Wendy N. Wagner

As research for the upcoming Women Destroy Fantasy! special issue of Lightspeed, I’m compiling a list of fantasy novels by women that have won major genre fiction awards. Here’s what I have so far:

World Fantasy Award-winning novels by women

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, by Patricia McKillip (1975)

Watchtower, by Elizabeth A. Lynn (1980)

Thomas the Rhymer, by Ellen Kushner (1991)

Godmother Night, by Rachel Pollack (1997)

The Antelope Wife, by Louise Erdrich (1999)

The Other Wind, by Ursula K. LeGuin (2002)

Ombria in Shadow, by Patricia McKillip (2003)

Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton (2004)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (2005)

Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan (2009)

Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor (2011)

Alif the Unseen, by G. Willow Wilson (2013)

Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel

Harpist in the Wind, by Patricia McKillip (1980)

The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1984)

Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin (1991)

Beauty, by Sheri S. Tepper (1992)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J. K. Rowling (2000)

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2004)

The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner (2007)

Lavinia, by Ursula K. LeGuin (2009)

Fantasy novels[*] by women that have won the Nebula Award for Best Novel:

The Falling Woman, by Pat Murphy (1988)

Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin (1991)

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2005)

Powers, by Ursula K. LeGuin (2009)

Among Others, by Jo Walton (2012)

[*] If the author attempted to explain the speculative elements of the text via some kind of appeal to science or technology, I called it science fiction and did not include the work.

Works by women writers to receive the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award[*]

The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart (1971)

Red Moon and Black Mountain, by Joy Chant (1972)

The Song of Rhiannon, by Evangeline Walton (1973)

The Hollow Hills, by Mary Stewart (1974)

The Firelings, by Carol Kendall (1983)

When Voiha Wakes, by Joy Chant (1984)

Cards of Grief, by Jane Yolen (1985)

Thomas the Rhymer, by Ellen Kushner (1991)

A Woman of the Iron People, by Eleanor Arnason (1992)

Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen (1993)

The Porcelain Dove, by Delia Sherman (1994)

Something Rich and Strange, by Patricia A. McKillip (1995)

Waking the Moon, by Elizabeth Hand (1996)

The Wood Wife, by Terri Windling (1997)

The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye, by A.S. Byatt (1998)

The Innamorati, by Midori Snyder (2001)

The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2002)

Ombria in Shadow, by Patricia A. McKillip (2003)

Sunshine, by Robin McKinley (2004)

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (2005)

Solstice Wood, by Patricia A. McKillip (2007)

Orphan’s Tales, by Catherynne M. Valente (2008)

Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone, by Carol Berg (2009)

Lifelode, by Jo Walton (2010)

Redemption in Indigo, by Karen Lord (2011)

The Uncertain Places, by Lisa Goldstein (2012)

Digger, vols. 1-6, by Ursula Vernon (2013)

[*] From 1971-1992, the Mythopoeic Society made no distinction between adult and youth fiction. In 1992 the Mythopoeic Society began giving two separate awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. I have included only the Adult winners for the time being.

If you’re in the Salem, Oregon, area, stop by the Downtown BookBin on Saturday at 7 pm–I’ll be there reading from my fun adventure novel, Skinwalkers! It should be a blast.

Me, having fun reading at Powell’s. (Sorry it’s a little blurry–it’s an action shot!)

Wow! Tomorrow is World Horror Con! I’ll be there, hanging out, handing out badge ribbons for NIGHTMARE and hanging out with all the fantastic folks. Oh! And catching the art show. If you’re going, be sure to check out Galen Dara’s art that will be on display (and buy a print of her amazing new piece inspired by the antagonist of my novel SKINWALKERS!).

First, I want to give a big thank you to everyone who entered! You all shared amazing stories and I had a great time reading them. From a number of entrants, I selected two winners, one based upon how much I liked their story of an outstanding mother, and one selected purely at random.

Winner #1 is Jonathan, aka Greeniewolf! His story about his remarkable mother made me quite teary. She sounds like a truly amazing woman. Jonathan, I’m sending you an email to get your shipping information.

