Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Week of Kiliel
Welcome to Week of Kiliel!
This event will be held May 17-23! The goal of this week is to celebrate and be creatively inspired by the relationship between Tauriel and Kili Durin! We want to encourage The Hobbit community to make Kiliel art, fanfiction, edits, crafts, and more!
Rules:
• There are prompts for every day to inspire your creativity! You can pick one or multiple from each day, and they can be followed as loosely or as closely as you would like!
• Please use the tag “#week of kiliel” so we can reblog your entries! You can also tag @weekofkiliel! We are so excited to see and support all of your work!
• Late entries are fine, though we ask that you do not post earlier!
• If you have an existing work that fits one of these prompts that you would like to submit, that is fine, but please repost about it with the hashtag on the day it corresponds to! While we accept already existing works, we really want to encourage new Kiliel content as that is one of the goals of Kiliel week!
• NSFW is allowed! While none of the prompts are explicitly NSFW, NSFW is permitted as long as it is properly tagged!
• While the main ship and characters should be Kiliel, background ships and characters are welcome! However, for this event we do not accept Durincest or other incest ships.
NO AI WILL BE PERMITTED FOR THIS EVENT, ANY AI ENTRIES WILL BE UNOFFICIAL AND WILL NOT BE REBLOGGED OR ENDORSED
Prompts
Day 1 - Modern AU, First Kiss, Dating, Fluff
Day 2 - Courting, Erebor Never Fell AU, Wingman, Khuzdul
Day 3 - Sickfic, Poison, Angst, Healing
Day 4 - Mirkwood, Culture Shock, Meetcute, Sindarin
Day 5 - Height Difference, Cuddling, College AU, Bed Sharing
Day 6 - Crossover AU, Fake Dating, Arranged Marriage, Confession
Day 7 - Afterlife, Everybody Lives, Scene Rewrite, Alt First Meeting
Aspec Arda Week 2026
Aspec Arda Week: May 10th-16th, 2026
This event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien's Legendarium.
Any creations about the aromantic and asexual spectrums are welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! All versions of canon/fanon and characters are included, be it from the books, movies, TV, OCs, etc. Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so that your work can be easily found. If you are posting your submission to AO3, we will have an event collection! This is not an event for generative AI works.
The prompts below are a guideline for the week’s events, though you are not obligated to stick to them when participating. They’re completely optional, and more of a source of inspiration than a mandatory guideline. Feel free to explore them however you’d like; an explanation for each is given, but you can interpret them differently if you want to.
Day 1 / May 10th: Asexuality || Hope
Day 2 / May 11th: Aromanticism || Community
Day 3 / May 12th: Across the A-Spectrum || Loneliness
Day 4 / May 13th: Worldbuilding || Dragons
Day 5 / May 14th: Relationships || Linguistics
Day 6 / May 15th: Intersectionality || Found Family
Day 7 / May 16th: Freeform
For further clarification, check out our FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Detailed Prompts
DAY ONE: Asexuality
What characters do you see as asexual? Why? How does that impact their lives?
Alternative prompt: Hope
DAY TWO: Aromanticism
What characters do you see as aromantic? Why? How does that impact their lives?
Alternative prompt: Community
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum
“Asexual” and “aromantic” are umbrella terms encapsulating a wide spectrum of identities. From grayromantic to demisexual, and aroace to lithromantic —there are many other labels on the a-spectrum. This is a day for exploring those identities and the characters you associate them with.
Alternative prompt: Loneliness
DAY FOUR: World Building
How does acceptance and prevalence of aspec identity vary over both cultures and species?
Are all elves really baseline demisexual? What’s up with one third of dwarven populations focusing on their craft instead of taking a spouse? How do soul bonds work between elven couples who don’t want to have sex? Did Númenor get aphobic when they started distancing themselves from the Elves? Do aspec hobbits feel pressure to settle down and have large families?
Alternative prompt: Dragons
DAY FIVE: Relationships
Aspec people can have many different kinds of relationships, including romantic and sexual ones— but some kinds of relationships are more unique and common to the aspec communities, such as queerplatonic ones. Today is a day for exploring all these different kinds of relationships!
There are several relationships in Tolkien's works that could easily be read as queerplatonic, including Frodo & Sam, and Legolas & Gimli. There is also an interesting footnote in The Nature of Middle Earth which describes something like a queerplatonic relationship and provides some Quenya words for it.
Alternative prompt: Linguistics - Many of the terms for aspec identity come from root words of Latin, can you postulate translations for aspec terminology in any of Tolkien's languages?
