John Newbery Medal for the year’s most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. She is also the winner of a World Fantasy Award and a Parents’ Choice Gold Award. She has been a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award, the NCTE Charlotte Huck Award, the SFWA Andre Norton Award, and the PEN/USA literary prize.
Barnhill's new novel is When Women Were Dragons.
At Electric Lit she tagged eight books that explore "rage, feminism, memory, and maybe dragons too." One title on the list:
Circe by Madeline MillerRead about another entry on the list.
How is it that a novel that spans generations, centuries, and even millenia manages to feel so intimate, immediate and brave? Is Madeline Miller a sorceress? I’m starting to think she is.
Miller takes on on a journey through the landscapes of Greek mythology—war, death, betrayal, castle intrigue, lust, possession, dissolution, the insufferable snobbery of gods and theheartbreaking frailty of humanity. This is the story of Circe, a disempowered daughter of a careless god, unappreciated and disparaged by her own kind; she lives in exile among the animals, where she cultivates her skills in witchcraft and discovers a wellspring of power that even the gods don’t understand. Both diminished and demeaned, Circe discovers the roots of her own anger, and both the power and possibility presented by that rage. She is both startled and transformed—as are we, the reader. Rage in this story acts as a fire—it burns away the lies that she has been told and the lies she tells herself. It clears away the debris and clutter, allowing her, at long last, to see a new path, a new self, a new way forward.
Circe is among Sascha Rothchild's most captivating literary antiheroes, Rachel Kapelke-Dale's eleven top unexpected thrillers about female rage, Kat Sarfas's thirteen enchanted reads for spooky season, Fire Lyte's nine current classics in magic and covens and spells, Elodie Harper's six top novels set in the ancient world, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's seven best books about islands, Zen Cho's six SFF titles about gods and pantheons, Jennifer Saint's ten top books inspired by Greek myth, Adrienne Westenfeld's fifteen feminist books that will inspire, enrage, & educate you, Ali Benjamin's top ten classic stories retold, Lucile Scott's eight books about hexing the patriarchy, E. Foley and B. Coates's top ten goddesses in fiction, Jordan Ifueko's five fantasy titles driven by traumatic family bonds, Eleanor Porter's top ten books about witch-hunts, Emily B. Martin's six stunning fantasies for nature lovers, Allison Pataki's top six books that feature strong female voices, Pam Grossman's thirteen stories about strong women with magical powers, Kris Waldherr's nine top books inspired by mythology, Katharine Duckett's eight novels that reexamine literature from the margins, and Steph Posts's thirteen top novels set in the world of myth.
--Marshal Zeringue
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