Mythcon 51 Update and New CFP (5/15/21; virtual event for Summer 2021)

 Further news from the Mythopoeic Society: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm

Mythcon 51

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Mythcon 51
A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON

Moving Online - Dates To Be Determined

   

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Due to ongoing health concerns and the realization that we cannot now plan something that may violate future New Mexico state health and safety regulations, whatever they are in July-August of this year, the Council of Stewards has decided to postpone the next in-person Mythcon until summer of 2022; the date will be July 29-August 1, 2022. Our venue and Guests of Honor have all agreed to this change and the conference theme will remain the same.

Because the costs associated with a virtual online event are less than the costs of an in person event, if you are already a member of Mythcon 51, your membership will automatically "roll over" to next year (Mythcon 52 in 2022) but if you cannot attend next year, please contact mythcon@mythsoc.org and request a refund of your Mythcon 51 membership. For those who paid the non-member prices, your membership in the Mythopoeic Society associated with joining the conference will be extended by a year (again!). Thank you for understanding.

The virtual option will be very different from our usual Mythcons, but what we miss out on we hope to make up for in new and different ways, and we’ll see everyone once it’s safe to do so. On some level this is a chance to get back to our Mythopoeic Society roots and gather with friends (if virtually!) to just discuss what we love. Best of all, the cost of registration will be steeply reduced, though prices have not been set yet.

Check back for confirmed details in Mythprint #397 as well as Mythlore #138, and as always on our website, www.mythcon.org. Thank you for understanding!

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Call for Papers (subject to change)

Papers of the traditional Mythopoeic variety are still welcome, though we are looking forward to trying out a new panel model that we are calling Panel Discussions (see below).

Time slots: Individual long papers may still have hour-long time slots but are now encouraged to be no more than 30 minutes for the paper and 15 minutes for discussion; Individual short papers about 15 minutes for the paper and 10 minutes for discussion; Panels are now 60 minutes, about 30 minutes for the panel and 20 minutes for discussion. For traditional paper and panel proposals:

Email papers abstracts of 200-500 words to:
Cami Agan (Papers Coordinator),
cami.agan@oc.edu

Email panels abstracts of 50-150 words to:
Leslie Donovan (Panels Coordinator),
leslie.a.donovan@gmail.com

Presenters who have already submitted have the option of presenting at Mythcon 51 virtually or being automatically accepted into the Mythcon 52 program. All presenters must register for the conference at which they wish to present.

Eligible presenters should see details on our Alexei Kondratiev student paper award at: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/alexei.htm.

Discussion Panel and Alternative Programming Options
Though we have not formally revised the call for papers just yet, we are excited to experiment with different presentation models that may work better over an online platform, privileging panels of short papers or group discussion panels.

Have a topic in mind you want to discuss, but pandemic brain has got you down so you don’t want to write a paper about it? Revive the roots of the Society by proposing to Moderate a Discussion Panel for Mythcon 51—virtually! Moderators would need to come prepared with a mythopoeic discussion topic, some opening remarks, some questions for the attendees, and plan to facilitate discussion.

Want to submit a Discussion Panel, or have an idea for Alternative Virtual Mythcon programming?
Email 200-500 word proposals to:
Megan Abrahamson
mythprint@mythsoc.org

The new deadline for submissions is May 15, 2021. Please check in on Facebook, Twitter, or www.mythcon.org for an updated and complete Call For Papers as well as other updates about the now-virtual conference. 

Mythcon 52 Update (Summer 2022)

 The latest from the Mythopoeic Society: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm

Mythcon 52

New Dates!    July 29 - August 1, 2022

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Mythcon 52
The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien

Albuquerque, New Mexico
July 29 - August 1, 2022

  

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Due to ongoing health concerns and the realization that we cannot now plan something that may violate future New Mexico state health and safety regulations, whatever they are in July-August of this year, the Council of Stewards has decided to postpone the next in-person Mythcon until summer of 2022; the date will be July 29-August 1, 2022. Our venue and Guests of Honor have all agreed to this change and the conference theme will remain the same.

