Mythic fiction

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Mythic fiction is literature that is rooted in, inspired by, or that in some way draws from the tropes, themes and symbolism of myth, folklore, and fairy tales. (The term is widely credited to Charles de Lint and Terri Windling.)

Mythic fiction refers to works of contemporary literature that often cross the genre / mainstream divide.

Works of mythic fiction in mainstream literature include Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad, Kevin Brockmeier's The Truth About Celia, A. S. Byatt's Elementals, Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni's Mistress of Spices, Louise Erdrich's The Antelope Wife, Heinz Insu Fenkl's Memories of My Ghost Brother, and Hiromi Goto's The Kappa Child, as well as many works by Alice Hoffman, Steven Millhauser, Haruki Murakami, Joyce Carol Oates and numerous others.

On the fantasy genre shelves, writers of mythic fiction include Richard Bowes, John Crowley, Neil Gaiman, Alan Garner, Elizabeth Hand, Robert Holdstock, and Jane Yolen, in addition to de Lint and Windling themselves.

Mythic fiction can also be found on the Young Adult shelves in the work of David Almond (Skellig), Francesca Lia Block (Dangerous Angels), Alice Hoffman (Green Angel), Nina Kiriki Hoffman (A Fistful of Sky), K. A. Laity ("Pelzmantel: A Medieval Tale"), Midori Snyder (Hannah's Garden), and others.

Windling promoted mythic fiction as the co-editor (with Ellen Datlow) of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror annual volumes for sixteen years, and as the editor of the Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts.