Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Teitho November/December Contest: Healing
Welcome to the Teitho Contest, where you can participate with a variety of other writers and artists and send in stories and pictures based on our themes.
Join us in this writing and drawing contest!
A new challenge is posted every month. On the first day of the challenge, we announce a new theme on this site. You then have two months to create your entry, which has to be finished when you send it in.
After the deadline of the contest, the voting period begins. Based on the number of entries, it lasts for two or more weeks. The winners are usually announced a day or two after the end of the voting. Teitho remains one of the last prompt-based, independent, Tolkien fan-fiction/fan art monthly contests. Full contest guidelines are here.
Our prompt this month is Healing.
Healing figures significantly in many of Tolkien’s works. We encounter healers like Elrond, the staff of the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith, Aragorn and the healing hands of the King.
We see many characters being healed—Frodo, Faramir, Eowyn, Merry.
Healing isn’t only confined to physical injury—there is healing of mental and emotional hurts as well.
And we also see incomplete healing—where characters may be healed of bodily injuries swiftly but the horrors and trauma they endured persist—Maedhros, Gwindor, Frodo.
Healing also affects the land in Tolkien. Ithilien—where Legolas and his people go at Aragorn’s request, to rejuvenate and cleanse the land—is just one example of this.
Healing can also be seen in the context of interpersonal relationships—Maedhros healing the rift in the house of Finwë, the repair of Bilbo and Thorin’s friendship at the end of the Battle of Five Armies.
What stories of healing will you give us? We can’t wait to see where your imagination takes you!
Stories or art should be submitted to teitho.contest@gmail.com by Dec 31!
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa 2024
So, it's that time of the year again: time to sign up for the Lord of the Rings Secret Santa exchange! Slash, femslash, het and gen; you can request it all, so why not join in?
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa has been going for twenty-one years, and we'd love to see you join us and keep the tradition going.
LotR SeSa has been a traditional exchange since its inception, but we continue to adapt and refine the exchange to best serve all participants. The exchange has been in the form of a prompt meme since 2020. If you are new to the format, AO3 has a helpful FAQ here.
This year's timeline (2024)
- Prompt Posting: November 1st to 25th.
- Claiming: November 26th to December 27th.
- Collection Open for Posting: November 26th to December 27th.
- All Fills Due: December 27th
You will be able to post up to 2 prompts, and we will do our best to make sure that at least one of your prompts is filled.
Please note that this is an FPF challenge. (i.e. Fictional, not real people fiction/RPF.) We're always open to all the Peoples and Ages of Middle-earth, which means that characters from The Hobbit and The Rings of Power are welcome too!
The Rules (2024)
- You will be able to post up to 2 prompts between November 1st and 25th, and we will do our best to make sure at least one of your prompts is filled.
- Your fill is due December 27th 11:59 pm Pacific Time (you can check what that is in your time zone here). Please post it to AO3 (and nowhere else, until January 3rd).
- As a matter of fairness, please make your story more than 750 words (1000 is better).
- Signing up: the sign up form can be found here (or here if the main link gives you an error message). If you need help with signing up, please don't hesitate to contact the mods at lotrsesa[AT]gmail.com.
- Once claiming has opened, please only claim a prompt if you plan on actually fulfilling your end of the bargain, and please only claim one prompt at a time. After you have completed your fill, you may claim a new one.
- Claiming a prompt: use the "Claim" button next to the prompt you want to claim. (You can find open prompts under "Prompts" in the sidebar.) Several people can claim the same prompt. You can also claim a prompt without having submitted any of your own.
It's a good idea to join the LotR_SeSa LiveJournal community or the Dreamwidth community so you can keep track of any admin posts. You can also follow us here on Tumblr.
Kiliel Week 2024
Kiliel Week will run on Tumblr from November 17-23, 2024 and accepts all types of fanwork for the Kili/Tauriel pairing.
We accept fic and fanart but also moodboards, edits, playlists and anything else your fannish heart wants!
We take submissions not in English. If you speak a language other than English and want to submit something in that language, please send it in!! We would be happy to reblog it!
If you are submitting something NSFW please tag the @tolkienpinupcalendar. If you are interested we are collabing with @tolkienpinupcalendar for the simultaneously run Kiliel Smut Week!
How do I submit:
Tag @kilielweek, and use the tag #kilielweek2024
If the post is also for Kiliel Smut Week please also tag @tolkienpinupcalendar and use the tag #tpckilielsmutweek
November challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The challenge for November has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth.
The thematic challenge for November is: refuge.
The formal challenge is: include imitation of a sound.
The simplest way to do this is to include a pre-existing word that imitates a sound, for instance: meow, which imitates a sound made by a cat.
But you can also try for something more challenging, if you like: can you make the sound of your sentence or phrase imitate the flowing of a river or the rustling of trees?
Also, think of what Treebeard does with bits of Elvish, stringing them together in Entish fashion:
Taurelilómëa-tumbalemorna Tumbaletaurëa Lómëanor
Like him, feel free to make things up!
As always, these can be filled independently and also freely combined with SWG and other challenges.
New participants welcome!
More details on these challenges at the linked post.
