Fiction
Pushcart Prize Nominated, 2025
"The Essence of Grandmotherliness:" Ideal Motherhood and Threatening Female Sexuality in The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Neil Gaiman in the 21st Century, ed. Dr. Tara Prescott. MacFarland Press, 2015. (As Courtney Landis)
"Landis's essay stands out here as the rare essay that critiques Gaiman's work, arguing that in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, "Gaiman engages in a rework of Freud's Madonna-whore dichotomy that only allows female sexuality to exist as the unnatural threat" (176). This more critical approach is rather refreshing, given the unmitigated enthusiasm that many fans and scholars alike share for all of Gaiman's work (seemingly without exception), and adds depth and credibility to the collection as a whole." Reviewed by Jennifer L. Miller, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 27, No. 1 (95) (2016), pp. 137-139 (3 pages)