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2022 Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature: Rebecca F. Kuang

The 2022 Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature, delivered by Rebecca F. Kuang on May 23 at Pembroke College, Oxford, concerns the topic "Goodness, Beauty, and Truth: The Value of Art in Times of Crisis." The lecture is now available on YouTube.

Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, translator, and the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award nominated author of the Poppy War trilogy and the forthcoming Babel. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.

Scribbles & Drabbles 2022 Sign-Ups Open

How the Event Works

1. 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.
2. 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.

Any kind of artwork is eligible. Writing must be at least a drabble (100 words).

Dates

Sign-ups for Artists: June 1-30

Sign-ups for Authors: June 1-July 31

Art Submission Deadline: July 15

Gallery Goes Live for Authors: July 22

Art Posted Publicly: August 1-15

Author Claims (for those participating as artists): August 5 @ 21:00 UTC
Author Claims (for those who participated the previous year): August 6 @ UTC 17:00
Author Claims (for first time authors): August 7 @ UTC 17:00

Author Submission Deadline: November 12

AO3 Collection Revealed: ​November 26

"The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien"

Over more than four decades J.R.R. Tolkien’s son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, published some twenty-four volumes of his father’s work, much more than his father had succeeded in publishing during his own lifetime. Standing on the mountain of his son’s colossal publishing effort and extraordinary scholarship, readers today are therefore able to survey and understand the vastness of the landscape of Tolkien’s legendarium.

This collection of essays by world-renowned scholars, together with family reminiscences, sheds new light on J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, his son Christopher’s unique gifts in communicating and interpreting that work and the debt owed to Christopher by the many Tolkien scholars who were privileged to work with him. What was Tolkien’s intended ending for The Lord of the Rings? Did it leave echoes in the stripped-down version that was actually published?  What was the audience’s response to the first ever adaptation of The Lord of the Rings – a radio dramatization that has now been deleted forever from the BBC’s archives? What was the significance of the extraordinary array of doorways which confronted the hobbits as they journeyed through Middle-earth?

The book is illustrated with colour reproductions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s manuscripts, maps, drawings and letters and, with the kind permission of his estate, photographs of Christopher Tolkien and extracts from his works, some of which have never been seen before, making this volume essential reading for Tolkien scholars, readers and fans. The book includes essays by Maxime H. Pascal, Priscilla Tolkien, Vincent Ferré, Verlyn Flieger, John Garth, Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull, Carl F. Hostetter, Stuart D. Lee, Tom Shippey, and Brian Sibley.

Preorder your copy of The Great Tales Never End for £40.00 on the publisher's website. The book will be published in June 2022.

Tolkien Fanart Survey

Maria K. Alberto and Megan Abrahamson are working on a project related to race and Tolkien fanart and need your help taking a short anonymous survey about fan art that centers racially diverse depictions of Tolkien’s characters. The survey is open to Tolkien fans who:

• are over 18 years of age
• regularly see and interact with fan art through liking, commenting, and/or reblogging
• are located anywhere in the world
• Bonus: create Tolkien-inspired fan art!

Additionally, the researchers' main interest is Fingon the Valiant from The Silmarillion, particularly when portrayed as a Black elf in fan art. They are especially hoping to hear from Tolkien fan artists who depict this Fingon.

This survey has been reviewed and approved by the University of Utah Institutional Board.

Learn more about the survey and take it here or visit the project's tumblr here.

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week 2022

Ekphrasis: the description or interpretation of a piece of art, usually visual, in a different artistic medium.

Material culture and art add vibrancy to our lives, and it seems that there are so many options in Middle Earth ripe for interpretation! A poem on Nerdanel's statues, a tapestry capturing Nessa's dance, a prose fic describing the impact of seeing Númenor's frescoes, a painting exploring the beautiful quotidian architecture of a Hobbit hole…

This is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event dedicated to the art of ekphrasis in Tolkien's worlds. Its goal is to illuminate the artistic surroundings of the places, people, and stories we love, in as many media as possible. As such, fanworks are welcome to take almost any form: see the FAQ for the full list!