DAY SIX: Intersectionality
There is more to a person’s life than just their orientation. Outside of fantasy species, how does being aspec interact with a character’s other identities and experiences, such as race or disability or religion? What’s the impact of a character’s aspec identity on their gender or other orientation labels? Today is a day for exploring the intersections of the aspec experience with other aspects of identity.
Alternative Prompt: Found Family
DAY SEVEN: Freeform
Post about something aspec related not yet covered in the topics this week, or return to a prompt you have more thoughts about! Alternatively, we have some additional prompts for inspiration that did not quite fit into the other days.
- Recommend a fic, meta post, etc. that includes aspec identity.
- How would a particular character respond to allonormativity / amatanormativity? What kind of amatanormativity / allonormativity have they faced?
- What is a particular character’s relationship with their aspec identity Is it a big part of their life?
- Post about an aspec character’s family, either found family, or blood relations. Does their family support them? Does their family (or society) have expectations of marriage and children of them?
- Post about aspec community (symbols, cultural practices, mentorship and friendship with other aspec characters) within the context a culture within Tolkien's Legendarium, or take a character and post about what parts an aspec community they would resonate with in a modern Earth AU.
Angbang Week 2026
This is the official blog of Angbang (or Melron) week.
We follow the tags "#AngbangWeek" and "#Angbang Week" as well as the current year variations of those tags. We have our ask box and DMs open if you have any questions!
List of prompts for Angbang Week 2026:
- Day 1: First meeting/Reunion
- Day 2: Dating/Intimacy
- Day 3: Competitions/Rivalry
- Day 4: Eyes/Gaze
- Day 5: Letters/Long distance communication
- Day 6: Last day together/Separation
- Day 7: Canon divergence
As always, there are two prompts a day to choose between. You may create any original work you feel relates to the prompt, and if you did not connect with a prompt, feel free to skip it. All previously unposted creations made by you are accepted (fic, art, moodboards, playlists, etc). For any adult content, please keep it below a read more and tag it accordingly.
When posting your works, please post them on the day the prompt appears on or on a later day and tag this blog directly by using @, or add one of the following tags (#angbangweek2026, #angbang week 2026) to your post's tag list so we know the post is for the event. Please note that the event rules have been updated to clarify that we do NOT accept any creations made using Generative AI of any sort, and as such we will not be featuring any such content on this blog. For any questions or further clarifications, feel free to reach out in the asks or DMs. Happy creating and we'll see you in May!
April/May Teitho Challenge
Our prompt for April/May is Heartbreak. There are so many possibilities with this one!
Will you go back to the very beginning with the heartbreak of Melkor’s discord during the creation?
Or will you take us to the time of Miriel and Finwë? Fëanor’s heartbreak at the loss of his mother?And later his father’s death? Or the loss of the Silmarils themselves, that led to so much heartbreak for so many?
The kinslaying. The ship burning. The Helcaraxë. Battle after battle. Betrayal. The heartbreak of The Oath itself.
The death of Fingolfin. Fingon. Finrod. The sons of Fëanor, one after another. The heartbreak of those left behind: Maglor, Galadriel, Elrond.
The tragedy of the House of Hurin.
Or will you come to the time of Celebrimbor—the glory of Eregion and Khazad-Dûm and the devastation that followed? The Last Alliance?
The travails of Frodo. The lonely travels of Aragorn. The heavy weight of duty straining the hearts of both Boromir and Faramir. Eowyn’s heartbreak in Edoras.
The doomed love stories that are woven into Tolkien’s books—Turin, Finduilas, Gwindor, to name a few.
Heartbreak can be so many things—with love, with loss, with changes that shift our entire world. But heartbreak can also be in the small moments—for a child, a parent, a friend, a comrade. It can be momentary or span years. Or even lifetimes.
Will you break our hearts with your stories and art this time? Or will you find a way to heal the heartbreak and find the hope that can endure and persist?
We can’t wait to see what you do with this prompt!
Submissions are due May 31, 2026. Please send them to teitho.contest@gmail.com
Your teitho mods
Sian22, Lotrfan, and Cassie.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
Schedule
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March
1: 2025 Gallery Opens
The Gallery for 2025 is live! Enjoy the beautiful pieces created for last year’s TRSB!
22: Suggestion Form Opens
This form gives potential authors (or anyone else who wants to play!) the opportunity to suggest characters, places and scenarios they would like to see in the submitted art. We will post a link to the form on our Tumblr and here on the website. The answers will feed into a publicly available spreadsheet listing the ideas submitted; artists can peruse this to get inspired!
