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Have you read up on our keynote speakers for #GIFCon2025 ? We have quite the line up this year! May 7th: Kirsty Logan May 8th: Anna McFarlane May 9th: Dr. Alice M. Chapman-Kelly Check out the full details on keynotes: fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/2025…

This was a joyous and fascinating day. I loved hearing all the papers, and being interviewed by Matthew Creasy for the keynote session. Many thanks to the University of Glasgow's Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, Matthew Sangster and everybody else who made me feel so welcome!

Today’s post looks at the implied reference to Beowulf and Scyld Sceafing in letter #131, when Tolkien talks about the Númenóreans and Aragorn. Link in second tweet. UofG Fantasy Tolkien Society

I don’t often comment on non-fantastic things, but the Netflix series Asura, directed by Hirokazu Kore-Eda, is one of the finest TV shows I’ve seen in recent years. It’s driven by the performances of four outstanding female leads. Please try it!

I’ve just heard that the world’s foremost Mervyn Peake scholar, Peter Winnington, died recently. I liked and admired him hugely, and Peake fans owe him a huge debt of gratitude, not least for running the Peake Studies journal and website and his Peake biography, Vast Alchemies.

Allow me to recommend this excellent sourcebook on Philippine speculative fiction, co-edited by UofG Fantasy graduate Sydney Paige Guerrero. Of interest to anyone seeking to boost the creation of speculative fiction in and beyond their homelands. UofG Fantasy

My latest effort: The Little Old Woman Finds the Little Toy Soldier!

GIFCon is committed to providing a supportive environment for trans people, today and every day. #transrights #supporttransrights #gifcon2025

Today’s piece ponders questions of scale, species and posthumanism in B.B.’s Carnegie -winning novel The Little Grey Men (1942) Link in 2nd tweet. Int'l Research Society for Children's Literature UofG Fantasy National Literacy Trust

Here's a full list of horror panels at #Cymera2025 🤩⬇️ Authors will be chatting about dark traditions, folklore, sacrifice, the long shadows cast by history and so much more over Cymera weekend 🤩

Today’s piece looks at the 8 newly restored lines of #Tolkien’s earliest “fairy” poem and traces how the concept they introduce endured into his later Middle-earth mythology. Oh, and also lingers on his use of a single interesting archaic word! Link in 2nd tweet. Tolkien Society

There's a new blog post at The City of Lost Books, on Patricia Lynch's The Grey Goose of Kilnevin (1939). This is a lovely book, and worth reading in the first edition (or an early one published by J M Dent)! thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/fantasy-1939-p…

This short story - 'Argent' by Caroline Shea - is one of the best I've read; a poem in prose, with as much packed into it as many novels. Please read it! cold-signal.com/argent-carolin…

Did you hear about the new Gruffalo story coming out in September? I was live on BBC Radio Scotland's #Drivetime programme this evening to chat about this. Link to listen again here: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0… (I am on from 2:02:59) UofG Fantasy UofG Arts & Humanities National Literacy Trust

“Only ten years ago we were the best in the world in the annual LGBTI Rights Ranking. We’re now 22nd... This is not just an embarrassment abroad – it’s also a tragedy at home for tens of thousands of people struggling to live lives of quiet dignity.” goodlaw.social/55xx

This one is called ‘Granny knits up a storm’!

Today’s piece looks at Rumer Godden’s The Dolls’ House and ruminates on “thing” and human entanglements. Link in 2nd tweet. UofG Fantasy Int'l Research Society for Children's Literature National Literacy Trust Rumer Godden Trust

At The City of Lost Books: a tribute to the late Peter Winnington, in the form of my essay-review on his Mervyn Peake monograph, The Voice of the Heart. UofG Fantasy Prof Dimitra Fimi Matthew Sangster thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/peter-winningt…

I talked to Prof Rob Maslen, co-founder of University of Glasgow's MLitt in Fantasy. We talked about genre definitions, historical fantasy's radical visions, and some of our favorite texts of the impossible, from Where the Wild Things Are to Gormenghast. Conversation linked below:

One of my favourite buys from the Glasgow School of Art degree show, which ends on Sunday. Moving and beautiful, this comic. UofG Fantasy