Only a few years ago I caused quite a stir among the Tolkien fan fiction community without lifting a finger. One of my loyal readers nominated several of my essays for the MEFA non-fiction category. The first I heard of this was when I was asked to respond to some questions or challenges from members of the MEFA community. As best I can recall (I have long since lost all the emails in a hard drive crash) some members of the community felt that professional writers should not be considered for the awards, but there technically wasn’t any rule against that.
I think they finally compromised on some sort of acknowledgement and I was quite flattered to have been nominated. In the end I don’t really need any awards to inspire me to keep writing about J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth. I do it because I feel compelled to do so by my passion (which, of course, can slumber for 7-9 years from time to time).
Still, learning about the MEFAs piqued my curiosity at the time and from year to year I have looked in on the MEFA community. I’m glad to say that they seem to be thriving (from my perspective) and as I was casting about for an idea for this week’s Friday anchor article (the first of the three daily articles), I happily noticed that the winners for the 2011 MEFAs have just been announced.
There is way too much fan fiction out there for me to have read any significant portion of it but I think fan fiction is a great passtime. While it’s true that fan fiction has a reputation for not matching the quality of the fiction that inspires it, many a fan fiction author has honed his or her skills under the relentless attention of the fanfic community, who are easily persuaded to offer feedback.
The MEFAs encourage — in fact, require — active reviewing from their members for the voting process. Hence, ballot stuffing is hardly likely to happen to the MEFAs. And, of course, the greatest number of critical opinions is drawn together in the process that assigns these awards.
So while MEFA winners may not go on to win great literary competitions, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few literary awards go to former fanfic writers. I know some professional writers literally got their start in fan fiction — and while organizations like the Science Fiction Writers Association would be quick to point out that most fanfic authors don’t go pro, if you want to practice writing fiction and get some critical feedback (and encouraging support), you could do far, far worse than to join a fan fiction community.
I’m not going to provide a complete list of nominees and winners — you’ll find that by clicking on the link I provide above. But here are the category winners for 2011. I extend a hearty congratulations to each of them, and to their fellow nominees. I think it’s a true honor to earn a nomination because that means your writing touched someone. That is what is most important to a writer, professional or amateur — to know that what you have written means something to someone else.
- Adventure: General “Burning Bright: The Road” by Keiliss
- Alternate Universe: Angst “Worth” by Citrine
- Alternate Universe: General “On the Twilit Planet Below” by Darth Fingon
- Character Study: Aragorn “By Such a Foolish Name” by cairistiona
- Character Study: General “Life After” by Keiliss
- Character Study: Gondorians “Kingdom of Ashes” by Linda Hoyland
- Character Study: House of Finwë “Rise Again from the Ashes” by Independence1776 (Crystal113)
- Cross-Cultural: Elder Days “Halls of Stone” by Jael
- Cross-Cultural: Eriador “Inner Light” by pandemonium_213
- Cross-Cultural: General “In the Prophet’s Tent” by The Lauderdale
- Cross-Cultural: Gondor or Rohan “Pelargir” by Dwimordene
- Cross-Cultural: The Fellowship “The Ranger and the Eagles” by cairistiona
- Crossover: General “Punchline” by Clodia
- Drabble: Character Study “Ariel” by Altariel
- Drabble: Drama “Heaven in the Meantime” by Dwimordene
- Drabble: Elves “Constancy” by Dwimordene
- Drabble: General “From the Balrog-Slayer’s Mouth” by Azalais
- Drabble: Men “Eating for Two” by Branwyn (Lady Branwyn)