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April
12: Sign-ups Open
We post links to our sign-up form on all the usual platforms. You can then sign up as an artist, an author, a beta, a cheerleader, a pinch hitter, or as two or more of these. Please see the ‘Sign-ups’ section of the FAQ for more details on what these terms mean.
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May
3: Artist Sign-up Deadline
9: Art Draft Due
Participating art submissions must be sent to the mods by this date to be eligible for the Claims Gallery.
For more details on how to do this, see the ‘Art Submissions’ section of the FAQ. Artists may submit up to two pieces of art, for claiming by two separate authors.10: Discord Server Opens
Come hang out with your fellow participants!
15: Art Previews Open
Our online gallery of art prompts will be visible to signed-up participants only. Signed-up authors can browse the artworks and see which pieces appeal to their muses!
16-17: Discord Art Talks
These are live chats on Discord with mod presence – start times to be announced – where we go through the beautiful gallery and admire the work of our artists. It has been great fun in past years!
20: Author Signups Deadline
23 (Saturday) 17:00 UTC: CLAIMS
Authors submit a ranked list of the artworks they would like to claim to write fic for. Claims are on a first-come, first-served basis. One artwork will be allocated to each claiming author; the mods will email you to confirm which piece you have successfully claimed and how to get in touch with your artist. See the ‘Claims’ section of the FAQ for more information.
TBA – Additional Claims
If any artworks are left unclaimed, we will hold one or more additional claiming rounds as needed. Generally, there will be 24 hours between rounds, but the timing is at the mods’ discretion. The additional round(s) will be announced to signed-up participants by email and on the TRSB Discord.
31: Post-Claims Check-in
The mods will email each artist/author pair to ensure that you have successfully established contact – even if you are not planning on a close collaboration, it is polite to check in with your partner, say hello, and make sure you’re both clear on must-haves and do-not-wants. One person from your pair must respond and confirm that you have done this!
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June
14: Free Rein Art Due
We know some artists like to give their authors as much creative freedom as possible, and we have a dedicated collaboration option for this (see ‘Art Submissions’ FAQs). However, this means we require these artists to share the final art with their authors much earlier than artists who are prepared to be more involved.
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July
12: Check-in #2
The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQ.
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August
9: Final Art Due
Artists must share the final art with their authors – but don’t post it yet!
Don’t email it to the mods.16: Final Check-in (#3)
Deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for dropping out on or before this date. This year we ask both collaborators to contact the mods at the final check-in.
The mods will email all participants beforehand to ensure everything is still on track. We will ask you to confirm:
- Whether the art is complete (Artists: did you share it with your author? Authors: have you seen the final art?)
- Whether you have discussed posting logistics (ie, have you talked about how the art will be posted (embedded and/or posted separately to the collection), who will handle promo posting, any specific posting needs)
26: Art Can Be Posted
Artworks can be posted to your preferred platform on or after this date (but before they are due in the collection). Hype your collab wherever you like and get the excitement going! Artists should ensure that their author has received a link to the art for embedding or linking in the finished fic as agreed upon before August 30th (deadline for posting the fic to the collection).
30: Fic Due In Collection
Authors should post their stories in our AO3 collection with the artwork embedded or linked. See the “Posting fic” section of our FAQ.
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September
5: COLLECTION REVEALS
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Independent Archives Survey
I have been running an independent archive for over sixteen years now. During that time, I've watched the Silmarillion Writers' Guild go from one archive of many in a crowded field to one of the only independent archives that remains active. Furthermore, the options available to build your own archive have dwindled, leaving fans who want a greater variety of archive choices without much of one.
Last year, I started thinking about how to support the rekindling of independent archives and drafted a tutorial for how to build an archive in Drupal (the platform the SWG uses) that I plan to record this summer. However, this is not the only approach. The recent attention drawn to various issues with the OTW/AO3 has only hastened the importance of fans having the option again of building their own archives.
It's my first day of summer break. I have two months to tackle what I can of this issue, so to get a handle on where people are on the subject and where it's best to focus my energy, I've put together a survey on independent archives.
If you create or read/view fanworks, I want to hear from you! You do not need to have interest in independent archives. Responses are anonymous, and the survey will remain open through 7 July 2023.
You can take the independent archives survey here.
Signal boosts and reblogs are much appreciated so that I can hear from as broad a group of participants as possible.
Going forward, I will be tagging Tumblr updates related to this work #independent archives.
