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July challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted

The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for July has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. The thematic challenge is: original character or unnamed canon character; the formal challenge: fixed length of multiple of 50 words.

These prompts can be filled separately or combined with other challenges, such as the SWG Monthly Challenges.

New participants welcome.

For more details on this challenge see the linked post; for more information on these challenges and tolkienshortfanworks in general check out the sticky posts at the DW community.

July 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals

Oxonmoot 2024

Oxonmoot is an annual event hosted by The Tolkien Society which brings together over 500 Tolkien fans, scholars, students and Society members from across the world. Oxonmoot 2024 will be our 51st, and will be held over four days, from the afternoon of Thursday 29th August until the afternoon of Sunday 1st September, and will be held at St Anne’s College, Woodstock Road, Oxford and Online.

We are pleased to welcome contributions of all types to the programme for Oxonmoot 2024.

The call for talks and papers is now closed but the call for activities remains open!

The Talks and Papers will be balanced by a wide range of other Activities – these could include, but are not limited to, workshops, demonstrations, discussions, games, physical activities, films & videos and social activities – but any and all offers are most welcome. Activities may take place in Oxford, online, or combine both online and in person participation, and may be scheduled alongside the Talks & Papers, or in the Evening (local time) time depending on the nature of the Activity. You can submit a proposal for an activity here. Activities have a deadline of 8 am UK time on 1 August 2024.

Participants with questions may contact the Activities Programme Co-Ordinator, or for social activities the Social Programme Co-Ordinator.

See the Oxonmoot 2024 page for more information or to register!

Journal of Tolkien Research Special Issue: Asexuality and Aromanticism in Tolkien’s Legendarium

Queer scholarship in Tolkien studies has made great strides in recent years, from David Craig’s “‘Queer Lodgings’: Gender and Sexuality in ‘The Lord of the Rings’” (2001) to Jane Chance’s Tolkien, Self and Other (2016) and Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor’s Tolkien and Alterity (2017). At a critical juncture of growth, this sub-field is poised to evaluate and address any gaps that exist as the field moves forward. One such gap, in both Tolkien studies and queer studies, is asexuality and aromanticism, which, while part of the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, are significantly underrepresented in scholarship and interpretation.

Asexuality, defined broadly as not experiencing sexual attraction to other people, and aromanticism, not experiencing romantic attraction to other people, convey a spectrum of individual experiences (ace-spectrum, or aspec). Aspec perspectives not only represent these individual identities and experiences but also illuminate and refresh understandings of love, desire, relationships, communities, and culture. Implemented within literary interpretation, an aspec lens offers insights into characters, plots, themes, narrative structures, and much more.

In order to address a gap in queer scholarship in Tolkien studies and to solicit new perspectives that can deepen understandings of Tolkien’s work, we invite submissions for a proposed special issue in Journal of Tolkien Research that focuses on asexuality and aromanticism in Tolkien’s work.

Topics can include but are not limited to:

• Aspec readings of individual characters
• Interpretations of love/relationships beyond (but not necessarily excluding) romantic, sexual, and/or platonic love
• Intersections between aspec theory and gender, disability, race, or other critical theory
• Comparative readings between Tolkien’s work and other fiction
• Amatonormativity or aspec aspects in Tolkien’s work, life, and historical context
• Reception of Tolkien’s work by aspec readers
• Aspec interpretations within adaptations of Tolkien’s work
• Interpretations focused on specific identities within the ace-spectrum, including demi-
• sexual/romantic, grey-sexual/romantic, etc.

Proposals/abstracts of a maximum of 300 words, along with a short bio and working bibliography (not included in word count), should be sent via email to aspectolkien@gmail.com no later than midnight Eastern Time on August 31, 2024.

Tolkien at Kalamazoo 2025

Hosted by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University, the International Congress on Medieval Studies is an annual gathering of thousands of scholars interested in medieval studies. The Congress embraces the study of all aspects of the Middle Ages, extending into late antiquity and the early modern period, including—but not limited to—history, language, literature, linguistics, art, archaeology, religion, science, medicine, music, drama, philosophy, gender, sexuality, mysticism and technology, as well as medievalism. The 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies takes place Thursday, May 8, through Saturday, May 10, 2025. Find more at the conference website.

Tolkien at Kalamazoo will be offering a total of eight sessions (paper sessions and roundtables), two of which are co-sponsored. The sessions are a mix of in-person, virtual, and hybrid as identified below. Send 100-word abstracts or complete papers to Christopher Vaccaro (cvaccaro@uvm.edu) and Yvette Kisor (ykisor@ramapo.edu) by the1^st of September.

