Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Celedriel Week 2026
Celedriel Week 2026 Prompts
July 14
First Meetings, Impressions, The Heart Stirs
A Gaze Caught. The Fire Ignites.
“Is this the love they speak of in songs and poems?”
July 15
Dedication. Courtship. The Heart Blooms.
Gifts of Love. Words and Songs.
“Oh beloved mine, where might I rest but your embrace?”
July 16
Marriage, Vows, The Heart Bound in Love
An Exchange of Rings. Melding of Houses.
“This I vow from here on forth, and beyond the world’s end.”
July 17
Kingdoms. Refuge. The Heart Endures
Crowns of Silver. Realms Rise and Fall.
“With you by my side, I have nothing to fear.”
July 18
Separation. Conflict. The Heart Grieves.
War and Loss. When Paths Diverge.
“How far will the lonely road take us before we renew our love again?”
July 19
Lothlorien. Children. The Heart Heals.
When Wounds Mend. The Throne of Elvendom.
“By our toil, future generations shall persist before the Shadow.”
July 20
The West. Undying Love. The Heart is Eternal
Beyond the Tribulations. The Last Ship.
“In the end, it is you and I who remain past the fading of the ancient days.”
Esoteric Tolkien Week 2026
That's right, Esoteric Tolkien Week, your center for all things strange, mystical, inexplicable, and unfathomed in Arda and beyond, is back for round two! We are open to all types and ratings of fanwork, and are eager to welcome returners and new faces alike. A few bits of useful tattle for the moment:
- Further information and event guidelines can be found here
- Event planned to run July 13th - 19th, 2026
- An ao3 collection will open closer to the run date—if you have any work hanging around that you'd like to submit now, or just want to get inspired, you can find the small but mighty 2025 collection here
Prompts
Day 1 - Lands, Wander, Documents
Day 2 - Waters, Return, Music
Day 3 - Skies, Demand, Inventions
Day 4 - Underground, Trammel, Relics
Day 5 - Ruins, Bargain, Art
Day 6 - In the Dark, Endure, Weapons & Armor
Day 7 - At Home, Abandon, Gifts
Tolkien Gen Week 2026
Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026!
This is a week to appreciate all of the incredible characters and relationships within Tolkien’s legendarium that fall under the broad category of “gen.” There is a great wealth of wonderful gen content in the Tolkien fandom, but those creations are not always the most visible because of the shipping-focused nature of fandom at large. This week is an effort to give them the appreciation they deserve.
This year, Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026!
Any content and creations are welcome as long as it is non-romantic and non-sexual! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! Please tag your posts with #tolkiengenweek AND @ mention this blog @tolkiengenweek so they can be easily found. If your submission turns into a long post, please put what you can beneath a “Keep reading” divider. You may also post your creations to our AO3 collection.
Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This post will lead to an explanation for each one.
- DAY ONE: Family ● Mentorships ● Community
- DAY TWO: Friendship ● Animals ● Group Dynamic
- DAY THREE: Gray Spaces ● Enemies and Rivalries ● Fealty
- DAY FOUR: Solo ● Work and Craft ● Language
- DAY FIVE: Culture ● Diversity ● Traditions
- DAY SIX: Environment ● Places ● Objects and Symbols
- DAY SEVEN: Freeform
This event is being organized by @arofili. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message this blog or my main.
For further clarification, check out our FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
Starting July 1st ObscureDurins will be hosting
TOLKIEN DISABILITY PRIDE
This event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.
You can do worldbuilding, fan fic, fan art, share a favorite character, your favorite headcanons, write a song, poem, show us your LOTRO Oc!ANYTHING providing-
- Absolutely NO USE OF AI IN ANY PART OF THE PROCESS
- Ableism and violence against Disabled character should be done with nuance and plot in mind. Remember this is a pride event we are more than willing to have dead dove- provided it is done justly and tactfully.
- Tag all your works appropriately and place under a read more.
Tag: "tolkien disability pride" AND "obscuredurins" to get your work featured.
This is a spoonie friendly event! We accept past works, WIPS, and encourage this as our time to display PRIDE in our community.
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
June 1: Sign-ups and art submissions open
July 7: Artist sign-ups close
July 19: Art submissions close
July 24: Gallery opens
July 25 & 26: Art viewing parties
July 30: Author sign-ups close
August 1: Claims Day (Times to be announced)
August 2: Additional Claims Open
August 3: Art posting begins
November 1: Drop-out without penalty deadline
November 15: Fic submission deadline
November 28: Reveals!
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Feanorian Week 2023
Feanorian Week will run March 20th-26th. The prompts have been posted.
Sufficiently Advanced Exchange
Sufficiently Advanced is a multifandom exchange for science fiction, fantasy, and horror book canons. This includes novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories. Nominations are open until March 7th, signups March 8th - 18th.
B2MeM Prompt Board Is Now Live!
Are you looking for a chill way to celebrate Back to Middle-earth Month with us? Look no further! We've prepared 100 prompts for you to use this March!
Felt inspired? Created other Middle-Earth related things in March? You can add your creations to the B2MeM AO3 collection! Feel free to tag us on Tumblr @spring-into-arda, too! But most of all, have an amazing Back to Middle-earth Month and have fun creating!
Signum University Press Open for Submissions
Signum University Press is currently open to new submissions for both scholarly and creative works. They are specifically looking for work from new and emerging authors from underrepresented demographics.
They are looking specifically for:
- Individual, previously-unpublished academic articles or chapters on topics relating to language and literature, in particular those focused on Afrofuturism, ecocriticism, fandoms, the Inklings, Germanic philology, medieval literature, and popular culture.