Tolkien Society Seminar 2023: Tolkien and Religion
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 seminar "Secondary Believers, Secondary Worlds: Tolkien and Religion in the Twenty-First Century" will be held online on Sunday, 26th November. Registration is free. This seminar will be co-organised by The Tolkien Society and the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic! The schedule of presentations has been posted on the seminar's event page.
Horrorfic Bingo
Horrific Bingo is a challenge open to any fandom and pairing. However, due to the nature of the challenge (disturbing themes and sexual content), this challenge is open only for mature participants at the age of 18 or above.
The challenge doesn't have a deadline nor a schedule you need to follow. You just need to sign up, fill out the form and you can create anything anytime you want. The purposes are to inspire you to create something and maybe in some way making you have fun.
All media of creations are accepted whether it's a written fiction, an artwork, a playlist, or whatever you're inspired to make. This bingo has varying tropes and prompts from the general horror tropes to demonology-inspired prompts.
Note that it may take up to a week to receive your bingo card.
Upcoming Regional Moots from Signum University
Signum University regularly holds regional moots, fannish and scholarly gatherings that are focused on (but not limited to!) a theme. These moots are often hybrid and welcome attendees, as well as proposals for presentations.
Cascade Moot 2023: Be the Revolution!
September 23, 2023
Portland English Language Academy, Portland, OR
Five years after Ursula K LeGuin’s passing, her spirit and writings continue to revolutionize the genres, industry, and indeed the people she touched. What revolution has the life and legacy of LeGuin sparked and who or what will take us on from here? As she said, “You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.” Join us for a day of exploration and fellowship as we investigate revolutions across genre and time! Click here for more info and to register for the event.
Middle Moot 2023: Tolkien and the Anthropocene
October 14, 2023
Hawkeye Community College, Waterloo, IA
The keynote speaker and guest of honor for Middle Moot 2023 will be Janet Brennan Croft, the editor of Mythlore journal, author of War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and editor of Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J.R.R. Tolkien. In addition, the Tolkien Professor, Corey Olsen, will be there! Click here for more info and to register for the event.
New England Moot 2023: Perilous Realms & Haunted Spaces
October 21, 2023
Studio Lab, Derry, NH
Whether you are inspired by the Bifröst, the Bermuda Triangle, Wonderland, or an ordinary-looking Wardrobe, New England Moot welcomes you to question how to define Perilous Realms & Haunted Spaces. How do you know when you’ve entered one? How does the experience of the unknown inform artistic creation? Join us as we traverse the blurry edge of boundaries and venture into the wildlands beyond. You may not be the same when you leave as you were when you arrived! Click here for more info and to register for the event.
Mountain Moot 2023: The Fellowship of Fandom
November 4, 2023
Denver Public Library, Bob Ragland Branch, Denver, CO
How do you engage with your favorite stories? Are you inspired to create your own original works? Do your favorite stories motivate you in your everyday life? What about the dark side of fandom? Have you ever been affected by gatekeeping, discrimination, or other forms of exclusionary behavior? What about toxic attitudes toward new works within your favorite properties? How can we do better deal with this shadow element of our communities? We hope you’ll join us for a lively discussion of all these issues at Mountain Moot 2023! Click here for more info and to register for the event.
Bayou Moot 2023: The Portrayal of Women in Legends and Fantasy
December 2, 2023
AIA New Orleans Center for Design, New Orleans, LA
We will be considering the long traditions behind female characters in fantasy, folklore, and science fiction, learning from the past and looking to the future as lovers of genre storytelling. From the heroines we cheer for to the villains we love to hate, there is something to learn from each. Join us as we discuss what makes a female character compelling, how gender does or doesn’t impact audience reach, and how the portrayal of women contributes to the success or failure of a story. We offer a warm welcome to fangirls of all kinds and look forward to a lively discussion and to hearing your personal stories about the women (real and imaginary) who inspire and challenge you. Click here for more info and to register for the event.
Crossover Ships Week 2023
Crossover Ships Week is a week-long event dedicated to the creation of all the content for ANY crossover ship you can imagine. The event will take place from the 19th to the 25th of June this year on Tumblr and AO3. There will be three prompts per day: prompt, AU, and quote. Both SFW and NSFW prompts are available. You can pick and choose which prompts you want to use and can combine prompts from different days. All fandoms and ships are welcome!
The prompts list and rules can be found here and la traducción al español aquí.
Tag entries with #CrossoverShipsWeek2023. If you plan to participate in the event anonymously, DM the mods with your contributions, and the mods will publish them from the event account.
