fantasy
The Writer’s Map – an atlas for creative storytellers
by Angie Cope
The Writer’s Map is an atlas of the journeys that our most creative storytellers have made throughout their lives. This magnificent collection encompasses not only the maps that appear in their books but also the many maps that have inspired them, the sketches that they used while writing, and others that simply sparked their curiosity.
Philip Pullman recounts the experience of drawing a map as he set out on one of his early novels, The Tin Princess. Miraphora Mina recalls the creative challenge of drawing up ”The Marauder’s Map” for the Harry Potter films. David Mitchell leads us to the Mappa Mundi by way of Cloud Atlas and his own sketch maps. Robert Macfarlane reflects on the cartophilia that has informed his evocative nature writing, which was set off by Robert Louis Stevenson and his map of Treasure Island. Joanne Harris tells of her fascination with Norse maps of the universe. Reif Larsen writes about our dependence on GPS and the impulse to map our experience. Daniel Reeve describes drawing maps and charts for The Hobbit film trilogy. This exquisitely crafted and illustrated atlas explores these and so many more of the maps writers create and are inspired by—some real, some imagined—in both words and images.
Amid a cornucopia of 167 full-color images, we find here maps of the world as envisaged in medieval times, as well as maps of adventure, sci-fi and fantasy, nursery rhymes, literary classics, and collectible comics. An enchanting visual and verbal journey, The Writer’s Map will be irresistible for lovers of maps, literature, and memories—and anyone prone to flights of the imagination.
Huw Lewis-Jones is a historian of exploration with a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He was formerly curator at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, and the National Maritime Museum, London. His books include Arctic, Ocean Portraits, In Search of theSouth Pole, The Conquest of Everest, The Crossing of Antarctica, and Across the Arctic Ocean. Most recently, he is also coauthor of the internationally bestselling Explorers’ Sketchbooks.
Mapping Fantasy Land: Karen Wynn Fonstad
By Lauren Maddox
J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories pushed fantasy into the mainstream and have passed through the hands of generations of eager fantasy readers. The genre was forever different after The Lord of the Rings— and people still love Tolkein’s works!
Part of the allure of fantasy for many readers is the chance to escape to another, fully-formed world. This is one of the reasons that speculative fiction has become such a thriving genre and why games like Dungeons and Dragons are now more popular than ever– not just because of Stranger Things.
But when you construct an immersive world that people want to become a part of, you have to answer a lot of practical questions about the layout of your world. You are tasked with mapping a place that doesn’t physically exist.
Worry not, fantasy fan! It’s not an impossible job to map fantasy land– and it was job beautifully done by one of the University of Wisconsin’s own: Karen Wynn Fonstad.
Fonstad received her MA in Geography with a specialization in Cartography from the University of Oklahoma. She went on to become the Director of Cartographic Services at UW-Oshkosh and was heavily involved with Oshkosh’s city planning. In 1970, she stepped down from her position as Director in order to raise her two children. But during this time she worked on several exciting fantasy atlases: The Atlas of Middle Earth, The Atlas of Pern, The Atlas of the Land, The Atlas of the Forgotten Realms, and The Atlas of the Dragonlance World. Fans might recognize some of those names from Tolkien, D&D, Anne McCaffrey’s science fiction and others. Fonstad’s work meant a lot to fans of those worlds, who felt like the atlases were a way to connect to the worlds they loved so much.
Fonstad passed away in 2005, but her work continues on in the hearts of those who were touched by her dedication to mapping fantasy lands. In the AGSL there are multiple atlases by Fonstad including her revised Atlas of Middle Earth, from which selections throughout this post were taken.
American Geographical Society Library 