Catherine McIlwaine

Catherine McIlwaine is a Tolkien scholar, who was the Tolkien archivist at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for more than 20 years. She won a World Fantasy Special Award—Professional for curating an exhibition of Tolkien's artwork at the Bodleian, and a Hugo Award and a Tolkien Society Award for the accompanying book, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth.

Life

Education

Catherine McIlwaine earned her BA in classical civilization at the University of Sheffield in 1989. She completed her MA in archival administration at the University of Liverpool in 1993.

Tolkien scholar

In 2003 she became Tolkien archivist at the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford In 2018, McIlwaine curated a major exhibition of Tolkien's artwork at the Bodleian, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, accompanied by a book of the same name that analyses Tolkien's achievement and illustrates the full range of the types of artwork that he created. Andoni Cossio, writing in Fafnir, describes McIlwaine as "an authoritative editor". Hugh Crago, reviewing for the Children's Literature Association, calls the book "well organized [and] well written".

Honours and distinctions

In 2019, McIlwaine won a World Fantasy Special Award—Professional for curating the Bodleian's Tolkien exhibition. Also in 2019, she won a Hugo Award for Best Art Book and a Tolkien Society Award for Tolkien, Maker of Middle-earth.

Works

Author

Editor