- Drabble: Post-Ring War “Stewardship” by Dwimordene
- Drabble: Pre-Ring War “Girl, Embalmed” by Wormwood
- Drabble Series: Character Study “To Death and Beyond” by Rivergift
- Drabble Series: General “Introspection” by Lyra
- Drabble Series: Men “Return of the Governess” by curiouswombat
- Drama: Angst “All Shadows’ Night” by Raksha the Demon
- Drama: Family “A Brother’s Vision” by Darkover
- Drama: Featuring Aragorn “The Ranger and the Man in Yellow Boots” by cairistiona
- Drama: General “Folly” by SurgicalSteel
- Elves: Elronds Household “A Powerful Absence” by curiouswombat
- Elves: General “A Fragile Chalice” by pandemonium_213
- Elves: House of Finwë “Reembodied” by Dawn Felagund
- Elves: Wilderland “Another Road” by KyMahalei
- Ficlet: Elder Days “Five Things That Never Happened to Sauron” by Russandol
- Ficlet: General “Grace and Memory” by Larner
- Ficlet: Later Age Elves “Song of Summer” by pandemonium_213
- First Age and Prior: Feanorians “The Children of Alqualondë” by Lyra
- First Age and Prior: General “My Grandfather’s Cottage” by Oshun
- Fixed-Length Ficlets: General “On the Edge” by Raksha the Demon
- Fixed-Length Ficlets: Immortals “Together We Will Take the Road” by Azalais
- Hobbits: Bagginses “Leave-Taking” by Larner
- Hobbits: Family “Out to Play” by Celeritas
- Hobbits: General “Preliminary Analysis of the Warwickshire Hoard Yields Insights, Raises Questions about Fourth Age Su” by Celeritas
- Horror: General “The Orc’s Claw” by Jael
- Humor: Comedy/Drama “Of Shape and Hue and Home” by Thundera Tiger
- Humor: Featuring Merry or Pippin “Read and Review” by Celeritas, Dreamflower
- Humor: General “A Rose by Any Other Name” by pandemonium_213
- Humor: Mirkwood Elves “Trade Off” by Ignoble Bard
- Incomplete: Cross-Cultural “Carefully Taught” by Linda Hoyland
- Incomplete: Drama “Chasing Mirages” by Russandol
- Incomplete: General “Fourth Age” by Isabeau of Greenlea
- Men: Aragorn “Tongues of Men and of Angels” by Linda Hoyland
- Men: Boromir “The Kindness of Strangers” by Marta
- Men: Faramir “Heart of the Storm” by Raksha the Demon
- Men: General “On the Brink” by SurgicalSteel
- Modern Times: General “Bronwe Athan Harthad” by Marta
- Mystery: General “King Thingol’s Codpiece” by elfscribe
- Non-Fiction: General “Not Just the Son of That Guy: Creating Effective Names for Original Characters” by Darth Fingon
- Other Beings: General “In the Court of the Dragon Emperor” by pandemonium_213
- Poetry: Character Study “The Last Hours” by jan-u-wine
- Poetry: Drama “Another Sunless Dawn” by jan-u-wine
- Poetry: General “On Being Part of a Grand Story” by jan-u-wine
- Poetry: Hobbits “The Summons” by Baillie from Bree
- Poetry: Post Ring War “The Fairest Flower” by jan-u-wine
- Post-Ring War and Beyond: Elves or Dwarves “We Three Kings” by Jael
- Post-Ring War and Beyond: General “Keep Him Secret, Keep Him Safe” by shirebound
- Post-Ring War and Beyond: Gondor “By Sad Waters We Sat Down and Wept” by Altariel
- Pre-Ring War: General “Voice in the Night” by Linda Hoyland
- Ring War: General “Stray but a little …” Thundera Tiger
- Romance: General “Ice and Tears” by Adonnen Estenniel
- Romance: Gondorians “Amid the Powers and Chances of the World” by Azalais
- Second Age and Early Third Age: General “Driftwood” by pandemonium_213
- Villains: General “Shadows and Memories” by mirach
Curious about a couple of the terms used in category names? A drabble is an extremely short work of fiction exactly one hundred words in length. A ficlet is a story usually between 500-1000 words; ficlets tend to be plot driven, little windows into a moment from a book, movie, show, etc.
By the way — SF-Fandom (a sister site to Xenite.Org) has a fan fiction forum. You’re always welcome to post your non-mature (i.e., no sex, family-safe) fan fiction there even if you primarily publish on one of the fan fiction archives. I’m sure our members would enjoy learning more about your fan fiction. You can use Facebook to register/login (I hope — Facebook keeps dinking with its services).
If you drop by SF-Fandom’s forums and have any problems, please feel free to contact me. Registration is not required to do that.