Prompts are currently being posted! Participants will have slightly more than a month to create whatever sort of art they like inspired by one or more of those prompts. Then, during the week(+) of June 10-June 17, everyone will post their fanwork on tumblr or this DW comm on the appropriate day (see calendar), or be revealed in the AO3 Collection.

The prompts are multi-part. The first part of the prompt is mandatory, describing the kind of art to be interpreted. The subsequent parts are optional thematic, formal, or visual add-ons that people may choose to incorporate or not.

For example: "Day N. Art form: Metalwork. Formal prompt (writing): Epistolary format. Formal prompt (visual art): Mixed media. Thematic prompt: Trade and cross-cultural connection."

If you miss the day, or are desperate to create work about some form of art not included in the prompts, don't worry! Posting amnesty/prompt free-for-all day will be June 17, and posting here and in the AO3 Collection will be open for a year from Day 1.

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week is open to all characters, genres, and ratings, and all Tolkien canons. This includes movieverse (i.e. the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies), fan-made films like Born of Hope, and game canons such as Lord of the Rings Online. It also includes Tolkien's non-Arda works, such as Roverandom. Crossovers between two or more Tolkien canons are welcome.

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week wants to be as inclusive as possible. As such:

• All canons and versions of canon are equally welcome and encouraged to participate.
• Fan creators of all levels of experience should feel more than welcome to join in the fun, whether they found out about LOTR last week or are Michelangelo, well-known JRRT fan.
• All languages are welcomed, and works in languages other than English are actively encouraged.
• All styles of art and all types of fic are permitted. Apart from following the Art Form content prompt for each day, there are no restrictions on genre, style, rating, or ship, although NSFW submissions will be kept 18+ locked on DW. There is one exception: no character bashing.

Above all, this event is supposed to get us thinking and feeling about art, which is for everyone. With this in mind, TEW asks participants to be respectful and inclusive at all times. In particular, TEW values its queer and trans participants and participants of color and will moderate as necessary to ensure that this event remains a welcoming space.

Please see the FAQ for full instructions on how to post and tag.

Calendar:

June 10-16, 2022: Prompts Posted Daily

• June 10 - Day 1 Prompt (Sculpture), AO3 collection reveals begin
• June 11 - Day 2 Prompt (Painting)
• June 12 - Day 3 Prompt (Dance)
• June 13 - Day 4 Prompt (Textiles and Fashion)
• June 14 - Day 5 Prompt (Music)
• June 15 - Day 6 Prompt (Ceramics and Glasswork)
• June 16 - Day 7 Prompt (The Quotidian)
• June 17 - Amnesty Day and Free-for-all posting

June 18, 2022: Tumblr Queue begins posting tagged works.

June 9, 2023: AO3 Collection and DW community close to posting.

Links:

Tumblr Blog | Dreamwidth Community | AO3 Collection | FAQ

Aspec Arda Week 2022

Aspec Arda Week 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 May 9-15, 2022! 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.

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 this year 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

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 about, FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!

Mobile links are accessible here.

Tolkien Society Seminar 2022 – Tolkien and the Gothic: Registration open

Registration for the Tolkien Society Seminar "Tolkien and the Gothic" on Sunday July 3 is now open.

The seminar aims to explore the ways that Tolkien engaged with the various applications of the Gothic and how this in turn has influenced creative engagements with Tolkien.

The venue is the Hilton Hotel in Leeds, UK, timed to precede sessions on Tolkien scheduled for the International Medieval Congress in Leeds the following week.

In-person delegates are limited to 60, however online attendance is not limited. Attendance is free and not limited to society members.

The sign-up form is linked from the page above, which also contains more details on the seminar. 

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.

You learn more about the survey and take it here.

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)