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.
Tolkienshortfanworks challenge for May posted
The challenge for May at the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth has been posted. The prompts are: bonfires and / or songs of defiance.
The bonfire could be the Middle-earth equivalent of Beltane bonfire, if you like, but it can be any bonfire you choose.
The formal challenge is: songs of defiance. That could be a quiet song of defiance, like Sam's in Cirith Ungol, or a song chanted during an attack, by individuals or the whole battle line, like the Rohirrim attacking on the Pelennor Fields, or whatever else might come to you. Maybe Middle-earth revolutionaries have a version of Do you hear the people sing? Maybe there is someone involved in a song battle like Finrod's? Or maybe the defiance is of yet another and quite different kind?
More details on the challenge rules at the linked post. New participants are always welcome and joining the community is easy.
Survey: Describing "Canon"
This survey asks about 20 questions (which may end up being more or fewer, depending on your specific answers!) about the term “canon.” Questions include topics such as: where have you heard this term before? What do you think it describes? Do you think it is important for enjoying popular culture texts?
The whole survey should take about 10-20 minutes to complete, depending on whether you choose to complete the optional freeform questions.
This survey is being conducted by Maria K. Alberto, a PhD candidate in English at the University of Utah, as part of her dissertation and ongoing research.
Character OR Exchange Sign-Ups Open
Character OR Exchange (CORE for short) is a multimedia exchange for fandoms of all sorts (books to RPF to music videos to etc.). The twist: matching will occur on characters, not relationships, with inclusive OR selection.
We'll be running this along typical exchange lines: participants will sign up with requests and offers, will be matched via AO3, and will receive an assignment. By signing up, participants agree to make a fannish creation for their assigned participant. In turn, someone will make a fannish creation for them. You will need an AO3 account to participate.
All times below are given as 24-hour times. IDT is the time zone of Israel. (UTC+3)
Nominations are closed.
Sign-ups start: 30 Apr 16:00 IDT (in your timezone)
Sign-ups end: 7 May 16:00 IDT (in your timezone | countdown)
Works due: 4 Jun 16:00 IDT (in your timezone | countdown)
Works revealed: 11 Jun 16:00 IDT (in your timezone | countdown)
Authors revealed: 18 Jun 16:00 IDT (in your timezone | countdown)
Mythcon: "The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien" Call for Papers
This year's Mythcon will be held in-person in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as online, July 29 - August 1, 2022.
Mythcon 52’s theme provides multiple opportunities to explore the Other in fantasy and mythopoeic literature. Tolkien spoke in “On Fairy-stories” of “the desire to visit, free as a fish, the deep sea; or the longing for the noiseless, gracious, economical flight of a bird.” We invite discussion about the types of fantasy that are more likely to put us into contact with the alien, such as time portal fantasy and space travel fantasy. In addition to Inklings, some writers who deal particularly well with the truly alien who might be explored include Lovecraft, Gaiman, Le Guin, Tepper, and others. Other topics that might be fruitfully explored are: depictions of the alien Other in film and television (Contact, Arrival, HBO’s Watchmen, etc.); developing constructed languages that are truly different from those of Earth-based humans; fantastical Others in indigenous myths (such as Coyote and Spider Woman from Native American mythology); and American folklore about the alien (flying saucers, alien abduction, Area 51, Roswell).
The Mythopoeic Society’s annual conference, popularly called “Mythcon,” has historically been held in late July or early August at a college or university campus, although in recent years hotels or conference centers have become more common as sites. Each conference is constructed around a theme related to Inklings studies and/or fantastic and mythic literature. Each conference also features an author and a scholar guest of honor. Papers, panel discussions, readings, entertainment, an art show, a dealers’ room, and other activities fill the four-day event. Another Mythcon highlight is our annual banquet, after which the Mythopoeic Awards are presented. A small (usually 100-200 people) size and intimate setting makes Mythcon an excellent venue for meeting people with common interests. You may see the full history and individual conference pages by visiting our Mythcon History page.
The Mythopoeic Society has always encouraged scholarship in mythopoeic and Inklings studies by providing a venue in which scholars, new and old, may present papers which may in turn be considered for publication in Mythlore, assisting scholars in need of financial aid to attend Mythcon, and recognizing student scholars with the Alexei Kondratiev Award.
For this conference, in-person and virtual options are available. Paper proposals are due May 15, 2022. See the full Mythcon call for papers for more details.
Sunflower Auction to Help Ukraine
What is Sunflower Auction?
Sunflower Auction is an online fanworks auction, designed to raise money for nonprofit organizations that help the people of Ukraine fight back against Russia's invasion.
What charities do you support?
Any listed on Defend Ukraine and/or Stand With Ukraine.
What fandoms are included?
Any of them, including original work! There are no restrictions on fandom or pairing/gen or rating or whatever. Anything goes and everyone is invited.
How do I participate in the auction?
You can signup as a creator using this google form.
You can offer multiple times. If you offer different media (eg: art and writing), you will need to submit the form for each medium. If offering multiple times the same medium, just specify in the notes. Please only offer what you can reasonably expect to fulfill.
How can I look at offers?
Since the offering period is still ongoing, the only way to look at offers is currently this google sheet. Once the offering period ends, individual tagged entries per creator will be created in this community.
AUCTION CALENDAR
April 25 2022 23:59 UTC to May 10 2022 23:59 UTC – creator signups – OPEN!