November 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals
Popular Culture Association: Tolkien Studies Area
The Tolkien Studies Area (TSA) welcomes proposals in any area of Tolkien studies. We welcome scholars in all period specializations, from all disciplines, using any critical theory. We encourage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary as well as collaborative work. The TSA defines "Tolkien studies" as including, but not limited to, Tolkien's Legendarium; adaptations, transformative works, and translations; cultural studies; critical race studies; digital and new media studies; fan and reception studies; feminist, gender, and queer studies; literary studies; medieval and medievalist studies; media and marketing; religious studies; source studies; tourism studies; and translation studies.
Academics, independent scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students are invited to submit individual paper proposals, paper session proposals, and/or roundtable proposals. Presenters may present one paper and participate in one roundtable session.
All presenters must join the Popular Culture Association as members as well as pay a registration fee to attend the conference. These are separate fees that have been restructured to a tiered system taking into account that PCA members range from undergraduates to retirees, with salaries ranging from part-time, minimum wage to retiree pensions and social security.
All PCA sessions are scheduled in 1.5-hour slots. Paper sessions consist of four presenters, each speaking for fifteen minutes, followed by a group Q&A.
Roundtables are informal interactive discussions between five to seven participants and the audience. A roundtable focuses on a timely topic and is designed to raise questions and brainstorm for future scholarship. If you have an idea for a special topic for an academic journal issue or for an anthology, email Robin to find out how to organize a paper session and/or roundtable on the topic!
For individual paper proposals, please submit contact information (name, institutional affiliation [or "independent scholar"], e-mail address, and telephone number), your presentation's title, and a 500-word proposal describing your topic, chosen theory, methodology, argument, and its relevance to current scholarship.
For a paper session proposal, please submit your contact information, all the presenters' contact information, and a 100–300-word proposal for the session. All participants for your proposed paper session or roundtable must register for the conference and submit their individual proposals through the PCA database so they can be added to the paper session.
If you wish to organize a roundtable, please contact me directly at robinareid@fastmail.com. Only Area Chairs or PCA Admins can enter roundtables into the PCA database. Please note that the TSA can schedule only two roundtables; however, there are no limits on the number of paper sessions we can present!
The 2025 PCA Conference will be held in-person at the Marriott in New Orleans, from April 16-19, 2025.
See the 2025 PCA Conference website to submit paper proposals. Proposals are due by November 30, 2024.
Call for Proposals: Anthology on Women and Gender
We invite submissions for an anthology focused on women and gender in Tolkien’s writings, ‘Great Heart and Strength:’ New Essays on Women and Gender in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien. In 2015, Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan published Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J.R.R. Tolkien, the first volume dedicated to the subject of women in Tolkien’s works and life, which collected the major milestones of feminist scholarship in Tolkien studies alongside new essays. Since then, feminist scholarship and gender theory has flourished in and outside of Tolkien studies. This volume will honor Croft and Donovan’s work and build on the past decade of feminist scholarship in Tolkien studies by presenting a new collection of essays on women and gender in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Please send your proposal (no more than 300 words) and a short bio (100 words) to cami.agan@oc.edu by March 15, 2025.Working bibliographies encouraged.
Proposals should focus on women and gender in the legendarium or in non-legendarium texts by J.R.R. Tolkien, reflecting contemporary feminist and intersectional theory. Proposals may also focus on non-binary, trans, and gender fluid interpretations, as well as non-anthropomorphic topics such as landscapes and environments. All proposals should convey a thorough knowledge of previous feminist scholarship in Tolkien studies as well as current theory outside of Tolkien studies. We highly encourage intersectional work, which analyzes how gender intersects with other aspects of identity (such as race, sexuality, class, etc.).
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Female characters in the legendarium
- Female characters in Tolkien’s non-legendarium works (such as The Fall of Arthur, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, etc.)
- Non-binary, trans, and gender fluid interpretations of characters
- Landscapes, environments, and material culture
- Historical conceptions of gender
- Intersections with race, sexuality, socio-economic class, etc.
- Postcolonial analyses
- Women and gender in adaptations of Tolkien’s work
- Women scholars of the legendarium and/or women-centered treatments of Tolkien’s legendarium
Mythcon, the conference of the Mythopoeic Society, is scheduled for August 2025, and its theme is Women and Gender in Sci-Fi Fantasy, and we hope to organize several panels from the accepted submissions.
Mythopoeic Society Online Midsummer Seminar: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy
The Mythopoeic Society invites paper submissions for an online conference that focuses on intersectional feminist approaches to women and gender in fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction or other mythopoeic work. While the focus of this seminar is women and gender in mythopoeic works, we encourage proposals that acknowledge and analyze the intersectionality of gender with other aspects of identity, experience, and embodiment, including the non-human. Proposals should engage with developments in women and gender studies that both acknowledge and seek to move beyond the work of Perilous and Fair, drawing on theories and methodologies from recent years.
Papers, panels, and roundtables from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are welcome. We are interested in ANY form of media — text, graphic novels, comics, television, movies, music and music videos, games — as long as it can be described as fantasy or otherwise mythopoeic. We also welcome papers on the work of either of our Guests of Honor.
Each presentation will receive a 50-minute slot to allow time for questions, but individual presentations should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Two or three presenters who wish to present short, related papers may also share one 50-minute slot.
Individual proposals (~200 words) with bios (150 words, maximum) should be sent to: oms-chair @ mythcon.org by March 31, 2025.
Group (two or three presenters) proposals should group the individual proposals together to send to: oms-chair @ mythcon.org by March 31, 2025.
Working bibliographies are welcome, but not required.
The seminar will be held August 2-5, 2025 on Zoom and Discord.
