News Item
2025 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists Announced
Posted on June 2, 2025 by Dennis Wise
The Mythopoeic Society has announced the finalists for the 2025 Mythopoeic Awards. For more information about the awards, visit the Awards section of this site; the finalists for the literature and scholarship awards and text of recent acceptance speeches are also listed in this section. The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at our Online Midsummer Seminar 2025, “More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy,” which runs August 2-3, 2025, on Zoom and Discord.
You may download the official press release, in PDF format, here.
The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2023-2024 that best exemplifies the spirit of the Inklings. Books are eligible for two years after publication if selected as a finalist during the first year of eligibility. Books from a series are eligible if they stand on their own; otherwise, the series becomes eligible the year its final volume appears.
The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Young Adult Literature honors books for Young Adult readers (ages 13-18), and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature honors books for younger readers (ages 12 or younger). Rules for eligibility are otherwise the same as for the Adult literature award. The category of borderline books will be determined by their intended audience as named by the publisher and author.
The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies is given to books on Tolkien, Lewis, and/or Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. For this award, books first published during the last three years (2019–2021) are eligible, including finalists for previous years.
The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies is given to scholarly books on other specific authors in the Inklings tradition, or to more general works on the genres of myth and fantasy. The period of eligibility is three years, as for the Inklings Studies award.
The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at our Online Midsummer Seminar 2025, “More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy,” which runs August 2-3, 2025, on Zoom and Discord.
A complete list of Mythopoeic Award winners is available on the Society web site: Awards. The finalists for the literature and scholarship awards and text of recent acceptance speeches are also listed in this on-line section.
For more information about the Mythopoeic Awards, please contact the Awards Administrator: , awards@mythsoc.org
The Mythopoeic Society has announced the finalists for the 2025 Mythopoeic Awards. For more information about the awards, visit the Awards section of this site; the finalists for the literature and scholarship awards and text of recent acceptance speeches are also listed in this section. The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at our Online Midsummer Seminar 2025, “More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy,” which runs August 2-3, 2025, on Zoom and Discord.
You may download the official press release, in PDF format, here.
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature
- Katherine Arden, The Warm Hands of Ghosts (Del Rey, 2024)
- Yangsze Choo, The Fox Wife (Henry Holt & Co., 2024)
- Minsoo Kang, The Melancholy of Untold History (William Morrow, 2024)
- Deborah K. Vleck, The Society of Guenevere (FTL Publications, 2024)
- Nghi Vo, The City in Glass (Tordotcom, 2024)
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Young Adult Literature
- Anna Bright, The Hedge Witch of Foxhall (HarperCollins, 2024)
- Amie Kaufman, The Isles of the Gods duology (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2023-2024)
- Darcie Little Badger, Sheine Lende (Levine Querido, 2024)
- Kelly Murashige, The Lost Souls of Benzaiten (Soho Teen, 2024)
- A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still (McElderry Books, 2024)
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature
- Frances Hardinge, Island of Whispers (Harry N. Abrams, 2024)
- Rajani LaRocca, Sona and the Golden Beasts (Quill Tree Books, 2024)
- Kaela Rivera, The Cece Rios trilogy (HarperCollins, 2021-2024)
- David A. Robertson, The Misewa Saga (Tundra Books, 2020-2024)
- Lisa Stringfellow, Kingdom of Dust (Quill Tree Books, 2024)
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies
- Anahit Behrooz, Mapping Middle-earth: Environmental and Political Narratives in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Cartographies (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024)
- Annie Brust, Tolkien’s Transformative Women: Art in Triptych (Vernon Press, 2024)
- Cristina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, editors, The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, by J.R.R. Tolkien (William Morrow, 2024; 3 vols.)
- Robert Stuart, Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)
- Hamish Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023)
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies
- Stefan Ekman, Urban Fantasy: Exploring Modernity through Magic (Lever Press, 2024)
- Sophus Helle, editor, Enheduanna: The Complete Poems of the World’s First Author (Yale University Press, 2023)
- Matthew Oliver, Magic Words, Magic Worlds: Form and Style in Epic Fantasy (McFarland, 2022)
- Dennis Wilson Wise, editor, Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2023)
- Jack Zipes, Buried Treasures: The Power of Political Fairy Tales (Princeton University Press, 2023)
The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2023-2024 that best exemplifies the spirit of the Inklings. Books are eligible for two years after publication if selected as a finalist during the first year of eligibility. Books from a series are eligible if they stand on their own; otherwise, the series becomes eligible the year its final volume appears.
The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Young Adult Literature honors books for Young Adult readers (ages 13-18), and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature honors books for younger readers (ages 12 or younger). Rules for eligibility are otherwise the same as for the Adult literature award. The category of borderline books will be determined by their intended audience as named by the publisher and author.
The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies is given to books on Tolkien, Lewis, and/or Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. For this award, books first published during the last three years (2019–2021) are eligible, including finalists for previous years.
The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies is given to scholarly books on other specific authors in the Inklings tradition, or to more general works on the genres of myth and fantasy. The period of eligibility is three years, as for the Inklings Studies award.
The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at our Online Midsummer Seminar 2025, “More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy,” which runs August 2-3, 2025, on Zoom and Discord.
A complete list of Mythopoeic Award winners is available on the Society web site: Awards. The finalists for the literature and scholarship awards and text of recent acceptance speeches are also listed in this on-line section.
For more information about the Mythopoeic Awards, please contact the Awards Administrator: , awards@mythsoc.org