We are pleased to announce that audio recordings from the Tolkien Lecture archive are now available on Spotify as the J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture Podcast. Whether rediscovering an old favourite lecture or listening for the first time, we hope you enjoy hearing our speakers’ fantastic insights via a new medium!
Find the podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/3RA1OGfF3zS14BSwS0N1RY?si=E18tBm53SXWHoVgH06ea0A&nd=1&dlsi=971a4dfff2934e16.
On 19 May 2025, Zen Cho delivered the 2025 Tolkien Lecture, on ‘The Uses of Fantasy’. The full recording is now available to view on our YouTube channel. We hope you enjoy this truly fantastic lecture!
The annual J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature seeks to promote the study of fantasy literature by making access to its lectures available to audiences from around the world.
We are immensely grateful to the Pembroke Pink Grant Scheme, the Kadas Foundation, and of course, the support of lecture attendees over the years. Thanks also to the Events, Catering, and Communications teams at Pembroke College.
Tickets are now available for the 2025 Tolkien Lecture, to be delivered by Zen Cho!
Visit Eventbrite to reserve your seat: https://tinyurl.com/2025TolkienLecture.
The lecture will be held on Monday 19 May at 6:00 pm, in the Pichette Auditorium, Pembroke College, Oxford.
The Tolkien Lecture is free of charge, but tickets are required for entry. An optional donation of £10 goes toward the costs of running the lecture and will help us keep the event free for the public in future years. All donations are greatly appreciated.
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About the Speaker
Zen Cho was born and raised in Malaysia, and lives in the UK. She writes fantasy and romance. Her titles include the Sorcerer to the Crown historical fantasy novels and Malaysian contemporary fantasy Black Water Sister, as well as the Lambda Award-nominated novella The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, and a short story collection, Spirits Abroad. Her newest novels, The Friend Zone Experiment and Behind Frenemy Lines, are contemporary romances set among London’s East and Southeast Asian community.
Zen is a winner of the Hugo, Crawford and British Fantasy Awards and the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize, as well as a finalist for the World Fantasy, Ignyte, Locus, Astounding, Kitschies and Diverse Book Awards. Her short fiction has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Finnish, Chinese and Japanese. She has spoken at literary festivals and conventions, taught creative writing and appeared on radio, and was once a model in a campaign for a global luxury make-up brand, chosen specifically for her accomplishments rather than her looks.
When she isn’t writing, Zen works as a lawyer. She enjoys cooking and baking, reading, gossip and travel.
Photo © Ilona Denton.
We are thrilled to announce that the 2025 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature will be delivered by Zen Cho!
The lecture will take place on Monday 19 May at 6:00 pm, in the Pichette Auditorium, Pembroke College, Oxford.
Tickets will be released on Wednesday 19 March at 12:00 pm.
The lecture is free to the public, but tickets are required for entry.
For those unable to attend, the lecture will be recorded and available to view afterwards on our YouTube channel. We are generously supported by Pembroke College, the Pembroke Pink Grant, and the Kadas Family Charitable Foundation.
About the Speaker
Zen Cho was born and raised in Malaysia, and lives in the UK. She writes fantasy and romance. Her titles include the Sorcerer to the Crown historical fantasy novels and Malaysian contemporary fantasy Black Water Sister, as well as the Lambda Award-nominated novella The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, and a short story collection, Spirits Abroad. Her newest novels, The Friend Zone Experiment and Behind Frenemy Lines, are contemporary romances set among London’s East and Southeast Asian community.
Zen is a winner of the Hugo, Crawford and British Fantasy Awards and the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize, as well as a finalist for the World Fantasy, Ignyte, Locus, Astounding, Kitschies and Diverse Book Awards. Her short fiction has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Finnish, Chinese and Japanese. She has spoken at literary festivals and conventions, taught creative writing and appeared on radio, and was once a model in a campaign for a global luxury make-up brand, chosen specifically for her accomplishments rather than her looks.
When she isn’t writing, Zen works as a lawyer. She enjoys cooking and baking, reading, gossip and travel.
Photo © Ilona Denton.
The annual J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature seeks to promote the study of fantasy literature by making access to its lectures available to audiences from around the world.
On June 12th 2024, Neil Gaiman delivered the 2024 Tolkien Lecture, highlighting the power of libraries and fantasy and drawing attention to the life and work of Nicholas Stuart Gray.
“Fiction … heals us, by letting us feel things we didn’t experience, see through others’ eyes when the only eyes we have are our own. It tells us there are options, it gives us friends. It gives us memories of places we have never been, and that never were. It makes the bullied, brave; and the impossible, possible.”
If you missed the lecture or simply want to relive the magic again, the recording is now on our YouTube channel!
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We are immensely grateful to the Pembroke Pink Grant Scheme, the Kadas Foundation, and of course, the support of lecture attendees over the past 11 years. In addition, many thanks to the events, catering, and communications teams at Pembroke College.
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Please note, this lecture took place in June 2024, prior to more recent developments regarding the speaker.