The full call for papers and more on the midsummer online seminar can be found here.
Coming Soon: Call for Proposals for McFarland's Critical Explorations in Tolkien Studies Series
We are sharing this information on behalf of Robin Anne Reid:
I recently signed a Letter of Agreement with McFarland Publishers to become the series editor for a new series, Critical Explorations in Tolkien Studies. The series will open for proposals in 2025 after I assemble an advisory board.
Scholars can submit proposals in either of two tracks. The first track is for single-author or collaborative monographs and edited collections written for academic experts that should be between 70-100K words long. The second track is for shorter Critical Companions, between 40-50K words long, written for a general audience including but not limited to students and fans. Submissions for both tracks will go through a double-blind peer review process.
Proposals on topics relating to Tolkien's published works as well as to the edited posthumous publications; the adaptations for film, television, and games; the translations; and fan transformative works (textual and visual) or other reception studies may be submitted to either track.
While peer-reviewed scholarship is a professional necessity for tenure-track and tenured academics, there is also value in shorter works, informed by critical theories, that focus on an aspect of single work or a thematic group of works, especially ones that have received less critical attention than The Lord of the Rings. The Critical Companions are designed to introduce a more general audience to analytical approaches and the scholarship in Tolkien studies by situating works in their socio-historical contexts; explaining how the text or texts fit into the field of Tolkien studies; and modelling how to apply critical theories to analyze primary texts.
The primary goals of the series are to add significant original contributions to Tolkien scholarship by developing and to create and support greater diversity in the field by embracing a wide definition of what Tolkien studies includes in relation to authors, texts, topics, theories, and methods.
Both single author and collaborative works, especially those foregrounding intersectionality, are explicitly welcome from authors without regard to ability status, age, caste, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, or sexuality. Approaches can include but are not limited to theories and methods from class studies, cultural studies, critical race studies; digital and new media studies; fan and reception studies; feminist, gender, and queer studies; film studies, languages and linguistics, literary studies (any period); medieval and medievalist studies; pedagogical studies, modernist and postmodernist studies, media and marketing studies; religious and theological studies; source studies; stylistics, and tourism studies.
Contingent faculty, early-career faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, tenure-track and tenured faculty in the Americas and worldwide who are trained in any discipline and period specialization are invited to submit proposals in either track and to consider applying to become m become a member of the advisory board.
The call for applications to the advisory board will be circulated shortly. Please email robinareid@fastmail with any questions you may have.
Tolkien at UVM 2025: Tolkien and War
The theme for the 2025 Tolkien at UVM conference will be Tolkien and War. The conference will be held on April 5, 2025, at the University of Vermont. Recent conferences have been hybrid and welcomed presentations and attendees online as well.
Signum University Regional Moots
These small, regional conferences are held at various dates and locations. See the Regional Moots page for more details.
Journal of Fandom Studies: Open Call for Papers
Journal of Fandom Studies seeks to offer scholars a dedicated, peer-reviewed publication that promotes current scholarship into the fields of fan and audience studies across a variety of media. We focus on the critical exploration, within a wide range of disciplines and fan cultures, of issues surrounding production and consumption of popular media (including film, music, television, sports and gaming).
The editors welcome general papers (between 6000 and 9000 words), interviews and book reviews (between 800 and 1200 words) as well as suggestions for thematic issues.
All articles submitted should be original work and must not be under consideration by other publications.
See the Journal of Fandom Studies open call for papers for more information.
White Oliphaunt 2024
In the White Oliphaunt gift exchange, Tolkien fans sign up to exchange humorous gifts with each other.
Schedule
- Sign ups open: November 1st
- Sign ups close: November 30th
- Assignments out: December 1st
- Anonymous posting + Last call for dropouts: December 24th
- Gift reveal: December 31st
Tolkien Society: Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference
The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce it will be hosting the online Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th November 2024. Registration is free and can be done on the conference webpage.
Confirmed Speakers
- Douglas A. Anderson — editor of The Annotated Hobbit
- Nicholas Birns — author of The Literary Role of History in the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien
- Sara Brown — lecturer on Tolkien, and Language and Literature Department Chair at Signum University
- Sonali Chunodkar — researcher on secondary beliefs in Tolkien’s works
- Michael D. C. Drout — editor of Beowulf and the Critics, and J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia; co-editor of Tolkien Studies
- Vincent Ferré — Professor in Comparative Literature (University Sorbonne Nouvelle), translator, and editor of Dictionnaire Tolkien. Literary advisor to the Estate of Christopher Tolkien
- Dimitra Fimi — Tolkien scholar and fantasy professor at the University of Glasgow, co-editor of A Secret Vice, author of Tolkien, Race and Cultural History
- Verlyn Flieger — editor of Smith of Wootton Major, The Story of Kullervo, and The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun; author of Splintered Light
- William Fliss — Tolkien archivist at Marquette University’s Raynor Library
- John Garth — author of Tolkien and the Great War, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien and Tolkien at Exeter College
- Christopher Gilson — chief editor of Parma Eldalamberon and leading member of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship
- Nick Groom — author of Twenty-First-Century Tolkien
- Peter Grybauskas — editor of The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
- Wayne G. Hammond — co-editor of The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Roverandom, and co-author of J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion
- Andrew Higgins — co-editor of A Secret Vice
- Thomas Honegger — co-editor of Sub-creating Arda and Laughter in Middle-earth: Humour in and around the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
- Carl F. Hostetter — editor of The Nature of Middle-earth and Vinyar Tengwar
- John Howe — artist who has illustrated covers for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The History of Middle-earth
- Yvette Kisor — researcher on medieval literature and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, co-editor of Tolkien Studies and Tolkien and Alterity
- Kristine Larsen — writer and researcher on science and astronomy in Tolkien’s works
- Alan Lee — artist who has illustrated The Lord of the Rings, The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Númenor
- Ted Nasmith — artist who has illustrated The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales
- Richard Ovenden — Bodley’s Librarian and co-editor of The Great Tales Never End
- John D. Rateliff — author of The History of The Hobbit
- Robin Reid — researcher on Tolkien fandom, fan fiction, and race in Tolkien’s works
- Christina Scull — co-editor of The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Roverandom, and co-author of J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion
- Brian Sibley — author of The Fall of Númenor
- Chris Smith — the Tolkien editor of HarperCollins
- James Tauber — researcher on corpus linguistics and digital humanities for Tolkien’s works
The full schedule will be published closer to the event.
