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.
From 1971 to 1991 there were two awards, annual but not always awarded before 1981, recognizing Mythopoeic Fantasy and Mythopoeic Scholarship (Inklings Studies). 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. In 2010 a Student Paper Award was introduced for the best paper presented at Mythcon by an undergraduate or graduate student; it was renamed the Alexei Kondratiev Award several months after its creation.
The 2016 finalists were announced at the beginning of June and the awards were announced August 7, 2016, at the annual conference.
The Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards recognize single-author fantasy that "best exemplifies “the spirit of the Inklings”". Dual awards for Adult and Children's Literature replaced a single award in 1992 and they have been combined once since then (1997). The Mythopoeic Society publishes a record of all finalists; from 1992 there are three to five books on each final ballot.
An eligible book is a "novel, multi-volume novel, or single-author story collection" published during the preceding three years, although it may appear on the final ballot only once — a multi-volume novel when its last volume is published.
Several authors have won at least two Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards (below).
1971 – The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart1972 – Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant1973 – The Song of Rhiannon by Evangeline Walton1974 – The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart1975 – A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson1981 – Unfinished Tales by J. R. R. Tolkien1982 – Little, Big by John Crowley1983 – The Firelings by Carol Kendall1984 – When Voiha Wakes by Joy Chant1985 – Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen1986 – Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart1987 – The Folk of the Air by Peter S. Beagle1988 – Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card1989 – Unicorn Mountain by Michael Bishop1990 – The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers1991 – Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner1992 – A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason1993 – Briar Rose by Jane Yolen1994 – The Porcelain Dove by Delia Sherman1995 – Something Rich and Strange by Patricia A. McKillip1996 – Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand1997 – The Wood Wife by Terri Windling (combined with Children's Literature award)1998 – The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A. S. Byatt1999 – Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess2000 – Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle2001 – The Innamorati by Midori Snyder2002 – The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold2003 – Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip2004 – Sunshine by Robin McKinley2005 – Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke2006 – Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman2007 – Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip2008 – The Orphan's Tales by Catherynne M. Valente2009 – Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone by Carol Berg2010 – Lifelode by Jo Walton2011 – Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord2012 – The Uncertain Places by Lisa Goldstein2013 – Digger by Ursula Vernon2014 – The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker2015 – Tales from Rugosa Coven by Sarah Avery2016 – Uprooted by Naomi NovikChildren's Literature is "books for younger readers (from “Young Adults” to picture books for beginning readers), in the tradition of The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia." Books are allocated to one of the two categories by consensus.
1992 – Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie1993 – Knight's Wyrd by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald1994 – The Kingdom of Kevin Malone by Suzy McKee Charnas1995 – Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl1996 – The Crown of Dalemark by Diana Wynne Jones1997 – The Wood Wife by Terri Windling (combined with Adult Literature award)1998 – Young Merlin trilogy (consisting of Passager, Hobby, and Merlin) by Jane Yolen1999 – Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones2000 – The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley2001 – Aria of the Sea by Dia Calhoun2002 – The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson2003 – Summerland by Michael Chabon2004 – The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B. Dunkle2005 – A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett2006 – The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud2007 – Corbenic by Catherine Fisher2008 – Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling2009 – Graceling by Kristin Cashore2010 – Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin2011 – The Queen's Thief Series consisting of The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner2012 – The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman2013 – Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst2014 – Doll Bones by Holly Black2015 – A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd2016 – Castle Hangnail by Ursula VernonThere are dual Mythopoeic Scholarship Awards since 1992 (and a Student Paper Award, not covered here, since 2010). The Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies dates from 1971, in effect, if its name was expanded in 1992.
Scholarly works have three years to win the award once and may be on the final ballot three times.
