2012 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

Lisa Goldstein, The Uncertain Places

Like everyone in the Mythopoeic Society, my life was completely changed by reading Tolkien when I was thirteen or fourteen. But the more time goes by, the more I hear about his books, and think about them, and see movies about them, and reread them for the twelfth time, the more my admiration for him grows. He was a creator, someone who comes along once in a generation to bring a new thing into the world. That this award links me with his works even a little bit is a great honor indeed.

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this novel, and gave me encouragement: my husband, Doug Asherman, my brother, Larry Goldstein, my friend Michaela Roessner, and my wonderful publisher, who took a chance on the book, Jacob Weisman and Jill Roberts at Tachyon.

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2012 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

Delia Sherman, The Freedom Maze

When I was six, I discovered The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in the church library. I remember reading it before I went to school next morning, but that’s probably a false memory, since Mama was very strict about bedtimes. In any case, I fell hard for C.S. Lewis and all his works. His Pilgrim’s Regress sent me to John Bunyan; his Space Trilogy was my introduction to science fiction. Till We Have Faces, in which he finally allowed a woman a full voice and personality, made me fall in love with him all over again. With the exception of William Shakespeare, C.S. Lewis probably contributed more than any other author to the furnishing of my brain, to my sense of story, to my belief that writing is a moral as well as an aesthetic act. To receive an award blessed by his shadow means the world to me. Thank you so very much.

A lot of people helped Sophie Fairchild and her friends to this point, and I won’t try your patience by naming them all. But I do have to thank Kelly Link and Gavin Grant of Big Mouth House for taking a chance on publishing a book that had been turned down by everybody else. I thank all the research librarians, docents, and folklorists I spoke to in Louisiana, who guided me towards resources I didn’t even know I needed. I thank the readers of color who have patiently brought me to a better understanding of Writing the Other. I thank Malinda Lo for presenting and accepting this award in my behalf. I thank my wife, Ellen Kushner, who drove through Louisiana back roads and cane fields with me and encouraged me through draft after draft. And I thank you, the members of the Mythopoeic Society, for giving me this honor. I feel humble and proud and very, very sorry I can’t be there to thank you all in person.

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2012 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies

Carl Phelpstead, Tolkien and Wales
I am delighted and deeply honoured to receive the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies 2012. Indeed, I could hardly feel otherwise, given how much I have learned from books which have previously won or been finalists for this award, the strength of the shortlist this year, and the level of expertise found within the Mythopoeic Society.

I’d like to think that, whatever the merits of my book on Tolkien and Wales, this award also recognises the importance of Tolkien’s Welsh interests and influences and the desirability of giving them more attention than has hitherto been the case in Tolkien studies. Tolkien and Wales doesn’t claim to be — and isn’t — the last word on its subject. Some valuable work in this area has already appeared since the publication of my book, and there is still much to be explored. I hope my book will inspire — or even provoke — other scholars to confirm, correct, complement, and develop its findings.

I am sorry not to be able to be with you at Mythcon: I’m attending a conference in Denmark while yours is underway. Given that these remarks are being read aloud on my behalf, it is perhaps mischievous of me to end them in what nevertheless seems to me the only appropriate way — by saying ‘thank you very much’ . . . in Welsh: Diolch yn fawr!

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2012 Mythopoeic Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies

Jack Zipes, The Enchanted Screen
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Mythpoeic Society for awarding me the 2012 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies. I am truly honored. We are living at a time when myth and fantasy are being perverted, manipulated, and commercialized, and when the humanities are being threatened with extinction at schools of higher learning, not to mention k-12 schools. This is why I respect organizations like the Mythopoeic Society, which takes imaginative literature and artworks seriously and strives to maintain high values in cultivating and preserving the study of myth and fantasy.

I've been fortunate to have met and discussed all kinds of fairy tales, fantasy, and myth with members of the Mythopoeic Society in Minneapolis, perhaps not as often as I would like, but I must say, they have always challenged me to rethink my ideas and also to discover new worlds as have other members of the Society, whom I don't know personally. So, it is with gratitude for the challenges and appreciation that you have shown my works that I accept this award.