Teitho October/November Challenge: Legacy
Welcome to the Teitho Contest, where you can participate with a variety of other writers and artists and send in stories and pictures based on our themes.
Join us in this writing and drawing contest!
A new challenge is posted every month. On the first day of the challenge, we announce a new theme on this site. You then have two months to create your entry, which has to be finished when you send it in.
After the deadline of the contest, the voting period begins. Based on the number of entries, it lasts for two or more weeks. The winners are usually announced a day or two after the end of the voting. Teitho remains one of the last prompt-based, independent, Tolkien fan-fiction/fan art monthly contests. Full contest guidelines are here.
Our prompt this month is Legacy.
What impact do past events have on the present? What traits, ideals or beliefs impact an individual’s followers or descendants? What do we leave for those who come after?
Legacies can be both positive and negative, as we see in the house of Fëanor.
It can be steadfastness, as we see in Fingolfin and his descendants.
An individual can leave a legacy, but so can a community or an entire culture—what legacy did Numenor leave to those who escaped the destruction?
It could be a written legacy like the Red Book of Westmarch, started by Bilbo Baggins to recount his quest for Erebor, then added to over the years to become much more than a simple diary.
A legacy may also be an object, an item passed down from individual to individual: a bequest, a sword, a ring, a property, an oath.
What will you choose to explore using this prompt? We look forward to your stories and art this month!
Please submit by November 30, 2024 to teitho.contest@gmail.com
Acorns and Oak Leaves: A Year of Bagginshield
Throughout 2024, the Bagginshield community Acorns and Oak Leaves offers monthly prompts to encourage new creations of all kinds (i.e. art, fics, gifs, etc) - but don't worry, there are no deadlines. Pick and choose whatever prompts you like, and be sure to tag the @acorns-and-oakleaves blog on Tumblr so we can share your Bagginshield creations!
Monthly prompts for the Year of Bagginshield can be found here.
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Silm Smut Exchange 2024
The Silm Smut Exchange is a gift exchange for mature and explicit Silm fanworks (fic and art), hosted on AO3. You'll sign up to create and receive a work of fanfic of minimum 1,000 words, or a piece of fanart consisting of, at minimum, clean linework on unlined paper featuring a character or ship from The Silmarillion. Either will have a mature or explicit rating.
Please familiarize yourself with the Silm Smut Exchange rules before participating. The goal of this exchange is to be fun and to foster enthusiasm for M- and E-rated works in Silmarillion fandom. Questions can be directed to the mod email account, silmsmutmod@gmail.com, to the exchange’s Tumblr askbox, or as a comment on Dreamwidth.
Schedule
Nominations: Sept. 30-Oct 7, 2024
Signups: Oct. 8-15, 2024
Works due: Nov. 22, 2024
Works revealed: Nov. 29, 2024
Creators revealed: Dec. 6, 2024
Tolkien Pinup Calendar Sluttiest Tolkien Character Bracket
Tolkien Pinup Calendar has decided to wade into the fray and create it's own bracket! In November, the bracket will go live but for right now we are taking submissions! Do you have a character you think is the sluttiest? Share it here!
The form allows you to submit a name, the media the character is from, propaganda (why you think they are the sluttiest), and images! And you can of course submit more than one character.
We look forward to seeing who you think is the sluttiest!
Aspec Arda Week 2024
This is a week-long Tumblr event to celebrate the interaction of the asexual and aromantic-spectrums and Tolkien’s Legendarium of Arda. Though these experiences are not explicit within Tolkien’s work, many fans across the a-spectrum see themselves in Arda, and we are here to appreciate any and all interpretation of characters, relationships, and events through an aspec lens.
Any content about the a-spectrum in Arda is welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! This event will run from September 23-29, 2024! Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so they can be easily found. If your submission turns into a long post, please put what you can beneath a “Keep reading” divider.
Prompts
Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This page will lead to an explanation for each prompt. The first prompt is the “main” prompt, but we are also providing more open-ended secondary prompts.
