October 24, 2010
To the National Book Foundation,
We write as strong supporters of all that the National Book Foundation does for American letters. But we are also puzzled about one point in the eligibility guidelines for the prestigious National Book Award. Currently the Foundation’s website states that “collections and/or retellings of folk-tales, myths, and fairy-tales are not eligible,” an exclusion that applies to the categories of both Fiction (for adults) and Young People’s Literature. Yet this body of literature is arguably one of the greatest literary influences on a vast number of contemporary American writers. Might the National Book Foundation reconsider this point in its guidelines?
Under the guidelines as stated above, John Updike’s 1964 National Book Award winner, the novel Centaur, would actually have been ineligible as it retells multiple classical myths. There are other examples of retellings among the wonderful books you have honored. In fact, we believe that the National Book Foundation already recognizes and embraces the literary value of retellings. Removing the exclusion would simply more accurately represent the Foundation’s actual practice, which represents a welcome appreciation of this iconic literary art form. Also,
it
 seems
 that
 the
 National
 Book
 Foundation
 intends
 to
 welcome
 formal
 diversity;
 as
 such,
 there
 is
 no 
exclusion
for 
“retellings
 of 
the
 Bible
 and
 Shakespeare’s 
plays.”
In changing its guidelines the National Book Foundation will take the opportunity to help preserve the enduring tradition of fairy tales for future generations of readers. While scholars cannot always trace fairy tales to single sources, new versions of these magical narratives are indeed literary works in their own right. In turn these newer versions help bring attention to a very old and diverse body of work, now fading from view. To acknowledge the value of fairy tales, folk tales and myths as they are appropriated, adapted, revised, fractured, and retold seems in line with the National Book Foundation’s overall mission.
In sum, we would be delighted to see the National Book Foundation change its National Book Award guidelines to allow retellings of fairy tales, folk tales, and myths. We would be glad to consult with you more on this matter, and truly appreciate your consideration of this request. We look forward to hearing from you with your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Maria Tatar John L. Loeb Professor of Folklore Mythology and Germanic Languages & Literatures, Harvard University Author, Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood and The Annotated Brothers Grimm

Kate Bernheimer Writer in Residence & Associate Professor, University of Louisiana in Lafayette Author, Horse, Flower, Bird; editor, My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales; and founder and editor, Fairy Tale Review

www.katebernheimer.com/news.php

Library of the Early Mind

October 19: Premiere of Library of the Early Mind, a documentary film exploring children’s literature. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with director and co-producer Edward Delaney; co-producer Steven Withrow; Horn Book Magazine editor-in-chief Roger Sutton; and children’s authors Lois Lowry, Jerry Pinkney, Lesléa Newman, and Padma Venkatraman. Moderated by Lecturer Lolly Robinson. 5:30-8 p.m.

From the trailer, it becomes clear that the film will be  a potent cocktail of interviews (click the link above to get the trailer).  I look forward to the screening and panel discussion!  Three cheers for Edward Delaney and Steven Withrow!

Ellen Handler Spitz has a regular column on The New Republic website, where she has reviewed, among other volumes, Robie Harris’s It’s Perfectly Normal, Heinrich Hoffman’s Struwwelpeter, and David Wiesner’s Three Pigs. This week she has a review of The Grimm Reader, and she manages to capture the poetry of fairy tales with incandescent prose.  I particularly liked her observations about how illustrations affect our reading of the tales.

The Grimm Reader also stimulates interpretation and improvisation by eschewing illustrations. In so doing, it provokes serious reflection on the function of pictures in children’s books. The dearth in this text makes us weigh their role as enhancers or detractors. Arguments against them of course claim that they tend to fix a particular visualization and tamp down what should be left loose and free. After being exposed, say, to Gustave Doré’s haunting engravings of Little Red Riding Hood, it would be hard to imagine those scenes any other way. Here, by contrast, words are given license to perform their sorcery unaided. Pages are decorated only occasionally with delicate borders, medallions, or illuminated letters. This pleases me immensely: in a culture determined to flood itself with garish, sensational imagery to the detriment of the unaided word, this book reminds us that, as Tatar herself has written, the words of children’s stories are magic wands in and of themselves.

http://www.tnr.com/book/review/the-storytellers