Tolkien and Medieval Conceptions of the Sea (in-person paper session): HYBRID

The Medieval Roots of the Poems of J. R. R. Tolkien (in-person roundtable): HYBRID

Tolkien and Old Norse (hybrid / in-person paper session): HYBRID

Tolkien and Medieval Feminisms (in-person paper session)

Medieval Languages and Tolkien's Language Invention (in-person paper session)

Medieval Resonances in Tolkien's Letters (in-person roundtable)

Fire, Dragons, & Jewels, O My!: Medieval Poems & J.R.R. Tolkien (co-sponsored with the Pearl-Poet Society, virtual paper session)

Return of the Franchise: The Ongoing Reception and Interpretation of Tolkien's Medievalism (co-sponsored with the Tales after Tolkien Society, virtual paper session): HYBRID

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.

Many thanks to Robin Anne Reid and her Online Conference Project for handily compiling this information on a regular basis!

Aralas Week 2024

Aralas Week is an event on Tumblr and AO3 for fanworks featuring the Aragorn/Legolas pairing. The event will run over seven days from July 2 to July 8. The AO3 collection can be found here.

How to use prompts?

1. Each prompt can be used only once per day (for seven days).
2. You can use the prompts in this recipe: Day 1: Canon Prompt 1, Day 2: AU Prompt 2, etc. Also you have to reverse threads recipe.
3. You can make just for all canon prompts, or all AU's prompts.

Guidelines

• Please note, must include Aragorn x Legolas as the main pairing in every fanworks.
• The hashtag #aralasweek2024 #aralasweek
• You can include prompt name from each days, like: Day 1: Prompt (etc)
• AO3 collection for the writers. You can search for aralasweek2024 on collection, or just tap “Post to Collection” here
• For fanfic entries, any language is very welcome
• All the fanworks will be reblogged here (be sure to use hashtags or mention us!)
• Late post will be fine
• Just spread love and let’s have fun!

Tag us in your post @aralas-week and/or use hashtag #aralasweek2024 so we can find it.

Prompts

CANON

1. Before Fellowship
2. To Lothlorien
3. Between Anduin and Rohan
4. Siege of Gondor
5. Coronation
6. After Journey
7. The Final

AU

1. College/University
2. Flower/Coffee Shop
3. Space/Sci-fi
4. Steampunk
5. Wizard Academy
6. Soulmates
7. Sherlock Holmes

Bagginshield Week 2024

Event Dates & Prompts

• June 24: Role Reversal/The Shire Falls Instead + Bilbo is the Thain/Is a Royal
• June 25: Thorin in The Shire + Developping Relationship
• June 26: Soulmates/Soulmate Marks AU + Dwarf Culture
• June 27: Bookshops & Libraries + Khuzdul Language
• June 28: Canon Divergence (gen.) + Hairbeads/Beads in general
• June 29: Single Parents/Uncles AU + Gardening
• June 30: Gothic Horror AU + Sky/Storms

Regular Alternate Prompts

• Alpha/Beta/Omega AU
• Mythology AU (gen.)
• Fire/Smoke
• Enemies to Lovers, or Enemies to Allies to Lovers
• Secret Relationship

Whump Alternate Prompts

• "I thought I had lost you"
• Gold Sickness
• Hurt/Comfort
• Fake Death/Believed to be Dead
• Hidden Injury

The event consists of seven regular posting days, for which there are be two distinct but easily relatable prompts per day, and two sets of alternate prompts with five prompts each (one is for regular prompts and the other is for "whump" tropes). On top of that there will be two extra days for you to post your works right at the end of the week (you can post the very first chapter of your work on either day and then finish it some other time, no problem!). You can also mix and otherwise use prompts however way you want: maybe you want to go about it the traditional way and pick one prompt for each day, or close to it and only switch one of them for an alternate; or you can take a Day 5 prompt, a regular alternate, and cap it off with a whump trope and post that for Day 1. Pick your poison!

Teitho June/July Challenge: Mentor

Our Teitho June/July prompt is Mentor!

So many examples of such relationships in Tolkien's works! From Mahtan's mentorship of Fëanor to Galadriel's towards Arwen. The example BIlbo set for Frodo. The way Gandalf is a mentor to many of the characters along the way--Aragorn, Thorin, Bilbo, Frodo, Theoden, and more.