Winner #2 didn’t give me her name, but I do have her email address, and I’ll be contacting her to get her details.

Don’t forget that all of you have been entered into the Grand Prize drawing, where you could win a copy of not just my novel, Skinwalkers, but eighteen other fantastic books. My fingers are crossed for all of you!

I’m so excited to announce my upcoming reading at Powell’s Books! If you’re an Oregonian, you know that Powell’s is pretty much the mother ship for all things bookish, so you’ll be hanging out with not just me, but some of the coolest book lovers in the Portland area. Join us!

SKINWALKERS reading

7 pm, April 4th

Powell’s Books at Cedar Crossing

3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton

Come out and enjoy an evening of adventure!

My three-part serial, “Winter’s Wolves,” is going up on the Paizo site! The first chapter has already posted, and the next two will be available on 3/12 and 3/19. I really enjoyed creating the characters of Lugh, Irlu, and Grotnir, so I’m very excited to share it.

“Winter’s Wolves” is set about a month before the beginning of Skinwalkers, so it’s a great way to prepare for what you’ll see in the novel!

11 years ago

Edited 3/20/2014: The contest is now closed. I’ll be announcing winners on 3/22. Thanks to everyone who entered!

I’m taking part in Crossing the Streams 2014, an awesome book giveaway contest where readers have the opportunity to win a lot of books from twenty exciting writers of fantasy and science fiction. Here’s how it works.

Each author is running their own book giveaway on their site, and you’re welcome to enter every author’s contest. Two winners will be selected for each site (although each author will have their own criteria for winning–pay attention when you’re signing up!), but every single person who enters the contest will also be entered into the Super Prize Drawing, where you can win the mega-package of a signed book from each and every one of us. That’s right: you could win nineteen amazing books! (I know I said there were twenty writers and nineteen books–two of the authors work together as a team.)

My contest:

You may only enter once. Send an email to wendy at winniewoohoo dot com, with CROSSING THE STREAMS as the subject line. In your email, tell me about a mother you think should be recognized for her awesomeness–maybe she’s your mom, maybe she’s a historical figure, it doesn’t matter. You can write as little as one sentence or as much as a few paragraphs, but please know that by submitting, you consent to let me quote your entry and use your name on my blog. (I’m writing a big post about amazing mothers, and if you say something really great, I want to share it.)

One winner will be selected based upon how interesting your entry is. The other will be chosen totally at random! And of course, every entrant will be entered into the Massive Multi-Author Contest (MMAC?).

Entries must be received between February 19th and March 19th, 2014.

SKINWALKERS Cover - SMALL

What you win:

I’ll be giving away signed copies of Skinwalkers, my new Pathfinder Tales adventure novel. The book isn’t due out until mid- to late-March, so you might have to wait a few weeks before I can actually mail it to you. But don’t worry, you’ll get it!

Why don’t you go check out the other authors who are participating in this great giveaway? I can promise you: they’re all terrific writers with amazing projects out in the world.

Thanks, and good luck!

Ari Marmell: http://mouseferatu.com/index.php/crossing-the-streams-2014-a-massive-multi-author-contest/

Betsy Dornbusch: http://www.betsydornbusch.com/2014/02/crossing-streams-2014-contest.html

Darrin Drader: http://www.darrindrader.com/?page_id=19

Dave Gross: http://frabjousdave.com/crossing-the-streams-multi-author-contest

Erik Scott de Bie: http://erikscottdebie.com/?p=1141

Erin M. Evans: http://slushlush.com/2014/02/crossing-the-streams/

Erin N. Hoffman: http://www.erinhoffman.com/wp/2014/02/crossing-the-streams/

Gabrielle Faust: http://www.gabriellefaust.com/archives/6813

Howard Andrew Jones: http://www.howardandrewjones.com/crossing-the-streams-2014

James L. Sutter: http://jameslsutter.com/news.html#CrossingTheStreams

Jeff Salyards: http://jeffsalyards.com/2014/02/crossing-the-streams/

Joshua Palmatier: http://jpsorrow.livejournal.com/422516.html

Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell and Jeffrey J. Mariotte: http://www.marsheilarockwell.com/contests.html

Matt Forbeck: http://www.forbeck.com/crossing-streams-2014/

Paul S. Kemp: http://paulskemp.com/blog/crossingstreams/

Richard Lee Byers: http://rleebyers.livejournal.com/#asset-rleebyers-89870

Saranna DeWylde: http://www.sarannadewylde.com \ Crossing the Streams-Massive Multi Author Contest

So … background. Last year was a rough year for women working in the science fiction and fantasy genres. The first half of the year, the publication of genre’s primary professional organization–the SFWA Bulletin–had a number of issues that were offensive due of their sexist artwork or articles. Here’s a great summary. Blogs discussed the depressing facts that women’s fiction doesn’t get as many reviews as men’s, and best-of lists included hardly any women’s work (this post by Ian Sales summarizes this stuff nicely). Then the relaunched Amazing Stories published a personal essay called “When is Science Fiction Not Science Fiction“–where the author, Paul Cook, complained that Lois McMaster Bujold’s work (which is crammed full of space travel and other elements we’d usually see in a science fiction adventure) wasn’t actually science fiction. Cook said he could tell it wasn’t really SF, because “Bujold tips her hand in the eloquence of her language (normally a good thing) and the attention to detail that only women would find attractive: balls, courts, military dress, palace intrigues, gossiping, and whispering in the corridors.”

People got mad, and for good reason. (After all, everyone loves Dune, and it’s full of gossip and intrigue. Nobody says it’s not science fiction!) And somebody decided to do something about it: Christie Yant.

Christie’s working to put together a special double issue of Lightspeed Magazine that will be entirely written, edited, and produced by women. That’s right: all the money and all the time (and the reviews! Don’t forget the reviews!) that would normally be equally divided between men and women (Lightspeed does a great job of publishing balanced genders), will be showered, instead, on women. Actually, TWICE as much time and money will go to them. And why? Because women could use a little more attention in science fiction, and this might help make up for it. Plus, it’s also a cool celebration of women in the industry that will hopefully get them fired up to go write even more awesome fiction. I wouldn’t mind seeing women win every award in the business this year, just to give 2013 a big kick in the ass.

Interested in the project? Go check out Lightspeed’s Kickstarter campaign! It takes a little extra money to publish all that extra fiction, so give them a hand. All donors get an ebook copy of the special issue, which you don’t want to miss out on.

And why am I so interested in all of this, besides the fact that I’m a woman? Well, these days I’m Lightspeed’s Managing/Associate Editor, and I’ve been reading slush and collecting personal essays for this project–so I actually know how cool it’s going to be.

One of the most exciting things about having a book is getting to see the cover. Well, here’s the cover of Skinwalkers!

This painting is by Michal Ivan, who has done some other amazing piece for Pathfinder. I can’t wait to see more of his work. And I’m pretty damn excited for the first week of March, when this book should arrive in bookstores!

For more info, check out the Paizo website, or the fine book merchants of Powells.

My father was a National Merit Scholar, with an uncle who offered to pay his way to Harvey Mudd, free and clear. Dad took his scholarship to an agricultural program and dropped out after only two years. I can understand. I skipped two grades in elementary school and stood in the top ten percent of my college class–but if the Dean hadn’t refused to sign the paperwork, I, too, would be a college drop-out.

There are a lot of reasons why my dad and I didn’t succeed in college, but I can name one of them: growing up poor. Class isn’t an issue my university knew how to address, and neither do most Americans. Money difficulty is supposed to be a short-term problem, something that enters people’s lives and then gets swept away by a better job and dose of public assistance. But it doesn’t work that way. When you grow up in poverty, it leaves fingerprints on you that never wash off.