Your membership will automatically "roll over" to next year but if you cannot attend next year, please contact mythcon@mythsoc.org and request a refund of your Mythcon 51 membership. For those who paid the non-member prices, your membership in the Mythopoeic Society associated with joining the conference will be extended by a year (again!). Thank you for understanding.

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Theme: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien

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).

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Guests of Honor

Rivera Sun - Author Guest of Honor

Rivera Sun is a change-maker, a cultural creative, a protest novelist, and an advocate for nonviolence and social justice. She is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Roots of Resistance, and other novels. Her young adult fantasy series, the Ari Ara Series, has been widely acclaimed by teachers, parents, and peace activists for its blending of fantasy and adventure with social justice issues. Going beyond dragon-slayers and sword-swingers, heroes and sheroes in Ari Ara’s world stop wars and wage peace. They use active nonviolence to make powerful change. In all her works, Rivera Sun advocates that if we want to build a culture of peace, we have to tell new stories that still appreciate, but go beyond the old myths, epics, and legends that rehash outdated war and violence narratives. The Way Between, the first book in the Ari Ara Series, has been read by numerous groups of all ages, while the second book in the series, The Lost Heir, is the winner of the 2019 Nautilus Award Silver Medal in Middle Grade Fiction.

Rivera Sun’s essays have been published in hundreds of journals nationwide. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at schools, colleges and universities, where The Dandelion Insurrection has been taught in literature and political science courses. Rivera Sun is also the editor of Nonviolence News, an activist, and a trainer in making change with nonviolence. Her essays and writings are syndicated by Peace Voice and have appeared in journals nationwide. She lives in an Earthship house in New Mexico.

David Bratman - Scholar Guest of Honor

David Bratman is has been reading Tolkien for over fifty years, and has been writing Tolkien scholarship for nearly as long. His earliest contribution to the field was the first-ever published Tale of Years for the First Age, right after The Silmarillion was published. Since then he’s published articles with titles like “Top Ten Rejected Plot Twists from The Lord of the Rings,” “Hobbit Names Aren’t from Kentucky,” and “Liquid Tolkien” (on Tolkien and music). He’s been co-editor of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review since 2013, and has written or edited its annual “Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies” since 2004. David edited The Masques of Amen House by Charles Williams and contributed the bio-bibliographical appendix on the Inklings to Diana Pavlac Glyer’s The Company They Keep. He has also written on C.S. Lewis, Ursula Le Guin, Mervyn Peake, Neil Gaiman, and others. For the Mythopoeic Society he was editor of the monthly bulletin Mythprint for fifteen years, and has worked on many Mythopoeic Conferences, including serving twice as chair. He’s a retired academic librarian and an active classical music reviewer who lives with his wife, Berni (a soprano and violinist), and two cats in a house they call Minnipin Cottage.

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Location

Please plan to join us at the Ramada Plaza Hotel by Wyndham in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Mythcon 52. Albuquerque is a wonderful “destination city” where Mythcon has been held only once before in 2011 (Mythcon 42) and is well worth the return.

Mythcon 51 Updates and New CFP (5/15/2021; Albuquerque 7/31-8/2/2021)

The Mythopoeic Society has announced the postponement of Mythcon 51 from this summer to next summer. The updated call is pasted below. Full details at the Society's dedicated site: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm.



New Dates! July 30 - August 2, 2021

Mythcon 51
The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien
Albuquerque, New Mexico
July 30 - August 2, 2021

Call for Papers Download PDF of Call for Papers here


CONFERENCE THEME: THE MYTHIC, THE FANTASTIC, AND THE ALIEN This year’s Mythcon 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).

Papers on our conference theme and the works and interests of our guests of honor are especially welcome, although all subjects will be considered.
GUESTS OF HONOR Papers on the works and interests of our guests of honor are also especially welcome:

Author Guest of Honor Rivera Sun is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Roots of Resistance, and other novels. Her young adult fantasy series, the Ari Ara Series, has been widely acclaimed by teachers, parents, and peace activists for its blending of fantasy and adventure with social justice issues. The Way Between, the first book in the Ari Ara Series, has been read by numerous groups of all ages, while the second book in the series, The Lost Heir, has been nominated for the 2020 Dayton Peace Literature Prize. 