We see short term and long term mentorships--both for good and evil. Eru Iluvatar's guidance of the Valar. Melkor's tutelage of Sauron over the ages. The many generations of Dunedain guided by Elrond's counsel and wisdom.

Aragorn himself is a mentor to the hobbits.

Some are long lasting, others--like Theoden to Merry--are brief yet deeply meaningful.

Mentors can be teachers, friends, parents, adversaries, people we encounter by chance, or for just a brief moment in time.

What stories of mentors do you want to tell? We look forward to your submissions for this challenge!

Please submit your stories by July 31 to teitho.contest@gmail.com.

Learn more about the Teitho contest guidelines here.

Every Woman Exchange 2024

The Every Woman Exchange is an event for stories and art about female characters. Every Woman is returning for a 2024 round under the same rules as the 2023 round, with the exception of a slight increase to the number of nominations allowed.

Schedule

All deadlines are 11:59pm Pacific time. Countdowns for important deadlines will be linked.

• Nominations: Saturday, June 1 - Sunday, June 9
• Cleanup: Monday, June 10
• Signups: Monday, June 10 - Friday, June 21
• Assignments out by: Sunday, June 23
• Assignments due: Thursday, July 25
• Final pinch hits due: Tuesday, July 30
• Works revealed: Thursday, August 1
• Authors revealed: Thursday, August 8

More information on participating in the Every Woman Exchange is available on their Dreamwidth.

June 2024 Call for Papers

Oxonmoot 2024

Oxonmoot is an annual event hosted by The Tolkien Society which brings together over 500 Tolkien fans, scholars, students and Society members from across the world. Oxonmoot 2024 will be our 51st, and will be held over four days, from the afternoon of Thursday 29th August until the afternoon of Sunday 1st September, and will be held at St Anne’s College, Woodstock Road, Oxford and Online.

We are pleased to welcome contributions of all types to the programme for Oxonmoot 2024.

The Talks and Papers strand will run through the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Papers may be presented in person in Oxford or online via Zoom.

The Call for Papers is now open! Presentations may be submitted here. Deadline to submit a talk or paper is midnight UK time on May 12th. (UPDATE: The deadline for online presentations has been extended to midnight June 12!)

The Talks and Papers will be balanced by a wide range of other Activities – these could include, but are not limited to, workshops, demonstrations, discussions, games, physical activities, films & videos and social activities – but any and all offers are most welcome. Activities may take place in Oxford, online, or combine both online and in person participation, and may be scheduled alongside the Talks & Papers, or in the Evening (local time) time depending on the nature of the Activity. You can submit a proposal for an activity here. Activities have a deadline of 8 am UK time on 1 August 2024.

Participants with questions may contact the Activities Programme Co-Ordinator, or for social activities the Social Programme Co-Ordinator.

See the Oxonmoot 2024 page for more information or to register!

Journal of Tolkien Research Special Issue: Asexuality and Aromanticism in Tolkien’s Legendarium

Queer scholarship in Tolkien studies has made great strides in recent years, from David Craig’s “‘Queer Lodgings’: Gender and Sexuality in ‘The Lord of the Rings’” (2001) to Jane Chance’s Tolkien, Self and Other (2016) and Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor’s Tolkien and Alterity (2017). At a critical juncture of growth, this sub-field is poised to evaluate and address any gaps that exist as the field moves forward. One such gap, in both Tolkien studies and queer studies, is asexuality and aromanticism, which, while part of the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, are significantly underrepresented in scholarship and interpretation.

Asexuality, defined broadly as not experiencing sexual attraction to other people, and aromanticism, not experiencing romantic attraction to other people, convey a spectrum of individual experiences (ace-spectrum, or aspec). Aspec perspectives not only represent these individual identities and experiences but also illuminate and refresh understandings of love, desire, relationships, communities, and culture. Implemented within literary interpretation, an aspec lens offers insights into characters, plots, themes, narrative structures, and much more.

In order to address a gap in queer scholarship in Tolkien studies and to solicit new perspectives that can deepen understandings of Tolkien’s work, we invite submissions for a proposed special issue in Journal of Tolkien Research that focuses on asexuality and aromanticism in Tolkien’s work.