DAY ONE: Asexuality || Discovery, Confusion, Education
DAY TWO: Aromanticism || Acceptance, Loneliness, Pride
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum || Hope, Complexity, Diversity
DAY FOUR: Worldbuilding || Community, Change, Family
DAY FIVE: Relationships || Companionship, Intimacy, Queerplatonic
DAY SIX: Intersectionality || Connection, Relief, Friendship
DAY SEVEN: Freeform || Love, Vulnerability, Identity
Additional Links
For further clarification, check out our about, FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Silm Smut Week 2024
The aim of Silm Smut Week is to foster a positive, inclusive, and fun culture around the creation and enjoyment of smut, porn, and erotica. This year's event will run Sept 30 to Oct 6 2024!
How to Participate
- Create something that narrates, depicts, or considers sexual activity involving the characters of the Silmarillion.
- Post it on Tumblr and/or add it to the AO3 Collection and mention this blog (@silmsmutweek) and tag #silmsmutweek2024.
- We will reblog posts daily.
- If you do not see your post reblogged after 24 hours, please send us an ask or DM mods @polutrope or @ettelene.
- The themes and prompts for each day are just suggestions. You can post anything any day of the week and we will reblog it.
- Late submissions for the event are welcome and we will try to reblog those as well but cannot guarantee that we will.
- Engage with other creators! Enjoy their works!
All genres, tropes, and kinks are welcome: porn without plot, porn with plot; fluff, humour, angst, dark; slash, het, femslash, poly, solo; canon-compliant, alternate universe; reader insert, incest, etc. And, of course, every imaginable kink.
All forms of creative engagement with the Silmarillion and the Silmarillion fandom are welcome: writing, visual art, meta/analysis, headcanons, playlists, music, video, podfics, cosplay, etc.
Prompts
Daily prompts are never obligatory. You may use one, three, all (?!), or none. You may combine prompts from different days. You may ignore them and write whatever you want.
This year, daily themes are based on climates and regions. Take these as you will. A setting? A vibe? A symbol? Imagery?
Prompts/Suggestions are a handful of topics, tropes, kinks, ship and relationship types to consider for that day.
Objects of the Day can be used in you creation or simply as inspiration!
Inspirations of the Day are quotes, images, or songs that you may use in any way that sparks your muse.
Click the links to find each day's prompt collection!
Day 1: Ocean (Mon, Sept 30)
Day 2: Coast (Tues, Oct 1)
Day 3: Plains (Weds, Oct 2)
Day 4: Woodlands (Thurs, Oct 3)
Day 5: Desert (Fri, Oct 4)
Day 6: Ridges and Valleys (Sat, Oct 5)
Day 7: Ice (Sun, Oct 6)
Additional Links
Questions? Send an Ask.
Fellowship of the Fic: FOTFictember
September's challenge is centered around autumn-themed drabbles! Make them spooky, cozy, or anything in between! We want to see everyone inspired, but not bogged down by this event.
So remember, you don’t have to spend a lot of time on these (unless you want to!) nor are you required to do them in order or complete each day. Pick and choose, just write! We want to see it. There is no right or wrong about these, just have fun with it!
Be sure to tag #fotfics and #fotfictember so we can find your drabbles!
Prompts
- Scarecrow
- Leaf Garland
- Mushrooms
- Festival
- Corn Maze
- Cuddling
- Sweet Treats
- Cold Hands
- Pie
- Bonfire Night
- Rainstorms
- Apple Cider
- Sweater Weather
- Library
- Soft
- Twilight
- Baking
- Tea
- Pumpkins
- Colors
- Acorns
- Amber
- Cobwebs
- Forest
- Tradition
- Soup
- Lantern
- Cinnamon
- Sunflower
- Author's Choice
Imladris Week 2024
Imladris Week will run from September 16-22 on Tumblr and AO3 to celebrate fanworks related to Imladris!
Rules & Guidelines
- Please be kind and respectful! Hate and bigotry will not be tolerated.
- Be respectful of other people's ideas/headcanons/interpretations - it is up to you to curate your own experience, don't like, don't read.
- NSFW and dark content is welcome, but please use the appropriate warnings & tags and put graphic content under a cut.
- Any form of fanwork is welcome - fics, art, meta, playlists, moodboards, and whatever else you come up with, as long as it's related to Imladris. AI generated work is not permitted!
- The prompts are for inspiration, use them however you wish - you can combine prompts, swap the days around, or completely igonore them and do your own thing.
- Use the tag #imladrisweek on your event submissions and/or tag this blog (@imladrisweek) directly - I will try to reblog everything, but tumblr is notoriously difficult, so if your post has not been reblogged after 24h, feel free to send an ask or DM with the link!
Prompts
Day 1: Imladris in the Second Age
Imladris was founded in the Second Age after the Fall of Eregion, as a refuge from Sauron and an Elven stronghold in Eriador. What were those first years like, during the Siege and after? How did the people of Lindon and the refugees of Eregion come together to build their new home? What was discussed at that first meeting of the White Council? And how did life in Imladris continue during the remainder of that Age, up until the Last Alliance?
Founding and Siege of Imladris | Refugees and Survivors of Eregion | First White Council | Last Alliance
Day 2: Imladris in the Third Age
Throughout the Third Age Imladris stood as one of the last seats of Elvish strength east of the Sea. A refuge and sanctuary, a place of counsel and lore, of rest for the weary and shelter for the oppressed – a timeless haven with a long and eventful history.
Aftermath of the Last Alliance | Last Homely House | Fostering of Isildur’s Heirs | War with Angmar | The Dúnedain | Council of Elrond and War of the Ring | Departure of Elrond
Day 3: Imladris in the Fourth Age and Beyond
It is said that after the departure of Elrond, his sons Elladan and Elrohir remained in Imladris for a time, and that Celeborn dwelt there with them until it was at last abandoned. What were those last years like for the last inhabitants of Imladris? And what became of it afterwards? Could it still be standing today?
