2009 Author Emerita

[NikolaiI]

I created a blog with this same subject, but only a couple of people posted. I thought Lit-net, being a literature site, would be more interested! Anyway, my grandmother, Mary Jane Engh is receiving the 2009 Author Emerita for Science Fiction this year, later in April. Author Emerita means someone who, though perhaps haven't written anything in the last couple of years, was influential in the field.

I am currently reading her most recent work, In the Name of Heaven, which isn't Science Fiction or a novel, but an historical work. So far I am really enjoying it. It's about religious persecution in the last 3000 years, up to, I believe, 1900. I started today and so far I'm a few chapters into it, and I'm learning a lot.

This is my grandmother's website. http://www.mjengh.com/

here's a bit of an interview or article... http://www.sfwa.org/news/2008/09authoremeritus.htm

and here is a bit just about the Nebula Awards, http://www.nebulaawards.com/index.php/guest_blogs/2009_author_emerita/

Thanks for reading! :)

[crystalmoonshin]

wow! I've never heard of her name before but I'm gonna check our libraries for her books. I hope I can find at least one.

Thanks for sharing, Nik! :)

[NikolaiI]

wow! I've never heard of her name before but I'm gonna check our libraries for her books. I hope I can find at least one.

Thanks for sharing, Nik! :)

Thank you for posting, crystalmoonshin! :)

I hope you could find one too, I was just going to look up the library here where I live too.. when I was in grade school, she came to our class and talked once, and donated "House in the Snow," which is a children's book, to our library.

Haha, the UMKC library, where I am not a student but I go anyway because it is such a great library, has one book by her, the one I am reading now. :)

So I have read some of her books but not all. "House in the Snow" is a nice book, even if it is a very easy reading level, and "Wheel of the Winds" is a fairly good read also. I am enjoying her newest book which is history, "In the Name of Heaven" most though, actually.

[SleepyWitch]

congrats to your gran.
I've just ordered one of her science fiction books (used) on amazon.

[Niamh]

pretty cool Nick!

[NikolaiI]

congrats to your gran.
I've just ordered one of her science fiction books (used) on amazon.

Aww, thanks Sleepy! I will tell her you did. :) Which book was it, may I ask?


pretty cool Nick!

thank you Niamh!

[motherhubbard]

that's wonderful. I'm going to look at amazon, too.

[Virgil]

Thanks Nik. I still would like to get her study on Roman women. Let me know when it comes out. And congrats!! You should send her the link to here. :)

[NikolaiI]

Will, do Virgil! :)

Thanks motherhubbard. :)

[SleepyWitch]

Aww, thanks Sleepy! I will tell her you did. :) Which book was it, may I ask?
Arslan/ A wind from Bukhara.
Why did they change the title in British? Because Arslan sounds like a**e or because it sounds too mundane, like the name of the Pakistani guy who runs the corner shop down the road?

Like Virgil, I'm interested in the book about Roman women, too!

[papayahed]

Very Cool!!

[Scheherazade]

Congratulations to your gran, Nik! She must be a great write and lady! :)

Arslan/ A wind from Bukhara.
Why did they change the title in British? Because Arslan sounds like a**e or because it sounds too mundane, like the name of the Pakistani guy who runs the corner shop down the road? "Arslan" actually means "lion" (read the Narnia collection? :))

[Gary Delfino]

Thank you Emerita, I look forward to looking at those works. History always repeats itself.

[SleepyWitch]

Congratulations to your gran, Nik! She must be a great write and lady! :)
"Arslan" actually means "lion" (read the Narnia collection? :))

yep, I know. I was just wondering if there was any reason why they changed the title in Britain. Personally, I like "A Wind from Bukhara" better because it sounds more lyrical.

[NikolaiI]

Arslan/ A wind from Bukhara.
Why did they change the title in British? Because Arslan sounds like a**e or because it sounds too mundane, like the name of the Pakistani guy who runs the corner shop down the road?

Like Virgil, I'm interested in the book about Roman women, too!

I believe she may publish it in a CD, since if she published it in a book it would be too large of volumes.

I asked her in an email about Arslan, and she wrote this as a reply:
"Yes, the British publisher changed the name from Arslan because it sounds too much like "arse," the British version of "***" as in "*******." (Note that in the Narnia stories they spell the lion's name "Aslan" instead of "Arslan," probably for the same reason.) They asked me for another title, and I suggested "A Wind from Bukhara" because in the book Hunt Morgan is always seeing Arslan in terms of Shelley's great poem "Ode to the West Wind.""

So perhaps Arlsan is from Bukhara. I have read it but it was a long time ago.

I might should warn you, Sleepy, this novel is a bit, shockingly violent.

:lol:

My grandmother doesn't even swear! :D My dad says when he was growing up the worst swearing she would do is "Goodness gracious," or "Hell's bells."

I don't think I've ever heard her say or type the... umh, American form of "arse." :lol:

Thank you papaya and Scher :)

[NikolaiI]

Well, she got the award the other day, yesterday I believe. My father says it is a glass vase of some sort, wider at the top than the bottom. They were going to mail it to Washington last I heard, and they're flying back tomorrow morning. My dad was happy because he got to talk to, I think it was, Janice Ian.

[SleepyWitch]

Arslan arrived in the post today. I've only read some 30 pages.
So far, it doesn't read like science fiction, except that it seems to be set at some time in the future and deals with a somewhat unlikely scenario. One reviewer said "Arslan is the best political novel I've read in more than a decade." I think the phrase "political novel" does more justice to the book than "science fiction". Don't get me wrong, I like science fiction and it does often deal with political intrigues in a far off future world. But it takes more imagination to see how water in "Dune" is a (strained?) metaphor for oil in our times than to see where Arslan is coming from.
As for the violence, well, shooting and raping people is what dictators do, isn't it?