1998 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

Jane Yolen, Author, Young Merlin trilogy (consisting of Passager, Hobby and Merlin)

I knew there was magic in the air when I began the Young Merlin trilogy, but I didn't know it was THIS magic. The books, written when I was in Scotland, esconsed in our beautiful stone house Wayside, took on the color (or should I write colour) of the British countryside.

These were true books of the heart. And that they touched your hearts as well -- my myth-centered friends -- makes me doubly proud. I will now have a pride of lions to symbolize how proud I feel.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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1998 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies

Verlyn Flieger, Author, A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Road to Faerie

Doing scholarship on Tolkien is a little like being a very small flea on the back of a very large dog. It’s of much more benefit to the flea than it is to the dog. What the world needs is more dogs, not more fleas. This notwithstanding, I am deeply grateful for the Mythopoeic Award and for the Society’s recognition of my work. Thank you all.

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1998 Mythopoeic Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies

John Clute, Author, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

Thank you, from all of us. It takes a long time, and a lot of people, to give birth to a hopeful monster sort of book like this one; and getting this award feels a bit like having a cool bath after a long day in the coal mines. I did a lot of the preliminary thinking about definitions, and wrote a lot of that part of the book; Paul Barnett, who writes as John Grant, did most of the movies, and other stuff, and shaped the drafts of the book into what any true encyclopedia must be: an engine of reference. Mike Ashley wrote a great amount; Roz Kaveney was essential to the preliminary shaping; David Langford wrote a lot, and handled everything to do with computers -- macros, formatting, cogitating, etc; Ron Tiner took on the prickly pear of illustrator entries, and thought through other stuff. Gary Westfahl and David Hartwell applied their critical brains to drafts, steered us from some of the shoals.

All of us got it all together; and now you’ve made it into a party. Thank you again.