Imladris in the 4th Age | Imladris Abandoned | Later Ages | Imladris throughout History and in Modern Times
Day 4: Imladris as a Place
A hidden valley amidst the foothills of the Misty Mountains – Imladris must be a beautiful place, judging by its real-world inspiration, Lauterbrunnen. Tell us of the animals that live there, the plants and fungi that grow in the valley and on the mountainsides, of the Bruinen river that flows through the valley, and of course of the houses and buildings, bridges and arches, gardens and courtyards that make up the Last Homely House!
Architecture and Buildings | Nature | Animal and Plant Life | The Bruinen
Day 5: Culture of Imladris
A place with a history as long and inhabitants as diverse as Imladris must have a rich and interesting culture – what is it like to live there, or to be a guest in Elrond’s halls? What traditions have emerged over the centuries, what cultures have influenced Imladris’ customs? What knowledge and legends of Ages past are gathered there? And what alliances and conflicts with the other realms and people of Middle-Earth have emerged over time?
Festivals and Traditions | Hospitality and Guests | Knowledge and Lore | Relations with other Realms
Day 6: The People of Imladris
Of course a house is nothing without the people that live there. We know and love Elrond, Lord and founder of Imladris, his family and all those background characters that fandom has lifted from the shadows, but certainly the Last Homely House has space for more. On this day all inhabitants of Imladris have a chance to shine; from high Lord over fan-favourite counsellor to your own darling OCs.
Elrond and his Family | Background Characters: Erestor, Glorfindel, Lindir and Others | Original Characters
Day 7: Free Space
Imladris, with its millennia of history and plenty of interesting inhabitants, contains so much more than one week of prompts could ever encompass. What do you love most about Elrond’s hidden Valley? What thoughts, headcanons and wild ideas do you harbour of the Last Homely House?
The Magic of Vilya | Passage of Time | Alternate Universes | Anything and everything you can think of!
LOTR Week 2024
LOTRWEEK is back! Mark your calendars for a week-long event to share our love and fanworks for LOTR. This year, it will be from 16th to 22nd September, ending on Bilbo and Frodo's birthday.
Each day of the week has a prompt. Create an original work (e.g. gifset, fanart, fanfic) inspired by a prompt, then post it to Tumblr! Where the prompt has multiple parts to it, you can choose which part(s) you want to focus on – how you respond to a prompt is completely up to you. The prompts are deliberately vague and open so that they can work for gifs, art, fics, etc. Any works based on LOTR (book or film) are welcome.
Tag your works with #lotrweek so they can be reblogged on Tumblr, and follow @lotrweek for updates on the event and to see everyone else’s works. If there’s anything nsfw or that may need a warning, make sure to do this responsibly and put said parts under a read-more.
Prompts
Day 1 (16th Sep): the road goes ever on
Day 2 (17th Sep): histories and legacies
Day 3 (18th Sep): the green earth in the daylight
Day 4 (19th Sep): gifts, burdens and choices
Day 5 (20th Sep): here with me
Day 6 (21st Sep): songs and tales
Day 7 (22nd Sep): free day – Hobbit day!
Teitho September/October Challenge: Delay
Welcome to the Teitho Contest, where you can participate with a variety of other writers and artists and send in stories and pictures based on our themes.
Join us in this writing and drawing contest!
A new challenge is posted every month. On the first day of the challenge, we announce a new theme on this site. You then have two months to create your entry, which has to be finished when you send it in.
After the deadline of the contest, the voting period begins. Based on the number of entries, it lasts for two or more weeks. The winners are usually announced a day or two after the end of the voting. Teitho remains one of the last prompt-based, independent, Tolkien fan-fiction/fan art monthly contests. Full contest guidelines are here.
Our Teitho prompt for September/October is Delay.
Choose any character, any circumstance, any time period. Will you delve into Gandalf’s delay returning to the Shire to meet Frodo? Or Maedhros striving to join Fingon and the other assembled armies?
Sometimes delaying is a bad thing or a sign of indecision, but sometimes it may inadvertently be a good thing. Could a delay, inadvertent or not, change the course of events?
What story will you tell us this month? We can’t wait to see your stories! Don’t delay sending in your entries to teitho.contest@gmail.com by October 31st!
September 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals
Tolkien Society Hybrid Seminar 2024: Tolkien as Heritage
The Tolkien Society Seminar is a short conference of both researcher-led and non-academic presentations on a specific theme pertaining to Tolkien scholarship.The Society held three seminars in 2021 (Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien, Tolkien and Diversity, and Translating and Illustrating Tolkien) and their online setting has seen increased interest with over 700 attendees from 52 countries at ‘Tolkien and Diversity’. After the seminar, all paper recordings from the seminars are uploaded onto the Tolkien Society’s YouTube channel. We are delighted to run hybrid seminars where delegates can enjoy discussions on Tolkien in person and online.