Scholar Guest of Honor David Bratman is has been reading Tolkien for over fifty years, and has been writing Tolkien scholarship for nearly as long. His earliest contribution to the field was the first-ever published Tale of Years for the First Age, right after The Silmarillion was published. Since then he has published articles with titles like “Top Ten Rejected Plot Twists from The Lord of the Rings,” “Hobbit Names Aren’t from Kentucky,” and “Liquid Tolkien” (on Tolkien and music). He’s been co-editor of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review since 2013, and has written or edited its annual “Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies” since 2004. David edited The Masques of Amen House by Charles Williams and contributed the bio-bibliographical appendix on the Inklings to Diana Pavlac Glyer’s The Company They Keep. He has also written on C.S. Lewis, Ursula Le Guin, Mervyn Peake, Neil Gaiman, and others.

PAPERS and PANELS PROPOSALS Email papers abstracts of 200-500 words to this year’s Paper Coordinator:
Cami Agan
cami.agan@oc.edu
by May 15, 2021.

Email panels abstracts of 50-150 words to Panels Coordinator:
Leslie Donovan
leslie.a.donovan@gmail.com
by May 15, 2021.

Include AV requests and the projected time needed for your presentation. We will make every effort to accommodate A/V requests, but such equipment is limited and cannot be guaranteed. Available time slots: Individual long papers are one hour, roughly 45 minutes for the paper with 15 minutes for discussion; Individual short papers or 1/2 hour, roughly 20 minutes for the paper with 10 minutes for discussion; Panels are 90 minutes, roughly 60 minutes for the panel with 30 minutes for discussion.
You will be notified after the deadline if your paper proposal has been accepted. See our Alexei Kondratiev Award for details on our student paper award!

All presenters must register for the full conference; please see the Mythcon 51 Registration page for information and rates.

Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society (www.mythlore.org). All papers should conform to the 8th edition of the MLA Style Manual. Presenters who are full-time undergraduate or graduate students are encouraged to submit their completed conference papers in advance for consideration for the Alexei Kondratiev Student Paper Award. Please see www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/alexei.htm for more information.


ABOUT THE MYTHOPOEIC SOCIETY The Mythopoeic Society is an international literary and educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and mythopoeic literature. We believe the study of these writers can lead to greater understanding and appreciation of the literary, philosophical, and spiritual traditions which underlie their works, and can engender an interest in the study of myth, legend, and the genre of fantasy. Find out about the Society s activities at: www.mythsoc.org

CFP Mythcon 51 (5/15/2020; Albuquerque 7/31-8/3/2020)

Mythcon 51

The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien

http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm

http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mc51-CFP.htm
 
Albuquerque, New Mexico
July 31 - August 3, 2020

Location

Please join us at the Ramada Plaza Hotel by Wyndham in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Mythcon 51. Albuquerque is a wonderful “destination city” where Mythcon has been held only once before in 2011 (Mythcon 42) and is well worth the return.

Call for Papers

Download PDF of Call for Papers here

CONFERENCE THEME: THE MYTHIC, THE FANTASTIC, AND THE ALIEN

This year’s Mythcon 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).

Papers on our conference theme and the works and interests of our guests of honor are especially welcome, although all subjects will be considered. 
 

GUESTS OF HONOR

Papers on the works and interests of our guests of honor are also especially welcome:

• Author Guest of Honor Rivera Sun is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Roots of Resistance, and other novels. Her young adult fantasy series, the Ari Ara Series, has been widely acclaimed by teachers, parents, and peace activists for its blending of fantasy and adventure with social justice issues. The Way Between, the first book in the Ari Ara Series, has been read by numerous groups of all ages, while the second book in the series, The Lost Heir, has been nominated for the 2020 Dayton Peace Literature Prize. 