1971 – C. S. Kilby; Mary McDermott Shideler1972 – Walter Hooper1973 – Master of Middle-earth by Paul H. Kocher1974 – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christian by Kathryn Lindskoog1975 – C. S. Lewis: A Biography by Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper1976 – 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 Glenn1981 – Christopher Tolkien1982 – The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter1983 – Companion to Narnia by Paul F. Ford1984 – The Road to Middle-earth by T. A. Shippey1985 – Reason and Imagination in C. S. Lewis by Peter J. Schakel1986 – Charles Williams, Poet of Theology by Glen Cavaliero1987 – J. R. R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality and Religion by Richard Purtill1988 – C. S. Lewis by Joe R. Christopher1989 – The Return of the Shadow by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien1990 – The Annotated Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Douglas A. Anderson1991 – Jack: C. S. Lewis and His Times by George Sayer1992 – Word and Story in C. S. Lewis, edited by Peter J. Schakel and Charles A. Huttar1993 – Planets in Peril by David C. Downing1994 – J. R. R. Tolkien, A Descriptive Bibliography by Wayne G. Hammond with the assistance of Douglas A. Anderson1995 – C. S. Lewis in Context by Doris T. Myers1996 – J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull1997 – The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams, ed. by Charles A. Huttar and Peter Schakel1998 – A Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie by Verlyn Flieger1999 – C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide by Walter Hooper2000 – Roverandom by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond2001 – J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey2002 – Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on the History of Middle-earth, edited by Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter2003 – Beowulf and the Critics by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Michael D. C. Drout2004 – Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth by John Garth2005 – War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien by Janet Brennan Croft2006 – The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull2007 – The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull2008 – The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Glyer; appendix by David Bratman2009 – The History of the Hobbit by John D. Rateliff, Part One: Mr. Baggins; Part Two: Return to Bag-end2010 – Tolkien, Race, and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits by Dimitra Fimi2011 – Planet Narnia by Michael Ward2012 – Tolkien and Wales by Carl Phelpstead2013 – Green Suns and Faërie: Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien by Verlyn Flieger2014 – Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays by Jason Fisher, ed.2015 – C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages by Robert Boenig2016 – Charles Williams: The Third Inkling by Grevel LindopMythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies
1992 – The Victorian Fantasists, edited by Kath Filmer1993 – Strategies of Fantasy by Brian Attebery1994 – Twentieth-Century Fantasists, edited by Kath Filmer1995 – Old Tales and New Truths: Charting the Bright-Shadow World by James Roy King1996 – From the Beast to the Blonde by Marina Warner1997 – When Toys Come Alive by Lois Rostrow Kuznets1998 – The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, edited by John Clute and John Grant1999 – A Century of Welsh Myth in Children's Literature by Donna R. White2000 – Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness by Carole G. Silver2001 – King Arthur in America by Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack2002 – The Owl, the Raven & the Dove: The Religious Meaning of the Grimms' Magic Fairy Tales by G. Ronald Murphy2003 – Fairytale in the Ancient World by Graham Anderson2004 – The Myth of the American Superhero by John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett2005 – Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography by Stephen Thomas Knight2006 – National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth-Century England by Jennifer Schacker2007 – 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 Shippey2009 – Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper by Charles Butler2010 – One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L'Engle and Orson Scott Card by Marek Oziewicz2011 – The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale by Caroline Sumpter2012 – The Enchanted Screen by Jack Zipes2013 – Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths by Nancy Marie Brown2014 – Tree of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross in the North by G. Ronald Murphy2015 – Stories About Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth by Brian Attebery2016 – The Evolution of Modern Fantasy: From Antiquarianism to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series by Jamie WilliamsonSeveral authors have won at least two Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards.
Peter S. Beagle 1987 before division, 2000 Adult LiteratureJoy Chant 1972, 1984 before divisionNeil Gaiman 1999, 2006 Adult LiteratureDiana Wynne Jones 1996, 1999 Children'sPatricia A. McKillip 1995, 2003, 2007 AdultMary Stewart 1971, 1974 before divisionUrsula Vernon 2013 Adult, 2016 Children'sJane Yolen 1985 before division, 1993 Adult, 1998 Children'sMcKillip has been a finalist for one of the fantasy awards with 14 different books. Robin McKinley (once a winner) and Yolen have been finalists seven times; Gaiman and Jones six times, Powers five times.
Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull won the Inklings Studies award for four different collaborations from 1996 to 2007, as did Hammond and Douglas A. Anderson once previously.
G. Ronald Murphy is a three-time winner of the award for General Myth and Fantasy Studies. Both Kath Filmer and Brian Attebery have won it twice.
