Midori Snyder

Last updated
Midori Snyder
OccupationAuthor
NationalityAmerican
Education University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (MA)
Period1986–present
Genre fantasy, mythic fiction, and nonfiction on myth and folklore
Notable worksThe Innamorati
Website
midorisnyder.com

Midori Snyder is an American writer of fantasy, mythic fiction, and nonfiction on myth and folklore. She has published eight novels for children and adults, winning the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati. Her work has been translated into French, Dutch, Italian and Turkish.

Contents

Biography

Raised in the United States and Africa, Snyder is the daughter of the French poet and professor of African Languages and Literature Emile Snyder, and Tibetan scholar Jeanette Snyder. She is also the granddaughter of Santa Fe artist Pierre Ménager. She studied African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in African oral narrative traditions. She moved to Milwaukee and later resumed her studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, subsequently receiving an M.A. in English Literature and Literary Theory. She then spent some time teaching at Marquette University High School before moving to Arizona.

Career

Snyder's first published work of fiction was "Demon," in the anthology, Bordertown (Signet / New American Library, 1986). [1] Her first novel, Soulstring (Ace Books, 1987), was a fairytale fantasy loosely inspired by the Scottish legend of Tam Lin. This was followed by an imaginary world trilogy: New Moon, Sadar's Keep, and Beldan's Fire (published as adult fantasy by Tor Books, 1989–1993, where it was called The Queens' Quarter Series; reprinted as young adult fantasy by Firebird/Puffin, 2005, re-titled The Oran Trilogy). The Flight of Michael McBride (Tor Books, 1994) was a work of mythic fiction set in the old American West, drawing upon Irish-American, Mexican, and indigenous folklore. Hatchling (Random House, 1995) was a children's book set in the world of Dinotopia. Snyder's award-winning novel The Innamorati (Tor Books, 1998) was inspired by Italian and early Roman legends and the theater of the Commedia dell'Arte. Hannah's Garden (Firebird/Puffin, 2004) is a contemporary fantasy for young adult readers about fairies, folk music, and family dynamics, set in rural Wisconsin. With Jane Yolen, Snyder co-authored the novel Except the Queen (Roc/Penguin, 2010), a contemporary urban fantasy featuring two fey who are banished to the World as elderly women, where they find themselves embroiled in a much larger struggle for power.

Snyder's short fiction and poetry has been published in a number of anthologies including The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror , The Armless Maiden (for which she wrote the title story), The Fair Folk, The Green Man, The Coyote Road, Black Thorn White Rose, Swan Sister, and The Borderland Series. Her essays have appeared in Realms of Fantasy and other magazines, and in Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales--Expanded Edition (Random House, 2002).

Snyder was the co-director (with Terri Windling) of The Endicott Studio[ citation needed ], a nonprofit arts and literature organization founded in 1987, and co-editor of The Journal of Mythic Arts, founded in 1997. She served as the 2007 jury chair for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Snyder lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Related Research Articles

Charles de Lint is a Canadian writer.

Sherwood Smith is an American fantasy and science fiction writer for young adults and adults. Smith is a Nebula Award finalist and a longtime writing group organizer and participant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela Dean</span> American novelist

Pamela Collins Dean Dyer-Bennet, better known as Pamela Dean, is an American fantasy author whose best-known book is Tam Lin, based on the Child Ballad of the same name, in which the Scottish fairy story is set on a midwestern college campus loosely based on her alma mater, Carleton College in Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Stemple</span> Musical artist

Adam Stemple is a Celtic-influenced American folk rock musician, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also the author of several fantasy short stories and novels, including two series of novels co-written with his mother, writer Jane Yolen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terri Windling</span> American writer and editor

Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.

Kara Mia Dalkey is an American author of young adult fiction and historical fantasy.

Steve Berman is an American editor, novelist and short story writer. He writes in the field of queer speculative fiction.

Sylvia Louise Engdahl is an American writer, known best for science fiction. Her debut novel Enchantress from the Stars, published by Atheneum Books in 1970, was the 1971 Newbery Honor Book, was a Geffen Award finalist in 2008, Best Translated YA Book, and she won the Phoenix Award for that work twenty years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holly Black</span> American author (born 1971)

Holly Black is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the New York Times bestselling young adult Folk of the Air series. She is also well known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and her debut trilogy of young adult novels officially called the Modern Faerie Tales. Black has won a Lodestar Award, a Nebula Award, and a Newbery Honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nnedi Okorafor</span> Nigerian-American writer of science fiction and fantasy (born 1974)

Nnedimma Nkemdili "Nnedi" Okorafor is a Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. She is best known for her Binti Series and her novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control. She has also written for comics and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharyn November</span> American writer and editor

Sharyn November is an American writer and an editor of books for children and teenagers. Until March 2016 she was Senior Editor for Viking Children's Books and Editorial Director of Firebird Books, which is a mainly paperback (reprint) imprint publishing fantasy and science fiction for teenagers and adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Wells</span> American speculative fiction writer (born 1964)

Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.

Sophie Masson is a French-Australian fantasy and children's author.

Nancy Farmer is an American writer of children's and young adult books and science fiction. She has written three Newbery Honor books and won the U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature for The House of the Scorpion, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers in 2002.

Mythic fiction is literature that draws from the tropes, themes, and symbolism of myth, legend, folklore, and fairy tales. It is usually set in the real world and deals with realistic issues, but a mythic atmosphere prevails; however, not all mythic fiction is fantasy, and the fantastic component is not always blatant. Mythic fiction ranges from retellings of fairy tales to stories based on myths to those loosely inspired by myth and legend, using their motifs to create new stories.

Meredith Ann Pierce is an American fantasy writer and librarian. Her books deal in fantasy worlds with mythic settings and frequently feature young women who first wish only to love and be loved, yet who must face hazard and danger to save their way of life, their world, and so on, usually without being respected for their efforts until the end of the story.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodora Goss</span> American novelist

Theodora Goss is a Hungarian American fiction writer and poet. Her writing has been nominated for major awards, including the Nebula, Locus, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Seiun Awards. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Year's Best volumes.

Ari Berk is an American writer, folklorist, artist, and scholar of literature, iconography, and comparative myth. Berk holds degrees in Ancient History (B.A.), American Indian Studies (M.A.), and Comparative Literature and Culture (Ph.D.) from Humboldt State University and the University of Arizona respectively. His dissertation was directed by Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday and Berk was appointed to the committee that developed the first American Indian Studies doctoral program in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sofia Samatar</span> American educator, poet and writer (born 1971)

Sofia Samatar is an American scholar, novelist and educator from Indiana. She is an associate professor of English at James Madison University.

Cherae Clark, also known under the pen name C. L. Clark, is an American author and editor of speculative fiction, a personal trainer, and an English teacher. She graduated from Indiana University's creative writing MFA and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Fellow. Their debut novel, The Unbroken, first book of the Magic of the Lost trilogy, was published by Orbit Books in 2021 and received critical acclaim, including starred reviews at Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. The Unbroken was a Finalist for the 2021 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2022 Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel from the British Fantasy Awards, the 2022 Ignyte Award for Best Novel - Adult, and the 2022 Locus Award for Best First Novel. Her work has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies,FIYAH Literary Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn't Die, PodCastle, Tor.com, Uncanny, and The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction (2021). Clark edited, with series editor Charles Payseur, We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction of 2020, which won the 2022 Ignyte Award for Best Anthology/Collected Work and the 2022 Locus Award for Best Anthology.

References