 

• Scholar Guest of Honor David Bratman is has been reading Tolkien for over fifty years, and has been writing Tolkien scholarship for nearly as long. His earliest contribution to the field was the first-ever published Tale of Years for the First Age, right after The Silmarillion was published. Since then he has published articles with titles like “Top Ten Rejected Plot Twists from The Lord of the Rings,” “Hobbit Names Aren’t from Kentucky,” and “Liquid Tolkien” (on Tolkien and music). He’s been co-editor of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review since 2013, and has written or edited its annual “Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies” since 2004. David edited The Masques of Amen House by Charles Williams and contributed the bio-bibliographical appendix on the Inklings to Diana Pavlac Glyer’s The Company They Keep. He has also written on C.S. Lewis, Ursula Le Guin, Mervyn Peake, Neil Gaiman, and others.

PAPERS and PANELS PROPOSALS

Email papers abstracts of 200-500 words to this year’s Paper Coordinator:
Cami Agan
cami.agan@oc.edu
by May 15, 2020.

Email panels abstracts of 50-150 words to Panels Coordinator:
Leslie Donovan
leslie.a.donovan@gmail.com
by May 15, 2020.

Include AV requests and the projected time needed for your presentation. We will make every effort to accommodate A/V requests, but such equipment is limited and cannot be guaranteed. Available time slots: Individual long papers are one hour, roughly 45 minutes for the paper with 15 minutes for discussion; Individual short papers or 1/2 hour, roughly 20 minutes for the paper with 10 minutes for discussion; Panels are 90 minutes, roughly 60 minutes for the panel with 30 minutes for discussion.
You will be notified after the deadline if your paper proposal has been accepted. See our Alexei Kondratiev Award for details on our student paper award!

All presenters must register for the full conference; please see the Mythcon 51 Registration page for information and rates.

Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society (www.mythlore.org). All papers should conform to the 8th edition of the MLA Style Manual. Presenters who are full-time undergraduate or graduate students are encouraged to submit their completed conference papers in advance for consideration for the Alexei Kondratiev Student Paper Award. Please see www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/alexei.htm for more information.

ABOUT THE MYTHOPOEIC SOCIETY

The Mythopoeic Society is an international literary and educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and mythopoeic literature. We believe the study of these writers can lead to greater understanding and appreciation of the literary, philosophical, and spiritual traditions which underlie their works, and can engender an interest in the study of myth, legend, and the genre of fantasy. Find out about the Society s activities at: www.mythsoc.org

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Mythcon 50 First Notice

Just came across the following on the Mythopoeic Society website. I'm hoping the formatting comes through okay.

Mythcon 50
August 2-5, 2019

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Mythcon 50

Looking Back, Moving Forward
DRAFT logo by Sue Dawe

San Diego, California
August 2-5, 2019

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Registration and Room & Board

The Mythopoeic Society's final celebration of our three fiftieth anniversary celebrations: our 50th Annual Mythopoeic Conference!

Theme: Looking Back, Moving Forward

Our theme is a head-nod to Roman mythology's Janus, the god of beginnings and endings, gates and doorways, transitions and passages and duality. So we are moving forward into the future while also, at least for this Mythcon, looking backward toward the place from where we've come.

Call for Papers will be available soon.

Local artist and Mythcon favorite Sue Dawe has agreed to run the art show and is currently working on our logo; she gave permission to share this draft image at the top of the page.

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Guests of Honor


John Crowley - Author Guest of Honor

John Crowley was born in December, 1942, in Presque Isle, Maine, where his father, an Army Air Corps doctor, was stationed. He spent the war years (of which he remembers nothing) in Greenwich Village, in a family of women: his mother, older sister, aunt and grandmother, and baby sister. After the war his father resumed his medical practice in Brattleboro, Vermont, and then in 1952 took the family to Martin, Kentucky (pop. 700) to be medical director of a small Catholic hospital. John read Sherlock Holmes and Thomas Costain and Gods, Graves and Scholars, and decided to be an archeologist.