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Videography by Gregory Jenkins
Photography by Gabriel Schenk and Seda Öztürk
Tickets are now available for the 2024 Tolkien Lecture by Neil Gaiman! Visit Eventbrite to secure your spot! https://tinyurl.com/2024tolkienlecture
Tickets to the lecture are free of charge. However, if you are able, please consider purchasing a ticket for £10 which will help us cover the costs of running the lecture this year and in the future. All donations are greatly appreciated.
We are excited to announce that renowned fantasy author Neil Gaiman will deliver the 2024 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford!
The lecture will take place on Wednesday, 12 June 6PM BST at Oxford Town Hall.
Tickets will be released on Wednesday, 1 May 12PM.
For those unable to attend, the lecture will be recorded and made available to view afterwards on our YouTube channel. We are generously supported by Pembroke College, the Pembroke Pink Grant, and the Kadas Family Charitable Foundation.
Neil Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author and creator of books, graphic novels, short stories, film and television for all ages, including Norse Mythology, Neverwhere, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and The View from the Cheap Seats. His fiction has received Newbery, Carnegie, Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner Awards. American Gods, based on the 2001 novel, is a critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated TV series, and he was the writer and showrunner for the mini-series adaptation of Good Omens, based on the book he co-authored with Sir Terry Pratchett. Gaiman was an Executive Producer and co-showrunner for Netflix’s TV adaptation of his Sandman comic book series. He is currently developing season 3 of Good Omens and a TV adaptation of Anansi Boys. In 2017 Gaiman became a Global Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Originally from England, he now divides his time between Scotland, where Good Omens and Anansi Boys are filmed, and the United States, where he is a Professor in the Arts at Bard College. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of Literature. (Photo credit: Kimberly Butler)
On Tuesday, May 16th Maria Dahvana Headley delivered the 2023 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford.
It was wonderful to have Maria at Pembroke and to listen her engaging lecture about storytelling, magic, and monsters. Many thanks Maria for the inspiring lecture and taking the time to travel to Oxford, engaging the lecture attendees and simply being delightful.
We are also grateful to our sponsors: Pembroke College Annual Fund, The Kadas Family Charitable Foundation, and everyone who donated when they booked their tickets. The Tolkien lecture series would not be possible without them.
We also thank Pembroke College librarian Laura Cracknell, and archivist Amanda Ingram for the fantastic Tolkien display. Additionally, many thanks to events, catering, and communications teams at Pembroke.
And of course, thank you everyone who attended the lecture in person, or via livestream. It is always a pleasure to see so many people. If you missed the lecture, or simply would like to watch it again, the recording is available here.
Photography by Gabriel Schenk
Acclaimed fantasy author Maria Dahvana Headley will deliver this year’s Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford.
The lecture will take place on Tuesday, May 16th in the Pichette Auditorium at 6 PM BST.
Please click here for more information about the event and to reserve your lecture ticket.
A recording of the lecture will also be made available via our YouTube Channel.
Maria Dahvana Headley is the New York Times-bestselling, Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning author of eight books, most recently Beowulf: A New Translation (MCD/FSG), which was named as a book of the year by The Atlantic Monthly, National Public Radio, Vox, The Irish Times, The Guardian, The New Statesman, and more. It won the 2021 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the 2021 Hugo award for “Best Related Work”. Her novel, The Mere Wife (MCD/FSG), a contemporary adaptation of Beowulf, was named by The Washington Post as one of the “Notable Works of Fiction in 2018”.
She has written for both teenagers (Magonia and Aerie, Harper Collins) and adults in various genres and forms. Headley’s short fiction has been shortlisted for the Nebula and Shirley Jackson awards and for the 2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and has been anthologised in many year’s bests; a collection is under contract to FSG. Her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony, Arte Studio Ginestrelle, and the Sundance Institute’s Theatre Lab, among other organisations.
In Summer 2023, she’ll be a fellow at the Hawthornden Foundation’s Casa Ecco in Lake Como, Italy. She currently teaches at Bennington College and Sarah Lawrence College and has delivered masterclasses and lectures at Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, Columbia, UCSD, The University of Iowa, U Penn, Dartmouth, and Northwestern University, among many others. She delivers regular Zoom writing workshops to the public through The Shipman Agency’s workroom.
Her upcoming projects include a ten-episode full-cast musical adaptation of Vergil’s Aeneid for Audible UK, to be released in 2023; a novel from FSG about volcanoes, creation myths and time travel; a spy thriller; and a nonfiction book about the history of storytelling.
She grew up in the high desert of Idaho on a survivalist sled dog ranch, where she spent summers plucking the winter coat from her father’s wolf.
Maria Dahvana Headley’s photo is credited to Beowulf Sheehan.
On Monday, May 23rd, Rebecca “R.F.” Kuang delivered the Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. It was wonderful to gather again at Pembroke and to benefit from Rebecca’s insights about mimesis, representation, and the comforts of literature.
Our thanks again to Rebecca for spending time with us. It was also great to see so many people attend the lecture via livestream.
If you missed the lecture or want to watch it again, the recording is available here:
Photographs:
(all images courtesy of Gabriel Schenk)
The J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature 