June 15 came and went very quickly! The 2024 conference was a day filled with illuminating presentations and scholarship, thought-provoking questions and comments, and lots of fun. I can’t thank our guests of honor enough. I won’t attempt to recap everything, but just want to offer a few short thoughts and photos.
Artist Guest of Honor Donato Giancola delivered a terrific lecture on visual art to open the proceedings, tracing much of the history of Tolkien fan art from the 1960s, to commercial works in the following decades, all the way through the present day. It was a real treat to hear his perspective on the different interpretations of Middle-earth that we’ve seen through the years.
Special Guest Kristine Larsen delivered a fascinating talk on science fiction and Tolkien, covering many works he had read and on which he commented. It was a wonderful presentation with a lively conversation afterward that left the audience with lots of things to think about and books to read.
Scholar Guest of Honor Nicholas Birns gave his keynote at the end of the day, speaking on his book, The Literary Role of History in the Fiction of JRR Tolkien. Birns discussed how Tolkien used reflections of world history when writing The Lord of the Rings; like the previous presentations, it led to some interesting questions and discussion with the audience.
I’m only sorry I didn’t get to see all our speakers. I was able to see Joseph Bisz speak on the Lord of the Rings Card game, and Frank Cioffi’s excellent talk on solipsism and fantasy worlds, which covered a lot of ground, relating fantasy to Eric Auerbach’s theory of mimesis. There were lots of other great presentations, as well–you can find the abstracts here.
I’ve included a few photos here from the day. If you were there, feel free to add your comments below, and send in more photos here or to our facebook page.
In the coming months we’ll be thinking about next year’s event, so if you are interested in helping to organize it, please sign up for our updates, send me an email, and be sure to check this site and our facebook page. Have a wonderful summer!
New York Tolkien Conference 