Thursday, February 13, 2020

Mythcon 51: Guests of Honor Announced

Mythcon 51: Guests of Honor Announced

We are thrilled to announce our Author Guest of Honor for Mythcon 51 is Rivera Sun, 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.

Our Scholar Guest of Honor will be David Bratman, who 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.


The conference theme for Mythcon 51 is the Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien. Does exploring the Other in Mythopoeia appeal to you? Our call for papers is open until May 15th!





Registration is now open; we invite you to join us next summer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 31- August 3, 2020.

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Mythcon 51: Call for Papers

The Call for Papers for this year's Mythcon is now live. 

Please join us at Mythcon 51: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien, which will be taking place July 31 - August 3, 2020 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
 
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.

As always, this is going to draw a number of interesting and insightful presentations and panels. If you would like to participate by submitting a paper, please check the CFP for submission information. If your interest has been piqued, please consider registering for our conference. See you in Albuquerque!