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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• Individual, previously-unpublished academic articles or chapters on topics relating to language and literature, in particular those focused on Afrofuturism, ecocriticism, fandoms, the Inklings,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• Individual, previously-unpublished short stories, especially fantasy, science fiction, mythopoeia, fairy tales, secondary worlds, dystopia, Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism, dark academia,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 19^th 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.

International Fanworks Day 2023

Save the date: it’s almost International Fanworks Day!

Celebrated on February 15th, International Fanworks Day (IFD) was created by the OTW in 2014 in honor of the one millionth fanwork published on AO3. It’s a recognition of fanworks in all their forms—fics, art, vids, zines, and more—and of their awesomeness and importance for fans across the world.

This year, the OTW will be observing the ninth annual IFD. Our theme for the year is "When Fandoms Collide." You can participate however you want, but here are a few suggestions:

• Create rec lists of your favorite crossovers to share as part of our Feedback Fest, starting February 12
• Post your own crossover fics, fanart, and more on AO3 using our International Fanworks Day 2023 tag
• Share crossover headcanons on social media using the tag #IFD2023 or #IFDChallenge2023

Follow OTW News on social media to find out in a few weeks what we’re doing to celebrate IFD 2023. If you or your fandom communities will be hosting your own activities, let us know so we can signal boost them!

Hidden Paths 2023

Hidden Paths us a fortnight-long event dedicated to the celebration of smaller Tolkien canons.

We all know and love the tales of Tolkien's Middle-earth, but the Professor's creative and academic endeavours didn't stop there.  However, fanworks for smaller Tolkien canons (such as Farmer Giles of Ham, Mr. Bliss, Leaf by Niggle and more) are much rarer than works inspired by their Middle-earth counterparts.  This event was created to be a low-pressure, low-commitment opportunity to explore those lesser known works, and create and share fanworks based on them.

Define “smaller Tolkien fandoms”.

Basically, any Tolkien canon or text (including academic works and translations) that is not explicitly set in Middle-earth and is not based on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or The Silmarillion and closely related histories.  This includes, but is not limited to:

• Beowulf/Sellic Spell
• Farmer Giles of Ham
• The Fall of Arthur
• The Father Christmas Letters
• Finn and Hengest
• The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son
• The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun
• Leaf by Niggle
• The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún
• Mr. Bliss
• Mythopoeia
• The Notion Club Papers
• Pearl
• Roverandom
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Sir Orfeo
• Songs for the Philologists
• Smith of Wootton Major
• The Story of Kullervo
• Tolkien (2019 film)
• Tolkien's essays, poems, letters and non-ME artwork

We also accept fanworks based on The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (because it collects a number of poems that were not originally intended as part of the Middle-earth canon) and The Book of Lost Tales (because it differs so significantly from later versions of the legendarium), and/or centring characters or concepts that only appear in extremely early drafts of The Lord of the Rings (e.g. Trotter).  

We know that this leaves a bit of a grey area, but ultimately, we will trust and accept the judgement of fanwork creators.  Act in good faith, and assume that others have done the same.

How does it work?

At the start of the event (14th February) the mod will post seven optional prompts to inspire you.  There will be a thematic prompt, a character-based prompt, a setting-based prompt, a text prompt, a visual prompt, an audio prompt, and a wildcard prompt.  A second batch of prompts will be posted on the 21st.

If you like the prompts, then use any or all of them to create and share a fanwork based on one or more small Tolkien canons.  If they don't speak to you, then please feel free to do your own thing – the prompts are there to spark creativity, not impede it!

What types of fanworks do you accept?

Anything you like.  Fic, poetry, meta, art, edits, vids, podfic, craft, cosplay, rec lists, playlists, compositions, interviews with fellow fans...it's all good.

Are there any minimum requirements?

No, none.  Want to write a six-word story?  Be our guest.

Are crossovers permitted?

Yes!  We accept crossovers with the Middle-earth canons, and with non-Tolkien fandoms.  We only ask that one of the smaller Tolkien canons plays a significant role in your fanwork.

What do you consider a significant role?

We don't.  The event is intended to be low commitment and low stress for both participants and the moderator, and we trust that people will act in good faith.  We are not going to police fanworks or apply an arbitrary definition of “significant” - we leave that up to the creator to decide.

Does actor RPF count?

For the purposes of this event, no it doesn't, unless you are also drawing on elements from a smaller canon (e.g. Liv Tyler encountering the Shadow-Bride).

Where do I post my fanworks?

We have an AO3 collection, but you may post your fanworks anywhere you like.  We'd appreciate a link back to our Dreamwidth or Tumblr page, though, to spread the word about the event!

Are there any restrictions on rating or content?

Nope.  Tag and warn appropriately, as you normally would, but make whatever your heart desires.

Can I post fanworks that were inspired by or created for another event, or created prior to the event's inception?

Yes!  The goal is to celebrate and increase content for the smaller Tolkien fandoms.  Please feel free to share your creations and add them to the collection, regardless of whether they were created specifically for this event.

I want to take part but I don't know anything about the smaller canons.  Help!?

• Tolkien Gateway has helpfully collated a list of Tolkien's writings, and some of the articles reproduce or link to the actual text.  This is a great place to start browsing, and to find out more about a text before you invest in your own copy.
• Have a look at fanworks for some of the smaller canons and see what appeals.  Innumerable Stars and TRSB both have several works for the smaller canons in their collections, and many of them can be understood with no prior knowledge of the source material.
• Lists of characters appearing in the various texts and canons can also be a useful jumping off point - like this one for The Book of Lost Tales.
• Many of the smaller canons are just that - small!  If you can get hold of a copy from your local library, book store or from a fellow fan, they are generally quick to read and digest.

If anyone has any other ideas and resources for folks wanting to dip a toe into the smaller canons, please get in touch so they can be added to this list.

When does the event run?

Officially, February 14th-28th.  Unofficially, as long as you like; the prompts will stay up and the AO3 collection won't close.