Two years later Doctor Crowley got a better job — head of the student infirmary at Notre Dame College (now University). John taught himself to write blank verse, composed the beginnings of tragedies, and planned for a career in the theater. He went to Indiana University, where he dropped that idea, majored in English and wrote poetry. Upon grduation, he went to New York City. There he planned to make films, wrote screenplays that were not produced, and began working on documentary films. He also began writing novels, beginning with a science fiction tale (The Deep, 1975)and then another (Beasts, 1977). But he had also begun writing a much larger and odder work, which would not be finished for ten years: Little, Big was published in 1981 and won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 1982. By then he had moved to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, where he met a woman he hired, on their first date, to do research for him on a documentary. After some years of friendship, courtship, collaboration, they married and had twin daughters. In 1992, through the intervention of Yale professors who had come to admire his work, he got a job teaching Creative Writing as an adjunct and later a half-time Senior Lecturer, from which eminence he retired in June of 2018.

John won his second Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 2018 for KA: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr. We include the closing paragraph from his acceptance remarks here: “When he was in his eighties, the English writer Leonard Woolf, husband of Virginia, said at a literary dinner set out for him that the way to gain honor in British literary life is simply to live long enough. I don't think that that's the American standard. Which makes me doubly happy at the age I have reached to receive again this honor that once before came to me, close to the beginning of my career. My thanks to all who brought this about.”

Meanwhile he has all along continued to write books and stories, some magical, most historical in one way or another, none of them very much like any of the others. They are described on the pages of his website, which also includes his blog.

Verlyn Flieger - Scholar Guest of Honor

Verlyn Flieger is a specialist in comparative mythology with a concentration in J.R.R. Tolkien. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Tolkien, Celtic, Arthurian, Native American, and Norse myth. She holds an M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1977) from The Catholic University of America, and has been associated with the University of Maryland since 1976. Retired from teaching at the University of Maryland in 2012, she is Professor Emerita in the Department of English at UMD. She teaches courses online at Signum University.

Her best-known books are Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World (1983; revised edition, 2002); A Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faerie, which won the 1998 Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Studies; and Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology (2005). She won a second Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Studies in 2002 for Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth, which she co-edited with Carl Hostetter, and a third Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Studies in 2013 for Green Suns and Faërie: Essays on J.R.R. Tolkien.

With David Bratman and Michael D. C. Drout, she is co-editor of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review.

Verlyn has also written Pig Tale and The Inn at Corbies’ Caww, a novella, Avilion in The Doom of Camelot, an anthology of Arthurian fiction edited by James Lowder, and a short story, “Green Hill Country” in Doug Anderson's fantasy anthology, Seekers of Dreams.

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Location

Please join us in San Diego, California, for Mythcon 50. San Diego is a wonderful "destination city" where Mythcon has been held only once before in 1991 (Mythcon 22) and is well worth the return. Early Mythopoeic conferences were held primarily at colleges and universities, a more-affordable option back in the late 1960s through the 1980s; in the last decade Mythcons have been primarily hotel-based and we find this to be a kind of two-edged sword: hotels are almost always more comfortable in which to stay but much more challenging for shared meals, which many of us really enjoy. They are more expensive housing but sometimes less expensive function space (we must guarantee a high-enough number of room nights and spend a lot of money on food and beverage) but very expensive audio/visual support. These choices are always the challenge in planning every Mythcon.

For Mythcon 50, we are harkening back to our roots and will be on a university campus with very nice meeting space.

Registration and Room & Board

Registration is now open here.

Specific details and room & board packages will be available soon. Our plan will include breakfast and dinner (Friday and Saturday) or banquet (Sunday) in the room & board package; lunch will be on our own with many close options from which to choose. For people who aren't able or willing to stay in a dorm, there are several hotels on the trolley line, to which we'll link in the future.

CFP Mythcon 49 (5/1/2018; Atlanta 7/20-23/2018)

Mythcon 49: On​ ​the​ ​Shoulders​ ​of​ ​Giants
http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-49.htm

Atlanta, Georgia
July 20 - 23, 2018

Call for Papers
The Mythopoeic Society has launched into a series of 50th anniversaries: the founding of the Society in 2017; the initial solicitation of articles for Mythlore in 2018; and of our Mythopoeic conferences in 2019. Because of the way that Inklings scholarship has built on a series of good foundations, for Mythcon 49 we've chosen the theme, On​ ​the​ ​Shoulders​ ​of​ ​Giants.



Call for Papers Download PDF of Call for Papers here


CONFERENCE THEME

On the Shoulders of Giants
The Mythopoeic Society has launched into a series of 50th anniversaries: the founding of the Society in 2017, the conception and launch of our scholarly journal Mythlore in 2018, and the establishment of our mythopoeic conference in 2019. Our theme is suggested by the ways in which Inklings scholarship has built on such good foundations. We will celebrate these foundation and fifty years of building “On the Shoulders of Giants” at Mythcon 49. Papers exploring this theme might include, but are not limited to any of the following:
• The past, present, and future of mythopoeic scholarship and independent journals
• Academic, audience, and critical reception of mythopoeic literature
• The history of fandom, fan communities, and fan-fiction
• Adaptations of mythopoeic literature — film, music, gaming, and more
• The mythopoeic giants who inspired the Inklings — including Homer, Dante, Milton, George MacDonald, William Morris, G.K. Chesterton, and the most prolific of them all, Anon.
• Giants as literary figures in myth, fairy tale, and mythopoeic literature — Atlas, Goliath, the Norse Giants, Grendel, Gogmagog, Tolkien’s Trolls, the Giants and Ettins of Narnia



GUEST OF HONOR

Robin Anne Reid, Scholar Robin Anne Reid is a Professor in the Department of Literature and Languages at Texas A&M University-Commerce, where she specializes in creative writing, critical theory, and marginalized literatures. She edited the two-volume Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Greenwood, 2009), with Judy Ann Ford, Professor of History, Texas A&M-Commerce. She and Dr. Ford team-taught a series of undergraduate and graduate courses on Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, both face to face and online. Their collaborative essay, '[T]hings that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be:' Teaching Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings On-Line, appeared in Approaches to Teaching Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Other Works, edited by Leslie Donovan (MLA, 2015). Dr. Reid has also published on Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Other recent Tolkien publications are an essay on female bodies and femininities in The Lord of the Rings in The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium, edited by Christopher Vaccaro, a bibliographic essay on the history of scholarship on female characters in Tolkien's work in Perilous and Fair, edited by Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie Donovan, and a bibliographic essay on race and Tolkien studies in Tolkien and Alterity, edited by Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor. Besides her work on Tolkien and feminist science fiction, she has also published on fan productions and fan activism in online media fandom. She is a regular contributor to “The Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies” in the annual journal, Tolkien Studies.


SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Papers dealing with the conference theme are especially encouraged. We also welcome papers focusing on the work and interests of the Inklings (especially J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams), on our Guests of Honor, and on other mythopoeic authors and themes. Papers from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are likewise welcome. Each paper is generally given a one-hour time slot, but papers should be timed for oral presentation in 40–45 minutes to allow time for questions. Two shorter papers can also be accommodated in a single one-hour time slot. We also welcome proposals for panels consisting of several shorter papers on related topics or for open panel discussions on subjects appropriate to Mythcon. All presenters must register for the full conference; please see the Mythcon 49 web page, www.mythcon.org, for information and rates.

Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society (www.mythlore.org). All papers should conform to the 8th edition of the MLA Style Manual. Presenters who are full-time undergraduate or graduate students are encouraged to submit their completed conference papers in advance for consideration for the Alexei Kondratiev Student Paper Award. Please see www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/alexei.htm for more information.

Paper abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with contact information, should be sent to the Papers Coordinator at the address below by May 1, 2018. Please include the anticipated duration of your presentation and any A/V requirements you feel are essential. We will make every effort to accommodate your A/V requests, but this cannot be guaranteed. You will be notified after the deadline if your paper or panel proposal has been accepted.

Jason Fisher
Mythcon 49 Papers Coordinator
visualweasel@yahoo.com





Location Mythcon 49 will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. This is our first Mythcon in the South in 15 years! The last one was Mythcon 34 in Nashville, Tennesee. We will be at the Ritz-Carlton in Downtown, right in the heart of the city near all of the tourist destinations.

We have arranged for a preferred guest rate of $159 per room at the Ritz-Carlton. When booking you will need to identify yourself as an attendee of Mythcon 49, more details about this are below. We recommend staying at the Ritz, not only to be in the middle of things and avoid a long, late-night walk back from the hospitality suite, but also so the conference is credited with your room nights.

Guests can contact the Ritz-Carlton call center at 1-800-241-3333 and state that they are coming to The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta (Downtown), for Mythcon July 2018 and provide the agent with their requested dates of stay; the agent will identify your group rate of $159.00.

Guests can also reserve online at http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Atlanta/Default.htm - enter their desired dates of stay, enter the seven letter Group/Promotion code MCJMCJA and click find to complete the reservation process.

Mythcon 45 Program Update

The program for Mythcon 45 at Wheaton College is now available online. Details at http://www.mythsoc.org/news/mythcon-45-program-schedule-available/.

CFP Mythcon 2014 (4/15/14)

At last:

Call for Papers: Mythopoeic Society Conference 45
Wheaton College, Norton, MA
Friday, August 8 through Monday, August 11, 2014
http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/45/

WHERE FANTASY FITS
Scholar Guest of Honor: Richard C. West
Winner of the 1976 Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Scholarship for Tolkien Criticism.
Author Guest of Honor: Ursula Vernon
Winner of the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature for Digger.

Fantasy literature does not fit comfortably into any scheme. Both old and new, traditional and innovative, popular and elite, mainstream and esoteric, escapist and engaged, high-tech and anti-technology, fantasy defies definitions and transcends categories, dramatizing the incompleteness of our understanding of our own imaginations. At Mythcon 45 we will discuss the place of fantasy in our culture, our institutions, and our hearts.

Central to this theme will be questions of genre: What is fantasy? What are fairy stories? What constitutes the fantastic? What is fantasy versus magical realism? What is speculative fiction? How does Tolkien’s legendarium fit in with the mythic texts such as Beowulf or the Norse Eddas or his scholarship? How do Lewis’s Narnia books or his science fiction fit into the classic literary tradition? How do fantasists question our fundamental assumptions about literature and the world? We can discuss authors who explore different genres or modes of writing that do not lend themselves to easy categorization such as Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tim Powers, Terry Pratchett, and others who make us ponder what it means to fit into a particular style or format. We invite papers that broadly consider the nature and boundaries of fantasy and the relationship between fantasy and different literary and artistic forms—how fantasy fits or resists our attempts to classify and define it.

Papers and panels dealing with the conference themes (or other themes sparked in your brain by this topic) are encouraged. As always, we especially welcome proposals for papers and panels focusing on the work and interests of the Inklings (especially J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams), of our Guests of Honor, and of other fantasy authors and themes. Papers and panels from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are welcome.

Individual papers will be scheduled for one hour to allow time for questions, but should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Two presenters who wish to present shorter, related papers may also share a one-hour slot. Panels will be scheduled for 1.5-hour time slots and will normally include 3-5 presenters who speak briefly on the subject (usually 10-15 minutes), leaving substantial time for discussion with the audience.

Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society (http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore). All papers should conform to the MLA Style Manual. Papers from graduate and undergraduate students are especially encouraged; we offer an award for “Best Student Paper.” See http://www.mythsoc.org/awards/student-paper.

Paper and panel proposals (250 word maximum), along with contact information, should be sent to the Papers Coordinator at the following email address by 15 April 2014. AV and technology requests must be included in your proposal.

Papers Coordinator:
David D. Oberhelman
Edmon Low Library
Oklahoma State University
d.oberhelman@okstate.edu

The Mythopoeic Society is an international literary and educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and mythopoeic literature. We believe the study of these writers can lead to greater understanding and appreciation of the literary, philosophical, and spiritual traditions which underlie their works, and can engender an interest in the study of myth, legend, and the genre of fantasy. Find out about past conferences at (http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon).