The year 2011 marks the 75th anniversary of both C.S. Lewis' publication of The Allegory of Love and J.R.R. Tolkien's lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” Spanning the early Anglo-Saxon/Scandinavian heroic legacies and late Continental French-inspired romance traditions, these authoritative works of scholarship dramatically changed academic discussion on their medieval subjects. In addition, their literary reinterpretations laid the groundwork for the modern medievalism that now informs so much modern fantasy literature, Inkling or otherwise. To commemorate these important anniversaries, Mythcon 42 invites reflection on the impact of these critical works and how they offer new ways to view the fantastic in earlier texts as well as how they initiated many of the approaches modern fantasy applies to its reading of the medieval. We expect our location to encourage discussion of connections between Native American and Hispanic mythological and fantastic traditions and those mythopoeic legacies from the European and Mediterranean cultures.

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Guests of Honor

Catherynne M. Valente - Author Guest of Honor
Catherynne M. Valente is the author of the two-volume series The Orphan Tales (consisting of In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice), which won the 2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Her urban fantasy novel Palimpsest also was nominated for the 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.








Michael D.C. Drout, Scholar Guest of Honor
Michael D.C. Drout is a Professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where he teaches Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, medieval literature, fantasy, and science fiction and writing. His scholarship is focused on tenth-century English literature and culture, meme-based theories of culture, and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Drout won the 2003 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies.

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Progress Report & Schedule

View or Download Mythcon 42 PR#1 here. (PDF)

View or Download Mythcon 42 Advance Schedule here. (PDF)

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Mythcon 42 conference reports

From Sarah Beach's blog: the full Mythcon 42 report

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Writers’ Track

After the great success of the Mythcon 41 Writers’ Track sessions in Dallas, we are planning a similar series of sessions featuring regional fantasy and science fiction writers as well as our Guests of Honor and selected Mythcon 42 attendees. These writers will discuss a variety of issues related to writing, publishing, and marketing fantasy and science fiction works. If you are planning to attend the conference and would like to be a speaker at one of this track’s sessions, please contact the Mythcon 42 Conference Committee.

The following writers have confirmed their participation in this part of our conference:

• Daniel Abraham
• Ty Franck
• Jane Lindskold
• Melinda Snodgrass
• Ian Tregellis
• Robert E. Vardeman
• Carrie Vaughn

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Artists’ Track

In addition to our Writers’ Track sessions, the Mythcon 42 Conference Committee is arranging an Artists’ Track in which regional artists and selected Mythcon 42 attendees will offer wisdom about creating as well as selling and marketing fantasy art. If you are planning to attend the conference and would like to be a speaker at one of this track’s sessions, please contact the Mythcon 42 Conference Committee.

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