- Scholarly monographs on the above topics, as well as translations and editions of literary works.
- Individual, previously-unpublished short stories, especially fantasy, science fiction, mythopoeia, fairy tales, secondary worlds, dystopia, Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism, dark academia, superhero tales, and adaptations of classic myths.
The submissions guidelines have specifics about what they accept and how to propose or send your work.
Registration Open for the 2023 International Medieval Congress
Drawing medievalists from over 60 countries, with more than 2,000 individual papers as well as public concerts, performances, excursions, bookfairs and more, the International Medieval Congress (IMC) is Europe’s largest forum for sharing ideas in medieval studies.
IMC 2023 will take place from Monday 03 July to Thursday 06 July 2023 and it is our strong intention, coronavirus restrictions permitting, that there will be both an in-person and virtual component. The special thematic focus for IMC 2023 will be ‘Networks & Entanglements’.
Register for IMC 2023 (closes 5 May 2023)
IMC 2023 Programme
The IMC features a Tolkien Studies track.
Call for Papers: German Tolkien Society, Tolkien Seminar 2023
The 19th Seminar of the German Tolkien Society is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and will take place in a hybrid format (predominantly in person but with online options) at the Seminar for English Philology at the Georg-August-University Göttingen on 27-29 October 2023.
Tolkien himself often sketched places and landscapes during the writing process in order to visualise his literary descriptions. His illustrations for The Hobbit as well as the iconic maps of Middle-earth attest to the high value he placed on visualising and concretising his secondary world. Soon after their publication, his works were also illustrated by other artists or inspired them to create paintings depicting scenes from Tolkien’s tales. Alan Lee and John Howe are probably the best-known visual artists of this category, and as ‘chief conceptual designers’ for Peter Jacksons films, they have shaped the vision of Middle-earth of millions of people – which is currently both reinforced and challenged by the Amazon series Rings of Power. Furthermore, there have always been artists who found their own approach to Tolkien’s work and sometimes create interpretations through visual representation (see, for example, Jay Johnstone’s painting ‘Isildur’).
The aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers from different disciplines and fields to explore the different approaches to visualising Tolkien’s work.
Interested applicants are requested to send a short abstract (no longer than one page) and a short biography as well as their preference (attendance in person or online presentation) to Thomas Fornet-Ponse by 30 May 2023: hither-shore@tolkiengesellschaft.de
2023 Fanlore Challenge
The IFD 2023 Fanlore Challenge is a week-long event organized as part of International Fanworks Day 2023. The Challenge is open to new and experienced editors, and everyone is encouraged to participate!
The IFD 2023 Fanlore Challenge takes place from the 13-19 February, with different editing challenges to complete on each day.
Each day has a challenge suitable for editors at any level, plus a bonus challenge for more experienced editors. It's completely up to you which one you want to complete — you’re welcome to take on both of them if you wish!
Anyone who completes that day's challenge(s) will be awarded a shiny badge! Further down, you'll find instructions on how to get your badges, and how to display them on your Fanlore user page.
If you're new to editing Fanlore, we have lots of guidance and resources to help you get started! Visit our New Visitor Portal to get started, and read our Editing Help page for advice on how to edit pages. You can find all of the Fanlore challenge prompts here.
Maedhros and Maglor Week 2023
This is a fandom event dedicated to exploring the relationship between Maedhros and Maglor! It will run February 19th-25th, 2023. Fanworks of all kinds are welcome (see the Event Guidelines page for details!)
Prompts:
February 19th—Day 1: Aman
February 20th—Day 2: Fire and Water
February 21st—Day 3: Lordship in Beleriand
February 22nd—Day 4: Adornment
February 23rd—Day 5: Blood
February 24th—Day 6: With Elrond & Elros
February 25th—Day 7: Afterwards
You can also find a handy prompt schedule here and on the blog with some suggestions for inspiration related to each prompt!
Fanworks for the event can respond to one or more prompts (interpreted however you wish), or they can be totally unrelated to any prompt, as long as there’s a focus on Maedhros and Maglor. This event is inclusive of all iterations of their relationship: please respect everyone’s interpretations and creations!
19th Annual Tolkien at UVM Conference: CFP Deadline Extended
The 19th annual Tolkien @ UVM conference will be held on April 1st 2023. Abstracts are due by January 15th 2023 March 1st 2023. Please keep them to about 200 words. And send them to Chris Vaccaro at cvaccaro@uvm.edu We are accepting papers on all things concerning the Second Age of Middle-earth. Topics will vary and some papers not on this theme will also be accepted. Priority will be given to enquiries into history, historiography, and the historicity of race, gender, sexuality. This is a hybrid conference, so presenters can attend in person (preferred) or virtually. Our keynote will be the amazing Gergely Nagy!
Hurt/Comfort Exchange 2023
The Hurt/Comfort Exchange is a pairing- and freeform-matching multifandom gift exchange run on AO3.
The schedule for this year is:
Nominations: 10 - 24 Feb
Signups: 1 - 15 March
Posting deadline: 13 May
Story reveal: 20 May
Author reveal: 27 May
All deadlines are at 23:59 UTC What Time Is That For Me?
Collection
Nomination Guidelines for Tagset
Tagset
Rules and Guidelines
The mod e-mail is hurtcomfortexmod@gmail.com
Work requirements are a story of at least 1000 words, or a piece of artwork that is not on lined paper and is at minimum clean linework that is at least 500x500 pixels.
