We are excited to announce that booking has opened for our Gothic Fairies Online Conference ‘Ill met by moonlight’: Gothic encounters with enchantment and the Faerie realm in literature and culture, 8‒11 April 2021
Booking Link Fees: £10/ day (full rate), £35 for all four days; £7/day (unwaged/student), £25 for all four days
This online conference is uniquely situated at the intersection between folklore, fairy tale, and the Gothic. It celebrates the darker aspects of fairies and their kin and marks the centenary of the publication by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of the infamous Cottingley Fairies photographs in the Strand Magazine (Dec 1920). It is broadly interdisciplinary, embracing literature, art, folklore, film, TV, photography, fashion, performance, gaming, and fairy fiction writing. Our journey into the history of the fae will explore a diversity of media and genres: from early modern burlesque poetry and Victorian fairy painting, to Steampunk, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult Fiction and Contemporary TV.
The conference boasts eight keynotes, including Prof. Owen Davies, President of the Folklore Society on ‘Print Grimoires’ and Dr Merrick Burrows, Curator of the forthcoming Cottingley Fairies Exhibition (Brotherton Library) on ‘The Cottingley Fairies: Conan Doyle’s War on Materialism’. Other plenaries include Dr Sam George (Convenor, Open Graves, Open Minds project; Associate Professor of Research, University of Hertfordshire) on ‘Fairy Lepidoptera’; Prof. Diane Purkiss (Keble College, Oxford), ‘Where Do Fairies Come From?; Prof. Catherine Spooner (Lancaster University), ‘Glamourie: Fairies and Fashion’; Prof. Dale Townshend (Manchester Metropolitan University), ‘The fairy kind of writing’: Dr Maisha Wester (Indiana University; Global Professorship Fellowship, University of Sheffield), ‘Nalo Hopkinson’s Folkloric Revisions of Classic Fairytales and Myths’; Dr Ivan Phillips, Associate Dean, School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire, ‘What the Puck?’ Delegates are invited to take part in a range of exciting fairy themed activities, including a wine and wings social, a fairy flash fiction writing competition, and workshops by YA fantasy writer Betsy Cornwell (Tides, Mechanica, Venturess) on the creative adaptation of fairy lore. Dr Ceri Houlbrook (University of Hertfordshire; Magical Folk (2018)), will offer a workshop on Boggarts with outreach advice for postgraduate students and ECRs.
We hope to see you there. Tickets are selling out fast so please be quick!!
And remember ‘All you need is a little faith, trust, and pixie dust’ (Peter Pan)
