mythopoeic Award is one of the "principal annual awards" for fantasy according to critic Brian Stableford.[4] From 1971 to 1991, there was one award per category, annual but not always awarded before 1981. Dual awards in each category were established in 1992: Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards for Adult Literature and Children's Literature; Scholarship Awards in Inklings Studies, and Myth and Fantasy Studies.[1][5] In 2010, a Student Paper Award was introduced for the best paper presented at Mythcon by an undergraduate or graduate student;[6] it was renamed the Alexei Kondratiev Award several months after its creation.[7]
The 2023 winners were announced virtually at the Mythopoeic Society's Online Midsummer Seminar 2023.[8]
In the following tables, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the novel was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominees on the shortlist.[9][10]
* Winners
Fantasy (1971–1991)
1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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Adult Literature
1990s
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2000s
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2010s
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2020s
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Children's Literature
1990s
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2000s
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2010s
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2020s
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Multiple wins and nominations
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| Wins |
Author |
Years |
|---|
| 4 |
Patricia A. McKillip |
1995, 2003, 2007, 2017 (Adult) |
| 3 |
Ursula Vernon |
2013 (Adult), 2016, 2021 (Children's) |
| Jane Yolen |
1985, 1993 (Adult), 1998 (Children's) |
| 2 |
Peter S. Beagle |
1987, 2000 (Adult) |
| Joy Chant |
1972, 1984 |
| John Crowley |
1982, 2018 (Adult) |
| Neil Gaiman |
1999, 2006 (Adult) |
| Diana Wynne Jones |
1996, 1999 (Children's) |
| Naomi Novik |
2016, 2019 (Adult) |
| Delia Sherman |
1994 (Adult), 2012 (Children's) |
| Mary Stewart |
1971, 1974 |
| Jo Walton |
2010, 2022 (Adult) |
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More information Nominations, Author ...
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The following authors have received two or more Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards.
The following authors have received four or more nominations.
There are two Mythopoeic Scholarship Awards since 1992 (and a Student Paper Award related to Mythcon, not covered here, since 2010).[6] The Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies dates from 1971, in effect, its name was expanded in 1992.[11]
Scholarly works have three years to win the award once and may be on the final ballot three times.[12]
Inklings Studies
Winners are listed below.[11]
- 1971 – C. S. Kilby; Mary McDermott Shideler
- 1972 – Walter Hooper
- 1973 – Master of Middle-earth by Paul H. Kocher
- 1974 – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christian by Kathryn Lindskoog
- 1975 – C. S. Lewis: A Biography by Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper
- 1976 – Tolkien Criticism by Richard C. West; C. S. Lewis, An Annotated Checklist by Joe R. Christopher and Joan K. Ostling; Charles W. S. Williams, A Checklist by Lois Glenn
- 1981 – Christopher Tolkien
- 1982 – The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter
- 1983 – Companion to Narnia by Paul F. Ford
- 1984 – The Road to Middle-earth by T. A. Shippey
- 1985 – Reason and Imagination in C. S. Lewis by Peter J. Schakel
- 1986 – Charles Williams, Poet of Theology by Glen Cavaliero
- 1987 – J. R. R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality and Religion by Richard Purtill
- 1988 – C. S. Lewis by Joe R. Christopher
- 1989 – The Return of the Shadow by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
- 1990 – The Annotated Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Douglas A. Anderson
- 1991 – Jack: C. S. Lewis and His Times by George Sayer
- 1992 – Word and Story in C. S. Lewis, edited by Peter J. Schakel and Charles A. Huttar
- 1993 – Planets in Peril by David C. Downing
- 1994 – J. R. R. Tolkien, A Descriptive Bibliography by Wayne G. Hammond with the assistance of Douglas A. Anderson
- 1995 – C. S. Lewis in Context by Doris T. Myers
- 1996 – J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
- 1997 – The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams, ed. by Charles A. Huttar and Peter Schakel
- 1998 – A Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie by Verlyn Flieger
- 1999 – C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide by Walter Hooper
- 2000 – Roverandom by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond
- 2001 – J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey
- 2002 – Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth, edited by Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter
- 2003 – Beowulf and the Critics by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Michael D. C. Drout
- 2004 – Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth by John Garth
- 2005 – War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien by Janet Brennan Croft
- 2006 – The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
- 2007 – The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
- 2008 – The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Glyer; appendix by David Bratman
- 2009 – The History of the Hobbit by John D. Rateliff, Part One: Mr. Baggins; Part Two: Return to Bag-end
- 2010 – Tolkien, Race, and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits by Dimitra Fimi
- 2011 – Planet Narnia by Michael Ward
- 2012 – Tolkien and Wales by Carl Phelpstead
- 2013 – Green Suns and Faërie: Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien by Verlyn Flieger
- 2014 – Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays by Jason Fisher, ed.