Topics can include but are not limited to:

• Aspec readings of individual characters
• Interpretations of love/relationships beyond (but not necessarily excluding) romantic, sexual, and/or platonic love
• Intersections between aspec theory and gender, disability, race, or other critical theory
• Comparative readings between Tolkien’s work and other fiction
• Amatonormativity or aspec aspects in Tolkien’s work, life, and historical context
• Reception of Tolkien’s work by aspec readers
• Aspec interpretations within adaptations of Tolkien’s work
• Interpretations focused on specific identities within the ace-spectrum, including demi-
• sexual/romantic, grey-sexual/romantic, etc.

Proposals/abstracts of a maximum of 300 words, along with a short bio and working bibliography (not included in word count), should be sent via email to aspectolkien@gmail.com no later than midnight Eastern Time on August 31, 2024.

Signum University Regional Moots

These small, regional conferences are held at various dates and locations. See the Regional Moots page for more details.

Many thanks to Robin Anne Reid and her Online Conference Project for handily compiling this information on a regular basis!

Russingon Week 2024

Russingon Week celebrates fanworks about the Maedhros/Fingon pairing and runs on Tumblr and AO3. Russingon week will run June 10th to June 16th, 2024.

Rules

1. Be kind and courteous! No shaming, harassment, or bigotry will be tolerated.
2. Works featuring any interpretations, themes, and topics are welcome. We encourage creators to use appropriate archive tags and content warnings where needed.
3. Creations of any sort (fanfic, fan art, meta, moodboard, fan song, rec list, interpretive dance, rescuing a loved one who is currently chained to a cliff) are encouraged! <3

How to Participate

• Make a work of any sort that centers a romantic or queerplatonic relationship between Maedhros and Fingon. If you post on tumblr, @ this blog (russingon-week) or tag it #russingonweek and we'll reblog it!
• Sometimes tumblr notifs can be wonky, so feel free to message us or send us an ask if we haven't noticed/reblogged your work.
• You can also feel free to anonymously submit anything you'd like using the "submit" function on the blog.
• We'll provide a link to the AO3 collection once that's live. :)

Prompts

Day 1: Light

• Valinor
• Princes and exiles
• Joy in the past 
• Family
• First time 
• Childhood friends to lovers

Day 2: Darkness  

• Doom of the Noldor
• Angband and the Helcaraxë worldbuilding
• Kinslayings
• Grief and bereavement 
• Despair and hope
• Angry sex/hate sex

Day 3: Song

• Rescue from Thangorodrim
• Religious faith and worship headcanons 
• Unchaining 
• Trust and pity
• Betrayal and reconciliation 
• Hurt/comfort
• Reunion sex 

Day 4: Peace 

• Long Peace
• Himring and Barad Eithel
• Politics and diplomacy
• Fealty and devotion
• Noldorin traditions
• Fluff
• Tender sex 

Day 5: War 

• Archery, sparring and battle
• Battlefield traditions
• Fire
• Union of Maedhros
• Horror in the past
• Unhappy ending
• BDSM/kink

Day 6: AU 

• Canon divergence and fix-its
• Time travel/time bending
• Unusual headcanons
• Different setting
• Roleswap
• Sexual experimentation

Day 7: The Future  

• Weddings and oaths
• Re-embodiment
• Laws and Customs of the Eldar
• Transformation
• Parenthood, children, lineages 
• Ósanwë

tolkienshortfanworks challenge for June

The June challenge for tolkienshortfanworks has been posted to the community on Dreamwidth. 

The thematic challenge for June is: write a piece influenced by another fandom or work.



This could be a straight cross-over but the prompt can be equally filled by any kind of fusion so that it can be entirely set in Arda or another Tolkien setting, if you prefer (compare the suggestions below).

In either case, the piece must have a significant amount of Tolkien influence as well to qualify for the community.

Three suggestions for inspiration:

1) Lady Macbeth in Middle-earth?

2) Penelope and her loom in Middle-earth?

3) Little Miss Muffet?

These all happen to be female characters from western lore, but obviously you are encouraged to go way outside those categories for inspiration!



The formal challenge is a fixed length of 333 words.

As always, these prompts can be filled separately and combined with other challenges.

New participants welcome!

For more details on the challenge see the linked entry.

Fellowship of the Fics: June Pride Month

June is truly a beautiful month that celebrates all sorts of love. What better way to show that off than with a bingo board?! Here you can find FOTFics' Pride Month bingo board that has a variety of sexualities, as well as some activities that are near and dear to LGBTQIA+ community!

Many of these can still be used in canon-verse! They don't necessarily have to be modern universe. Just have fun with them!

And of course don’t forget to send in your fics to us when you are done so we can put it in our queue using this form! Be creative!!