Some memories of my childhood are indelible: the wonderful texture of the paper they used to print food stamps on, back when food stamps came in little coupon books and each increment was printed in its own color. The taste of government cheese, salty and waxy and melty and gooier than any cheese I’ve eaten since. The humiliation I felt when the dentist looked at my crooked, horrible teeth and said to his assistant, uncaring if I heard: “What a waste.” The shame I felt when my dad came to school events and showed his toothless smile, or the sadness for my mother, who often covered her mouth to hide the gaps and the dark spots in hers. The heavy weight in my gut when I learned that driver’s ed was no longer free.

I still don’t know how to drive. I didn’t want my parents to pay the $120 fee when I was a senior, and by the time I went to college, I had more pressing things to worry about, like holding down four or more part-time jobs and trying to make the dean’s list so I could keep my scholarship. In college, my stomach always hurt. I knew how to study and work hard, but I didn’t know how to fit in. There was a cachet of belonging that other students had that I could never quite manage. Other students held themselves in some taller fashion, spoke in a way that sounded somehow smarter. Each year it grew worse. I couldn’t stand to open my mouth in my philosophy classes because I knew no matter what I said it would sound coarse and stupid.

I don’t know how or why I thought this. I had already exorcised the words “crick” and “pin” and “fleg” and “beg” from my vocabulary (that’s “creek,” “pen,” “flag,” and “bag,” if you’re not from rural Oregon), so I should have sounded fine. I felt the same way when my daughter started school, and I had to stand with the other parents picking up their kids. We rented an apartment on the edge of a good neighborhood, and the other parents were all doctors, college professors, small business owners. They all looked so comfortable and relaxed as they talked with the other parents or fiddled with their smart phones. I made the best of it by burying myself in a book from the library.

I am much more comfortable at my daughter’s new school. People in our neighborhood are working class, maybe poorer. I don’t know this for sure, I just guess–it’s a Title I school, and most of the kids are on the free or reduced lunch program. But even if I didn’t know the stats, I’d *know*. The people treat me differently. I’m one of them.

I have a hard time explicating the difference between classes, but I can identify people of different classes on sight. I’m sure most people can. And the unfortunate thing about living in America is that there is a deep sense of shame associated with being lower class. If you are poor, there is a sense that it is your fault. That you’re not working hard enough to get ahead, that you are lazy, that you waste your time and your money on worthless shit. People always try not to hold it against the children of poor parents, but when you’re one of those kids, you see pity in their eyes, and it sticks to you like one of those price tags with the incredible adhesive.

Because of my husband, who was raised solidly middle class, I have a middle class lifestyle. We don’t have much money, but we aren’t on food stamps. In a month or two, we’ll actually have insurance. It seems like a lot to me, which I think is a legacy of living poor all my life. You learn not to expect much. You have a hard time asking for more.

I think about the way growing up poor damaged me and my relatives. There is something about poverty that can break things inside you, that can make you sabotage your best efforts to get ahead, that sets you up to fall behind. I am a smart woman, but I don’t know what it is or how to fix it. And I’m a *white* woman at that. I only have one deck stacked against me. If I was a person of color, things would be so much harder. To get out of poverty, especially if you are a person of color, is very, very difficult.

But the thing about getting out of poverty is that it never gets out of you. It stays inside, a heavy hand on your heart that squeezes every time you hear a joke about trailer trash. It squeezes every time you go to a job interview. It squeezes every time you go to a store and you worry for one tiny fraction of a second–for no reason, just because it’s what you do–that your debit card will be declined.

I will be poor white trash until the day I die. And no matter how hard I try to ignore that or be proud of my accomplishments, I will always be–just a little, just one tiny nearly unmeasurable bit–ashamed of myself and my family.

How can I not be? I’m an American.

Wendy N. Wagner

Read the Destruction: Award-winning novels by women

Reading SKINWALKERS in Salem!

World Horror Con!

The winners of my Crossing the Streams giveaway!

SKINWALKERS reading at Powell’s!

New Jendara story!

Crossing the Streams 2014: Massive, multi-author contest!

The state of SF (and me!)

Skinwalkers’s Cover is up!