The Tolkien Society is excited to partner with Tolkinovo društvo Srbije (the Tolkien Society of Serbia) and Centar za Muzeologiju I Heritologiju (the Centre for Museology and Heritology, the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade). Saturday 7th December will be held in person at the University of Belgrade, with papers delivered in Serbian – you can submit paper and panel proposals in Serbian for the 7th here. Sunday 8th December will be online and hosted by The Tolkien Society on Zoom – you can submit paper and panel proposals for the 8th below. The seminar will be co-run by Mina Lukić Gunner (Tolkinovo društvo Srbije) and Will Sherwood (The Tolkien Society’s Education Secretary).
We invite paper (20 minutes) and panel (60 minute) proposals on Tolkien’s work as heritage, asking how the phenomena analysed contribute to the affirmation, preservation, popularisation, and transmission of his legacy, securing its presence in global or local cultural memory.
Paper and panel proposals may address but are in no way limited to:
- Institutions and organizations that take care of Tolkien’s works and promote their research and presentation (e.g., Tolkien Estate, libraries, universities, fan associations)
- Memorials and monuments, sites of memory, commemorations
- Conventions and fan gatherings
- Collecting
- Internet activities (e.g. social networks, forums, blogs, websites, podcasts)
- Multimedia interpretations and re-imaginings (e.g. adaptations, dramatisations, artworks, fan fiction, games)
- Translations
- Tolkien’s influence on other authors and creatives
We invite paper proposals no more than 300 words, for a 20-minute paper with 5 minutes of questions. Panel proposals should be no more than 500 words, for a 60 minute window.
The call for paper’s deadline is midnight Saturday 14th September 2024. You can submit your proposal here. Will and Mina will contact you after the deadline.
See the full call for papers for the Tolkien Society Seminar 2024 here.
Popular Culture Association: Tolkien Studies Area
The Tolkien Studies Area (TSA) welcomes proposals in any area of Tolkien studies. We welcome scholars in all period specializations, from all disciplines, using any critical theory. We encourage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary as well as collaborative work. The TSA defines "Tolkien studies" as including, but not limited to, Tolkien's Legendarium; adaptations, transformative works, and translations; cultural studies; critical race studies; digital and new media studies; fan and reception studies; feminist, gender, and queer studies; literary studies; medieval and medievalist studies; media and marketing; religious studies; source studies; tourism studies; and translation studies.
Academics, independent scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students are invited to submit individual paper proposals, paper session proposals, and/or roundtable proposals. Presenters may present one paper and participate in one roundtable session.
All presenters must join the Popular Culture Association as members as well as pay a registration fee to attend the conference. These are separate fees that have been restructured to a tiered system taking into account that PCA members range from undergraduates to retirees, with salaries ranging from part-time, minimum wage to retiree pensions and social security.
All PCA sessions are scheduled in 1.5-hour slots. Paper sessions consist of four presenters, each speaking for fifteen minutes, followed by a group Q&A.
Roundtables are informal interactive discussions between five to seven participants and the audience. A roundtable focuses on a timely topic and is designed to raise questions and brainstorm for future scholarship. If you have an idea for a special topic for an academic journal issue or for an anthology, email Robin to find out how to organize a paper session and/or roundtable on the topic!
For individual paper proposals, please submit contact information (name, institutional affiliation [or "independent scholar"], e-mail address, and telephone number), your presentation's title, and a 500-word proposal describing your topic, chosen theory, methodology, argument, and its relevance to current scholarship.
For a paper session proposal, please submit your contact information, all the presenters' contact information, and a 100–300-word proposal for the session. All participants for your proposed paper session or roundtable must register for the conference and submit their individual proposals through the PCA database so they can be added to the paper session.
If you wish to organize a roundtable, please contact me directly at robinareid@fastmail.com. Only Area Chairs or PCA Admins can enter roundtables into the PCA database. Please note that the TSA can schedule only two roundtables; however, there are no limits on the number of paper sessions we can present!
The 2025 PCA Conference will be held in-person at the Marriott in New Orleans, from April 16-19, 2025.
See the 2025 PCA Conference website to submit paper proposals. Proposals are due by November 30, 2024.
Call for Proposals: Anthology on Women and Gender
We invite submissions for an anthology focused on women and gender in Tolkien’s writings, ‘Great Heart and Strength:’ New Essays on Women and Gender in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien. In 2015, Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan published Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J.R.R. Tolkien, the first volume dedicated to the subject of women in Tolkien’s works and life, which collected the major milestones of feminist scholarship in Tolkien studies alongside new essays. Since then, feminist scholarship and gender theory has flourished in and outside of Tolkien studies. This volume will honor Croft and Donovan’s work and build on the past decade of feminist scholarship in Tolkien studies by presenting a new collection of essays on women and gender in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Please send your proposal (no more than 300 words) and a short bio (100 words) to cami.agan@oc.edu by March 15, 2025.Working bibliographies encouraged.
Proposals should focus on women and gender in the legendarium or in non-legendarium texts by J.R.R. Tolkien, reflecting contemporary feminist and intersectional theory. Proposals may also focus on non-binary, trans, and gender fluid interpretations, as well as non-anthropomorphic topics such as landscapes and environments. All proposals should convey a thorough knowledge of previous feminist scholarship in Tolkien studies as well as current theory outside of Tolkien studies. We highly encourage intersectional work, which analyzes how gender intersects with other aspects of identity (such as race, sexuality, class, etc.).
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Female characters in the legendarium
- Female characters in Tolkien’s non-legendarium works (such as The Fall of Arthur, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, etc.)
- Non-binary, trans, and gender fluid interpretations of characters
- Landscapes, environments, and material culture
- Historical conceptions of gender
- Intersections with race, sexuality, socio-economic class, etc.
