Zanda Myrande

(December 19, 1955 -- July 24, 2019)

British filker, known before 2016 as Zander Nyrond and under the mundane name Jonathan Waite, who was active since 1988 if not earlier. Describing herself in the third person, she wrote, "She proudly embraces her trans identity while still giving house room to Zander."

She was primarily a skilled filksong writer. Co-chaired Pentatonic in 1993 and HarmonIX in 1997, on the concom of Conthirteena in 1991, member of the filk group Cosmic Trifle, wrote for WiGGLe and Filklore, was a co-author of the filk musical "Before the Dawn", wrote self-published fiction, and published Zander's Little Book of Filks.

Zanda Myrande and Soren Nyrond wrote "Sam's Song", beloved by filkers around the world. The annual British filk awards have been known since 1999 as the Sams, in honour of "Sam's Song". Songs by Zanda that won Sams include:

• "The Old Ones" (Best New Song, 1990; Best Humorous Song, 1994)
• "Sam's Song", co-written with Soren Nyrond (All-Time Great, 1994)
• "Mina's Song" (Best Serious, 2001; Filk Gold, 2011)
• "Arden", co-written with Chris O'Shea (Filk Gold, 2003)
• "Song of the Women", co-written with Janet Waite (Filk Gold, 2013)
• "British 101" (Best Silly, 2014)
• "Don't Push Rob into the Euphonium", co-written with Mich Sampson (Best Silly, 2017)

For years, Zanda and her wife Janet Waite hosted weekend filk gatherings, known as Nycons, at their home.

Albums

• The Filk of Human Kindness (1991)
• The Toad and other Strangenesses (1993)
• Wassaliens (1999)
• To The Landing (2010)
• Blow For Freedom (2011)
• The Filk Of Human Kindness - Futeurised (sic) The songs of The Filk of Human Kindness, re-recorded in 2011
• Coming To A Theatre Near You (2017)
• Return To Argenthome - The Rough Cuts (2018)
• Lighthouse (2019)
• On The Battlements (2019)
• OWLS (2019) Perhaps this was released only on Patreon, as it does not appear on Bandcamp.

'Books

• Three Windows
• Two Magicians
• Three and Two (includes Three Windows, Two Magicians, and Tension)
• Passionate and Confused
• Tetrad
• Oonaverse
• Return to Argenthome
• The Lost Goats and Other Tales of the Nyrond, with co-author Sam Armitage
• The Overly Obnoxious OIK Operation, with co-author Sam Armitage
• The Eight-Man Austin, with co-author Sam Armitage

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1991 -- Treble (UK Guest)
• 1993 -- OVFF 9 (Interfilk Guest)
• 2000 -- inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame, "Sam's Song" won Pegasus Award for Best Filk Song
• 2002 -- Marcon 37 (filk GOH), Pegasus Award for Best Composer
• 2004 -- Cosmic Trifle was GOH at FilkContinental

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Person

1955—2019

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