Around the World and Web

Tolkienshortfanworks prompts for March posted

New prompts for March have been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth; they are: new life (theme) and acrostic (form). The prompts can be freely combined with each other or with other prompts of current challenges elsewhere.

New joiners welcome.

More details at the linked post.

Gen Freeform Exchange 2022: Nominations and Sign-Ups

Gen Freeform Exchange is a multi-fandom exchange focused on gen fanworks, with freeform tag matching so that you can request and offer all your favorite gen tropes. We’re defining gen fanworks as works with no romantic or sexual content. Gen can focus on platonic relationships (friends, family, colleagues, enemies-with-whom-there-is-no-sexual-tension, etc), usually indicated by a & between characters rather than a /, or it can focus on a singular character with no particular focus on any relationship.

Both solo characters and gen character combos can be requested. Media allowed include fic, art, vids, and podfic. Participation requires an AO3 account.

The schedule:

Feb 25-March 5 11:59PM EST - Nominations
March 6-16 11:59PM EST - Signups
Mar 19 - Assignments sent by this date
May 1 11:59PM EDT - Assignments Due
May 7 11:59PM EDT - Work Reveals
May 14 11:59PM EDT - Creator Reveals

See the 2022 Gen Freeform Exchange sticky post for complete guidelines.

Revamped Tolkien Estate Website

The Tolkien Estate has revamped their website for the Seventh Age! The new site contains a timeline and biography of Tolkien's life, selected important scholarship, and important letters and writings from Tolkien.

Concerns over the Estate's stance on fanworks are addressed in this article here.

Tolkien Society Seminar on Tolkien and the Gothic (Call for Papers)

The Tolkien society has announced a seminar on the theme of Tolkien and the Gothic, which will be a hybrid event held online and in-person at the Hilton Hotel, Leeds on 3rd July 2022.

Tolkien’s engagement with the Gothic is not as straightforward as one may assume. His earliest understanding of the word and the language of the Goths can be traced to his reading of Joseph Wright’s A Primer of the Gothic Language (1892). His early fascination with Gothic consequently fed his own experimentations with language creation and legendarium.

However, his prose and poetry show a clear awareness of the Gothic literary tradition that had previously captured the imaginations of eighteenth and nineteenth century writers. Beyond his writing, Gothic influences can be found in Tolkien’s life: from the European fascination with Gothic architecture to the physical and psychological terrors of the Great War.

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 Tolkien Society invites abstract submissions of no more than 300 words, for a 20-minute paper and 5 minutes of questions. Submissions can be made here and should be submitted before end of day, Friday 1st April [UK time].

For more details see the Submissions page.

The seminar will be free for all attendees (both online and in-person). Sign-up for the seminar will open soon.

Reading Fictional Languages Symposium

This one-day symposium aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines to consider the nature of reading fictional languages. The event will be held in a fully integrated arena at the University of Nottingham, comprising both on-campus and online participants. It is thus designed to be accessible, enabling participants to attend from around the world, as suits their circumstances, as part of a truly hybrid event. The on-campus room will be as covid-safe as possible with a maximum occupancy. Refreshments and lunch will be provided in line with covid guidance. The symposium will be held on 11 March 2022 from 9:30-17:00, UK Time, and costs £10 for in-person participant (cost includes lunch) and £5 for online attendees. You can register to attend the symposium here.

T4Tolkien: A Trans-Positive Tolkien Discord Server

This is a space for uplifting trans-focused Tolkien fandom content, but anyone is welcome to join!

You do not have to be trans to get involved, and non-trans discussion is absolutely welcome. We wanted to create a space where trans identity is normalized and accepted, and in doing so that means integrating other aspects of everyday life into this server. This is a trans-positive, trans-friendly space, but it’s not a trans-only space!

See this post for more information on how to join T4Tolkien.

February Challenge at tolkienshorfanworks (Dreamwidth)

The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for February has been posted.

The thematic challenge is: melting.

The formal challenge is: proverb. 

Tolkienshortfanworks is a community  on Dreamwidth and new joiners are always welcome.

More details about these prompts and the monthly challenges at the linked post.

Call for Proposals: German Tolkien Society Seminar

The 18^th Tolkien Seminar of the German Tolkien Society (Deutsche Tolkien Gesellschaft) is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and takes place in a hybrid format (mainly in person but with online options) at the Department of English (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik) at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena from 28^th to 30^th October 2022.

If you would like to present a paper, please send a short abstract (no longer than one page) and a short biography, as well as the preferred way of participating (online or in person) by 30^th May 2022.

As can be seen from many of the texts recently published in the volume The Nature of Middle-earth (2021; edited by Carl Hostetter), Tolkien extensively studied the different aspects of the space- and time-continuum. He did so often in order to give his subcreated world a cohesive and coherent temporal and spatial framework. Therefore, aspects belonging primarily to the field of ‘worldbuilding’ will be one aspect to be explored. However, we also want to encourage participants to investigate the narrative effects of space and time.

The seminar aims at bringing together researchers from various disciplines in order to explore the theoretical foundations and the literary mise-en-scène of the time-space continuum in Tolkien’s work.

See the full call for proposals for contact information and full details.

Bring Her Bleeding Heart to Me: Dark Femslash Commentfic Meme

For this annual multifandom event, participants can prompt dark femslash fanworks or create for the prompts that have been posted. All fanworks and femslash pairings are welcome. This is an 18+ event. The full rules can be found here.

Fandom Trumps Hate Sign-Ups Open

Fandom Trumps Hate is an online auction of fanworks, with the proceeds going to small, progressive nonprofits that are working to protect marginalized people. Fandom Trumps Hate has raised over $135,000 for a range of amazing organizations.

Sign-ups for this year's auction are now open and close on February 13. Bidding runs February 23-27.

See this post on Tumblr for more information on how to sign up as a creator (here is the sign-up post on Dreamwidth).