Links:
Forthcoming Expanded Edition of "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien"
On Tor.com, blogger Vanessa Anderson reports that an expanded edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien will be available in November 2023, adding 150 letters totally 50,000 words that had to be cut from the original publication of 354 letters. While preorder information is not yet available, we will update here once it is. Check out Vanessa's blog post for more on the forthcoming expansion.
Bagginshield Week 2023
Bagginshield Week is for fanworks featuring all kinds of platonic, romantic, and sexual relationships between Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield, including open relationships, so long as they are the focus. Likewise, all canons and headcanons are accepted! The event runs on Tumblr and AO3, 4-12 June 2023.
All mediums are allowed, included mixed media, and there is no official minimum that your work must fill! Also, all ratings and warnings and such are accepted, so long as you tag accordingly!
Two prompts are given for each day of the event as well as two alternate prompt lists, and you can use as many of them, combine any of them as you wish, I only ask that you mention which ones you’re using in any specific work. You can also make as many works as you want/can.
You can post in any platform, but the event mod will only be able to work with Tumblr and Archive of Our Own. For Tumblr you can make a post containing your work or a link to it, and you have to tag your posts #thilboweek23; for AO3, you can find the collection here.
Prompts
- Day One (June 4): Fairytale AU and Domestic
- Day Two (June 5): Bilbo in Erebor and Piercings & Tattoos for Day 2
- Day Three (June 6): Pride & Prejudice AU and Blade/Sword
- Day Four (June 7): Nautical/Pirate AU and The Moon/The Sun
- Day Five (June 8): Ghibli AU and Hobbit Culture
- Day Six (June 9): Erebor Never Fell and Flowers/Flower Language
- Day Seven (June 10): Everybody Live/Nobody Dies and Haunted House/Castle/Palace
The prompts for the Whump Alternate List are: Believed to be Dead; Nightmares/Hallucinations; Silence; Left Behind; Hidden Injury.
The prompts for the Regular Alternate List are: Courtship; Secret Relationship; Thorin is an Errant Smith; Meeting the Family; Enchantments/Spells.
June Challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted
The tolkienshortfanworks prompts for June have been posted to the Dreamwidth community.
The thematic challenge is unseasonable weather.
The formal challenge is a traditional saying, rhyme, or rule of thumb that attempts to predict the weather (and may be disproved by your narrative framework, if you want to combine the two challenges!).
For an example of such a prediction, compare this traditional rhyme about St Swithin's Day:
St Swithin’s day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain,
St Swithin’s day, if thou be fair,
For forty days ‘twill rain nae mare.
Is there a saying like that in Middle-earth about Durin's Day, maybe, or other dates in the calendar?
New participants to the challenges and community always welcome!
More detail on the challenges at the linked post.
Scribbles & Drabbles 2023
Scribbles & Drabbles is a two-part event that involves the creation of art, followed by writing stories based on the art.
During the first part, artists submit their art. All art submitted should be "finished" before it is submitted. Art is added to a super awesome presentation. At the end of the submission period, artists who also want to write get first dibs at making claims.
During the second part, authors choose art to write for. Each author can make up to three claims to start; as they finish pieces, they can return and make additional claims. Artwork can be claimed multiple times. Writing can be any format but must be at least a drabble (100 words).
Schedule
Artist sign-ups: June 1 - June 30
Author sign-ups: June 1 - July 31
Arts due: July 15
Gallery goes live: August 6
Art posting begins: August 11
Claims:
- Artist-Authors: August 11
- Returning Authors: August 12
- New Authors: August 13
Further claims: August 18 onwards
Drop-out deadline: November 10
Fics due: November 11
Reveals: November 25
Links
Gen Work June 2023
Gen Work June is a Tumblr-based event that encourages sharing gen fanworks during the month of June. There's six prompts below, you could pick one (or more) and write or draw something. Or write or draw something completely different. Or share some of your old gen work again. Make a rec list. Just leave a nice comment on your favourite gen work. We'll count all of it.
Rules
The whole point is it's about gen work, it can be any kind as long as it's gen. Mentions of background relationship are fine as long as the romance isn't a focus
And then make a post, tag this blog if you want (remember to tag warnings and stick long fics at least partly below a read more if you're posting them on here), and that's it
Prompts
Families (born or made) or Best Friends Forever
First or Reunion or Comfort: One-word prompts you can interpret however you like. It could be two lifelong friends meeting for the first time. A sibling giving a hug after a bad day. Anything.
Flipping the Script: Take a trope that would usually be expected to be romantic and make it platonic. Or find another way to interpret the prompt, if you think it fits, then it fits.