May 12 2022 23:59 UTC to May 30 2022 23:59 UTC – bidding
June 10 2022 23:59 UTC – proof of donation due from bidders
June 10 2023 23:59 UTC – Works are due
Sláva Ukrayíni!
See the Sunflower Auction Dreamwidth or the Sunflower Auction Tumblr for more information.
Angbang Week 2022
Angbang Week will run May 1-7 on Tumblr.
The list of Angbang Week prompts for the event is here. All format are accepted: fanfiction and other writing, art, playlists, original musical compositions, moodboards, screenshots from games (as long as they’re for the topic of the day, of course!), etc. So long as they’re original, and new, and yours, we want to see them!
Every day has a couple of prompts for you to choose from, for which you could create related work you would associate with the prompt in any way. The final day is a free for all - choose whatever topic you want!
When posting your works, please write the day number and the topic you chose, and tag the post “#Angbangweek2022″ or tag us directly and we will feature as many works as we can!
Here are the themes, feel free to start creating whenever the inspiration hits!
Day 1 -May 1st: Seduction | Adoration
Day 2 - May 2nd: Creation | Corruption
Day 3 - May 3rd: Years of the lamps | Years of the trees
Day 4 - May 4th: Utumno | Angband
Day 5 - May 5th: Dragons | Werewolves
Day 6 - May 6th: War of Wrath | Dagor Dagorath
Day 7 - May 7th: Free space!
The Inaugural Gates of Summer Exchange
We are so pleased to welcome you to Gates of Summer, a fandom-wide digital gift exchange.
We, the mods of @officialtolkiensecretsanta, have had five years of wonderful fun and success running our winter exchange. As we wrapped up last year’s event and contemplated its next iteration, we decided that we would love to bring the energy and enthusiasm of the community into the middle of the year as well.
Thus, Gates of Summer was born. Inspired by the Gondolin holiday of the same name, it exists as a shorter gift exchange running around the same time as many other wonderful fandom events like the @tolkienrsb. Gates of Summer will run from 28th April to 21st June - please check our event guide for the full schedule.
The mechanics of the exchange are similar to the Secret Santa: you fill out a form, and we match you by hand to an anonymous gift-giver who will prepare a digital gift specially for you. The main difference is that there is no anonymous posting for this summer event - you post your gift and tag your giftee on 21st June, the day of reveals!
Running concurrently alongside the gift exchange will be a series of weekly prompts, posted to our blog starting May 24th. You are welcome to complete prompts as and when you like during the exchange period. You don’t have to participate in the exchange itself to fill out the prompts. Just be sure to read the guide to make sure you tag your work correctly so we can reblog it to our blog!
The sign-up form will go live on 28th April. Do follow this blog to stay up to date with us and so you can sign up as soon as the form is open!
Unconventional Fanworks Exchange
Unconventional Fanworks Exchange is a gift exchange for fanwork besides traditional fic and art, including (but not limited to): meta, in-universe documents, vids, podfic, audio not!fic, chatfic, and multimedia fanwork.
Important Links:
AO3 Collection
Medium Tagset
Fandom + Character Tagset
Mod Contact: flowersforgravesfics @ gmail (dot) com, or Dreamwidth private messages. I do not answer mod questions via Discord.
Schedule:
All times, unless otherwise specified, will be 12:59 AM (00:59) UTC.
Nominations: April 24 - May 8 (countdown to close)
Signups: May 15 - May 29 (countdown to close)
Assignments Out: on or before June 1
Assignments Due: July 9 (countdown)
Works Revealed: July 16
Creators Revealed: July 23
See the Unconventional Fanworks Exchange community on Dreamwdith for complete guidelines.
Teitho April/May Challenge: One True Pairing
For our April/May challenge we have the prompt OTP–One True Pairing.
Choose whichever characters you consider your one true pairing and tell us a story about them. These can be canon pairings like Luthien and Beren, Aragorn and Arwen, Celeborn and Galadriel, but they can also be pairings that perhaps didn't get their chance to be together–like Aegnor and Andreth, or Nimrodel and Amroth.
Perhaps you want to write more about Turgon and Elenwë, Idril and Tuor, or how Earendil and Elwing met?
Or choose an AU setting and let your favorite characters have their happy ever after!
You don't have to limit yourself to canon pairings for this challenge–if there is a non-canon or rare-pair that speaks to you, give us their story.
We know Curufin had a wife – how did they meet, fall in love, grow apart?
It does not have to be a love story or a happy ever after. The choice is yours. Give us love or loss, happy ever afters or angsty twists to the tales of "what if."
This is your chance to explore any and all relationships between characters you love! We look forward to reading your stories!
Please submit your stories to teitho.contest@gmail.com by May 31.
BBC Ways of Being: Tom Shakespeare on J.R.R. Tolkien
Ways of Being is a BBC series where artists, writers and thinkers tell us about the ways they have been shaped by their ‘ways of being’, their individual bodies—what freedoms they allow, and their sensitivities or limits. Tom Shakespeare is a writer, social scientist, bioethicist, and a regular broadcaster for BBC Radio. Tom is the fifth essayist to let us into their particular 'way of being' and into their relationship with a cultural touchstone. In this essay, Tom considers the character of J.R.R. Tolkien's hobbits, and his experience of reading about them as a child with restricted growth—a child who adored books.
