Around the World and Web

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:

AO3 Collection
Anonymous AO3 Collection
FAQ
Twitter

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.

Specific details on prompts can be found here.

More information on how to share your Bagginshield Week fanworks on various platforms can be found here.

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

• Guidelines
• FAQs/Claims FAQ
• Sign-Up Forms
• Tumblr

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.

Aspec Arda Week 2023

This 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 22-28, 2023! 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 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 the Aspec Arda Week blog or my main.

For further clarification, check out our about, FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!

Gondolin Week 2023

What the Book of Lost Tales tells us about Tarnin Austa is that a feast - so named the "Gates of Summer" took place on the eve of the first of Lairë. Following which a ceremony began at midnight, during with the Gondothlim spoke not a word until the rise of the Anor at daybreak.

At dawn, the people would burst into song, with choirs leading them from the eastern wall, as the sun shone brightly upon lamps and lights of colour which were hung on new-leaved trees.

Our intention with this year's Gondolin Week is to honour those roots. As such, our themes this year will consist of these and other festival activities.

Therefore, as always, each day of our event will include a list of prompts including: the ceremony/activity taking place, as well as a suggested location and character(s).

Theme List:
- Feast
- Ceremony
- Songs
- Dance
- Theatre
- Parade
- Undetermined

Gondolin Week will run 14-20 May 2023 on Tumblr, with an AO3 collection.

Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang: 2023 Schedule

The complete schedule with explanations of each schedule item can be found here.

May 8 – Artist Sign-up Deadline
May 12 – Discord Server Opens
May 14 – Art Draft Due
May 19 – Art Preview Opens
May 20-21 Discord Art Talks
May 21 – Author Signups Deadline
May 27 – CLAIMS – 17:00 UTC
June 2 – Post-Claims Check-in
June 11 – Free Rein Art Due
June 23 – Check-in #2
July 28 – Check-in #3
August 6 – Final Art Due
August 13 – Final Check-in (#4)
August 25 – Art Can Be Posted
TBA – Discord Art Reveals Event
September 1 – Final Fic Due In Collection
September 8 – REVEALS
September 11 – Staggered Tumblr Reblogs
September 20 – Gallery Submissions Open
September 30 – Discord Server Closes