- Postcolonial analyses
- Women and gender in adaptations of Tolkien’s work
- Women scholars of the legendarium and/or women-centered treatments of Tolkien’s legendarium
Mythcon, the conference of the Mythopoeic Society, is scheduled for August 2025, and its theme is Women and Gender in Sci-Fi Fantasy, and we hope to organize several panels from the accepted submissions.
Mythopoeic Society Online Midsummer Seminar: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy
The Mythopoeic Society invites paper submissions for an online conference that focuses on intersectional feminist approaches to women and gender in fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction or other mythopoeic work. While the focus of this seminar is women and gender in mythopoeic works, we encourage proposals that acknowledge and analyze the intersectionality of gender with other aspects of identity, experience, and embodiment, including the non-human. Proposals should engage with developments in women and gender studies that both acknowledge and seek to move beyond the work of Perilous and Fair, drawing on theories and methodologies from recent years.
Papers, panels, and roundtables from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are welcome. We are interested in ANY form of media — text, graphic novels, comics, television, movies, music and music videos, games — as long as it can be described as fantasy or otherwise mythopoeic. We also welcome papers on the work of either of our Guests of Honor.
Each presentation will receive a 50-minute slot to allow time for questions, but individual presentations should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Two or three presenters who wish to present short, related papers may also share one 50-minute slot.
Individual proposals (~200 words) with bios (150 words, maximum) should be sent to: oms-chair @ mythcon.org by March 31, 2025.
Group (two or three presenters) proposals should group the individual proposals together to send to: oms-chair @ mythcon.org by March 31, 2025.
Working bibliographies are welcome, but not required.
The seminar will be held August 2-5, 2025 on Zoom and Discord.
The full call for papers and more on the midsummer online seminar can be found here.
Coming Soon: Call for Proposals for McFarland's Critical Explorations in Tolkien Studies Series
We are sharing this information on behalf of Robin Anne Reid:
I recently signed a Letter of Agreement with McFarland Publishers to become the series editor for a new series, Critical Explorations in Tolkien Studies. The series will open for proposals in 2025 after I assemble an advisory board.
Scholars can submit proposals in either of two tracks. The first track is for single-author or collaborative monographs and edited collections written for academic experts that should be between 70-100K words long. The second track is for shorter Critical Companions, between 40-50K words long, written for a general audience including but not limited to students and fans. Submissions for both tracks will go through a double-blind peer review process.
Proposals on topics relating to Tolkien's published works as well as to the edited posthumous publications; the adaptations for film, television, and games; the translations; and fan transformative works (textual and visual) or other reception studies may be submitted to either track.
While peer-reviewed scholarship is a professional necessity for tenure-track and tenured academics, there is also value in shorter works, informed by critical theories, that focus on an aspect of single work or a thematic group of works, especially ones that have received less critical attention than The Lord of the Rings. The Critical Companions are designed to introduce a more general audience to analytical approaches and the scholarship in Tolkien studies by situating works in their socio-historical contexts; explaining how the text or texts fit into the field of Tolkien studies; and modelling how to apply critical theories to analyze primary texts.
The primary goals of the series are to add significant original contributions to Tolkien scholarship by developing and to create and support greater diversity in the field by embracing a wide definition of what Tolkien studies includes in relation to authors, texts, topics, theories, and methods.
Both single author and collaborative works, especially those foregrounding intersectionality, are explicitly welcome from authors without regard to ability status, age, caste, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, or sexuality. Approaches can include but are not limited to theories and methods from class studies, cultural studies, critical race studies; digital and new media studies; fan and reception studies; feminist, gender, and queer studies; film studies, languages and linguistics, literary studies (any period); medieval and medievalist studies; pedagogical studies, modernist and postmodernist studies, media and marketing studies; religious and theological studies; source studies; stylistics, and tourism studies.
Contingent faculty, early-career faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, tenure-track and tenured faculty in the Americas and worldwide who are trained in any discipline and period specialization are invited to submit proposals in either track and to consider applying to become m become a member of the advisory board.
The call for applications to the advisory board will be circulated shortly. Please email robinareid@fastmail with any questions you may have.
Tolkien at UVM 2025: Tolkien and War
The theme for the 2025 Tolkien at UVM conference will be Tolkien and War. The conference will be held on April 5, 2025, at the University of Vermont. Recent conferences have been hybrid and welcomed presentations and attendees online as well.
Signum University Regional Moots
These small, regional conferences are held at various dates and locations. See the Regional Moots page for more details.
September challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth
The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for September has been posted to the Dreamwidth community.
The thematic challenge is: wave.
The relevance of wave imagery to Tolkien's Legendarium is obvious. But the wave need not be sea water or even water: wave patterns like plants waving in the wind and more abstract waves, for instance, in society or history, or even people waving their hands, all count for this.
The formal challenge is: in-universe commentary. This can be done in various ways, for instance:
- Write a text composed in the First Age and add a footnote by an editor in the Third Age (or similar).
- Have a teacher or parent explain a canonical piece of lore familiar to us to their children or students from their point of view.
- Someone adds a postscript to a letter written by someone else, which includes a comment on what was said above.
These prompts can be filled separately and freely combined with other prompts where the other challenge or exchange permits it, such as the SWG challenges.
More details on the challenge at the linked post.
New participants welcome (a Dreamwidth account is needed).
