Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Jane Yolen receives Roots in Writing Award

A group called the Science Fiction and Fantasy Female Writers, whom I had not previously heard of, have given their second annual Roots in Writing Award to Jane Yolen.

Apparently, last year the group gave the same award to Betty Ballantine, Madeleine L'Engle, Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kate Wilhelm, Joanna Russ, and the late Andre Norton, so they're slowing their pace a bit this time. There's no indication of what, specifically, the award is for, or why it's called "Roots in Writing."

Also: no word as to what physical form, if any, the award takes, and the press release said explicitly that no plans for a presentation of the award were announced. So, as far as I can tell, this means that an unknown, self-proclaimed group has just said that Jane Yolen is pretty darn cool. Some of us, of course, already knew that...
Your Hornswoggler is Andrew Wheeler Released into the wild 5/02/2006 08:56:00 AM
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1 comment:

Madeleine Robins said...

Maybe five or six years ago, writer Laura Resnick had a swell idea: why not establish a listserve for women who wrote science fiction and fantasy? Not exactly a professional organization, but a place where we could exchange ideas, ask for advice, swap gossip a little, announce our triumphs and complain as necessary. I joined the SFF-FW list shortly after it was formed; it now has Idunnamany women on it, and it has been a nice community to be part of. Last year, when Andre Norton was declining, a discussion began about how important she had been to many of the writers on the list; out of the discussion the idea arose of letting her know how important she had been, giving her an award or a gift or something from her peers--women writing science fiction and fantasy. Why stop there, we thought? In the end, SFF-FW gave Betty Ballantine, Madeleine L'Engle, Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kate Wilhelm, Joanna Russ, and Andre Norton the "Roots in Writing" award: a plaque, and a tree or planting of their choice, meant to signify that these women were all, in some way, the roots from which our membership had grown. We all thought this was a one-time thing, and then this year we somehow found ourselves doing this again--but a little more modestly, with one recipient, Jane Yolen.

I suppose SFF-FW is a "self-proclaimed and unknown group." Most groups are self-proclaimed, and we have not been much interested in being known beyond our membership. I guess in giving the Roots award and wanting to let people know that these writers are being celebrated, we're going to raise some interest, or at least some eyebrows. So: this is who the SFF-FW is, and that's what the Roots in Writing award is all about.

Wed May 03, 10:28:00 AM 2006

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