- 2015 – C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages by Robert Boenig
- 2016 – Charles Williams: The Third Inkling by Grevel Lindop
- 2017 – The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski
- 2018 – The Inklings and King Arthur: J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain by Sørina Higgins, ed.
- 2019 – There Would Always Be a Fairy Tale: More Essays on Tolkien by Verlyn Flieger
- 2020 – "The Sweet and the Bitter": Death and Dying in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Amy Amendt-Raduege
- 2021 – Tolkien's Lost Chaucer by John M. Bowers
- 2022 – Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway
- 2023 – Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis: Friends in Co-inherence by Paul S. Fiddes
Myth & Fantasy Studies
Winners are listed below.[11]
- 1992 – The Victorian Fantasists, edited by Kath Filmer
- 1993 – Strategies of Fantasy by Brian Attebery
- 1994 – Twentieth-Century Fantasists, edited by Kath Filmer
- 1995 – Old Tales and New Truths: Charting the Bright-Shadow World by James Roy King
- 1996 – From the Beast to the Blonde by Marina Warner
- 1997 – When Toys Come Alive by Lois Rostrow Kuznets
- 1998 – The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, edited by John Clute and John Grant
- 1999 – A Century of Welsh Myth in Children's Literature by Donna R. White
- 2000 – Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness by Carole G. Silver
- 2001 – King Arthur in America by Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack
- 2002 – The Owl, the Raven & the Dove: The Religious Meaning of the Grimms' Magic Fairy Tales by G. Ronald Murphy
- 2003 – Fairytale in the Ancient World by Graham Anderson
- 2004 – The Myth of the American Superhero by John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett
- 2005 – Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography by Stephen Thomas Knight
- 2006 – National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth-Century England by Jennifer Schacker
- 2007 – Gemstone of Paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram's Parzival by G. Ronald Murphy, S.J.
- 2008 – The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous by Tom Shippey
- 2009 – Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper by Charles Butler
- 2010 – One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L'Engle and Orson Scott Card by Marek Oziewicz
- 2011 – The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale by Caroline Sumpter
- 2012 – The Enchanted Screen by Jack Zipes
- 2013 – Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths by Nancy Marie Brown
- 2014 – Tree of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross in the North by G. Ronald Murphy
- 2015 – Stories About Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth by Brian Attebery
- 2016 – The Evolution of Modern Fantasy: From Antiquarianism to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series by Jamie Williamson
- 2017 – Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church by Richard Firth Green
- 2018 – Children's Fantasy Literature: An Introduction by Michael Levy and Farah Mendlesohn
- 2019 – Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children's Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology by Dimitra Fimi
- 2020 – A Modernist Fantasy: Modernism, Anarchism, and the Radical Fantastic by James Gifford
- 2021 – Fantasies of Time and Death: Dunsany, Eddison, Tolkien by Anna Vaninskaya
- 2022 – The Modern Myths: Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination by Philip Ball
- 2023 – Fantasy: How It Works by Brian Attebery
