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11-13 September 2018 – lecture on ‘Fairy-tales’ for the Oxford Fantasy Literature Summer School: https://www.english.ox.ac.uk/event/here-be-dragons-oxford-fantasy-literature-summer-school

20-22 July 2018 – course for Tŷ Newydd (the National Writing Centre of Wales) on ‘(Re)telling traditional narratives: myth, legend, fairy tale’, alongside Catherine Fisher

2-5 July 2018 – organizing paper sessions and a round table panel on J.R.R. Tolkien at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds. Roundup here: http://dimitrafimi.com/tolkien-at-imc-leeds-2018-round-up/

23 June 2018 – public lecture for the Story Museum and Royal Entomological Society exhibition “Insects Through the Looking Glass” titled: ‘Wings, Antennae, and Stings: Tolkien’s Creepy Crawlies’: http://www.storymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/wings-antennae-stings-tolkiens-creepy-crawlies/

5 June 2018 – panel discussion on “Mythopoeia: Myth-creation and Middle-earth” for the Bodleian Library’s “Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth” exhibition, alongside Professor Dame Marina Warner, Professor Verlyn Flieger, and moderated by Professor Carolyne Larrington

24 May 2018 – seminar for the Centre for Myth Studies (University of Essex), Myth Reading Group: ‘“The Battle of the Trees”: from medieval Welsh legend to modern fantasy’

10-13 May 2018 – paper for Tolkien sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan: ‘“Queer” Border, “Hidden Kingdom”: Perceptions of Wales in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work’

26-27 April 2018 – Keynote for GIFCon (Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations) 2018: ‘In the blood and in the landscape: escaping (into) the “Celtic” past in contemporary children’s fantasy’

22 April 2018: My essay “‘Tears are the very wine of blessedness’: joyful sorrow in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings“, published in Death and Immortality in Middle-earth, won the Tolkien Society Award 2018 for Best Article. Read more here: https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/04/winners-of-the-tolkien-society-awards-2018-announced/

13 March 2018: A review of Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy by Professor Brian Attebery in International Research in Children’s Literature (IRCL) described the book as: “a clear, substantial, and original contribution to fantasy studies”. Read the review here: http://www.irscl.com/review_celtic_myth.html

8 March 2018: Listed in Wales Arts Review‘s “100 women of Wales on Twitter” for #IWD2018: http://www.walesartsreview.org/iwd2018-100-women-of-wales-on-twitter-2/

7 March 2018:New journal article published: ‘Language as Communication vs. Language as Art: J.R.R. Tolkien and Early 20th-Century Radical Linguistic Experimentation’, Journal of Tolkien Research, 5(1), pp. 1-28. Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol5/iss1/2/

24 January 2018: New article published for The Conversation: “Ursula K Le Guin’s strong female voice challenged the norms of a male-dominated genre”. Read more (and the article) here: http://dimitrafimi.com/ursula-k-le-guin-in-memoriam/

21 December 2017: New article published for the The Conversation, titled: “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christmas letters to his children bring echoes of Middle-earth to the North Pole”. Read more (and the article) here: http://dimitrafimi.com/new-article-on-j-r-r-tolkiens-father-christmas-letters-in-the-conversation/

13 November 2017: I was delighted to announce the Wales Book of the Year 2017 winner at a ceremony in Cardiff. It was an honour to be one of three judges for the English entries. Many congratulations to the winners of each category, and to the overall winner, Alys Conran, for her novel Pigeon. Photo courtesy of Camera Sion and Literature Wales. Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-41976471

8 November 2017: My new book, Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy, was announced as the runner-up for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2017. Read more here: http://dimitrafimi.com/celtic-myth-in-contemporary-childrens-fantasy-announced-as-runner-up-for-katharine-briggs-folklore-award/

16 October 2017: Guest lecture on “Celtic” myth in young adult novels by Henry Neff and Catherine Fisher for Signum University. Watch lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPu4sYDpNvY

10 October 2017: I announced the Wales Book of the Year 2017 shortlist on BBC Radio Wales, before it was released online later that day: http://www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/wales-book-year/wales-book-year-short-list-2017/

23 September 2017: Keynote lecture at Oxonmoot: “Sailing to the West: the Fall of Arthur, Beowulf and Tol Eressëa”. Watch the lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUJOm7s23wI

19 September 2017:TLS article: “Why Build New Worlds”. Read article here: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/fantasy-worlds-invention-restraint/

21 August 2017: TLS article: “Alan Garner’s The Owl Service at 50”: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/alan-garner-owl-service-fifty/

27 July 2017: Folklore Thursday article: “Riddles, Heroes, and Folktales Come True: Folklore in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings”

20 July 2017: Keynote Lecture for George MacDonald’s Scotland conference, University of Aberdeen: “George MacDonald and Celticity”

2-6 July 2017: round table contribution to Tolkien Society Seminar (Leeds) and organizer of four sessions on J.R.R. Tolkien at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds.

2 June 2017: Radio interview for BBC Radio Wales on Tolkien’s Beren and Lúthien – listen here