Nancy Pearl wants help naming a new genre

[Josh]

Nancy Pearl, NPR's influential book critic wants help naming a new genre.

She is talking about books like Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker, Under Heaven or The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, and Jonathan Strange Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

We tend to call such works "magical realism" when they're written by South American or Indian or Latin American writers — think Jorge Luis Borges' short stories, Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits, or Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. But in fact, these great works are being written by authors of all countries. Since the books themselves can be mainstream fiction, mysteries, Westerns or fantasy (or any mixture thereof), I'd love to come up with a one- or two- or possibly three-word label for such works that captures their essence (something other than "unclassifiable"), but so far I've drawn a blank.
...
Anyone care to help? You can send me your suggestions at nancy@nancypearl.com.

via http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...

[Stan]

"magical realism" is too awkward a phrase to catch on.

I prefer "enhanced reality", or "extra real"

[Welwyn]

Hello, My name is WL and I will pledge not to post spoilers and will try to be correct in my filing.

Nancy Pearl is looking for a name that encompasses either alternate history (using fantasy as a very light bit of spice)or realism where magic sort of bumps into you, or realism which is an alternate reality involving inherent magic. Phew. Am I right?

I like to call them "around the corner" books, because you don't know exactly what's around the corner, do you? I mean, even if you've been there before, someone new might be there... And I can see Narnia's entry as an alternate to my "around the corner" which leaves a vast amount of beauty to be desired. So, how about Wardrobe to Narnia books? Or, perhaps, "Entry via Wardrobe" books? I thought first about just plain "Wardrobe Books" but I just couldn't get past the idea of fashion sense.

Nice to meet you all. Hope we can be friends.

W L

[Joshua]

What about "Modern Fantasy"? My book, Warped & Wired: The Wryter Chronicles: book 1, is kind of a alternate history, light sci-fi/fantasy. The only name I've come up with to describe it would be "Modern Fantasy". Modern sci-fi/fantasy should be stories set in the modern world, but with light touches of fantasy or futurism to provide interest and intrigue.
As for historical/alternate history novels with fantasy mixed in, I suppose you could call those "historical fantasy"

Does that help? rather simplistic names I know, but they seem to fit the best. Though the "around the corner" is a catchy idea WL:)

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Around the corner is really cute. Speculative fiction is something I've heard used to cover sci-fi, fantasy, and anything related to that, and it sounds literary (she talks about being concerned that a label will dismiss a good book).

[Welwyn]

Welwyn wrote: "Hello, My name is WL and I will pledge not to post spoilers and will try to be correct in my filing.

Nancy Pearl is looking for a name that encompasses either alternate history (using fantasy as..."

Thanks for liking "round the corner".