Mythcon 53
Summer 2024
Mythcon 53
Fantasies of the Middle Lands
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Late July or Early August, 2024
(Dates are not yet set, but most likely possibilities are July 19-22, or August 2-5)
Late July or Early August, 2024
(Dates are not yet set, but most likely possibilities are July 19-22, or August 2-5)
Online Registration will be available soon.
Prices will be announced when details have been finalized. Also, we are working on offering a Virtual Option for remote attendance. Theme: Fantasies of the Middle Lands
In keeping with the location in the middle of the continental U.S., Mythcon 53’s theme builds on the idea of “middle-ness” in various ways.
Possible subjects for papers and discussions would include:
- - Middle-earth, Midgard, etc
- - the English midlands, beloved by Tolkien
- - Middle America: the heartland, folklore, tall tales, “Prairie Home Companion,” Field of Dreams
- - Middle America in horror: Stranger Things, what’s buried in the cornfield
- - Middle America in fantasy: Lois McMaster Bujold’s Sharing Knife series, Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series, Stranger Things
- - liminal spaces as settings for fantasy (train stations, Purgatory, Wood Between the Worlds)
- - intertextuality — crossing genres, multiple media
- - even conceptual middles, like middle thirds of trilogies
Call for Papers -- watch this space!
Guests of Honor
To be announced soon!Location
The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, have long had an active community of science fiction fans, including the Rivendell discussion group of the Mythopoeic Society. Twin Cities fandom has supplied the SF/F field with many professional writers, from Poul Anderson and Gordon R. “Gordy” Dickson, to Steven Brust and Naomi Kritzer. The Cities themselves have been the setting for novels such as Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks and Laramie Sasseville’s One of Me is Missing.The Minneapolis/St. Paul area also hosts several annual SF/F conventions, from the small Diversicon to the long-running traditional Minicon, to the huge Convergence. Minnesotans know how to put on conventions and have fun!