Just a quick fly-by post...

This is worth reading: "J.R.R. Tolkien Has A Touching Message For His Former Teachers In Newly Discovered Letter."

This also deserves a look: from NPR, "Harry Potter And The Forbidden Books."


( Read more... )

Ruth Graham started it with her article at Slate: "Against YA: Read whatever you want. But you should feel embarrassed when what you’re reading was written for children." Graham manages to diss not only all of YA fiction, but also fantasy, science fiction, and detective fiction, as well, in favor of big-L LiteratureOne of my favorite contemporary ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

* R.I.P., Mary Stewart (17 September, 1916 - 9 May, 2014), best known for her Merlin series of Arthurian fantasy novels: Mythopoeic Award winners The Crystal Cave (1970) and The Hollow Hills (1973), followed by The Last Enchantment. Read more from The New York Times: "Mary Stewart, British Writer Who Spanned Genres, Dies at 97."* Is Tolkien's ( Read more... )

Some of my older books by Fouqué agreed to pose for me.


( Read more... )

To follow up on my last post, I wanted to share my updated select bibliography of sources on YA dystopian literature. Online sources include links. If you know of something that should be here and isn't, please give me a shout! Thanks.

My working list of English-language YA dystopian novels can be found here using my "YA dystopias list" tag.

( --Secondary Sources Relating to Young Adult Dystopias, A Select Bibliography )

Happy birthday to Robert Bloch (5 April, 1917 - 23 September, 1994), one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle.


( Read more... )

Some time ago I was invited to write the introduction for a collection of Lovecraft's favorite tales. The project eventually died before it could be born, leaving me with this essay. I wanted to put it up somewhere in its original form, so here it is.


( Read more... )

As you know, the devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma earlier this year hit very close to home for me, as in fact they hit the counties (turned "national disaster areas") where my parents and my sister and her family live. Efforts continue to rebuild and recover.

I am thrilled to be a part of the new Writers for Relief: An Anthology Written by ( Read more... )

My Spring 2014 online, interactive, international course for The Mythgard Institute (available both for M.A. students who are seeking degrees and auditors wishing to participate the love of the subject) is now open for registration. It's "The Gothic Tradition."


( Read more... )