I didn’t have a blog planned for this week but have just seen this all over the book trade press so I have to post about it because I think as many people should get involved as possible.
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Watership Down (which just happens to be my favourite book), some academics are holding a 3-day conference at the University of Glasgow from 2-4 September 2022. It is hoped that a collection of essays, primarily based on papers given at the conference, will follow. Current keynote speakers include Richard Adams’ daughter Rosamond Mahony, as well S. F. Said and Briony Wickes.
Here’s the website: https://watershipdownat50.com/
It looks like more details are to come, currently they’re asking for 20-minute papers on “any aspect of Watership Down, its influences and legacy.” With a list of suggested topics:
- Adams’s other works
- Adaptations
- Animal-human relations
- Anthropomorphism
- Crossover fiction
- Ecology and the environment
- Influence on later children’s literature
- Invented languages
- Mythopoeia
- Precursors
- Real and fictional geographies
- Richard Adams’s biography
- The animal story tradition
If you’re interested in contributing then send abstracts (up to 200 words) to Dimitra Fimi (Dimitra.Fimi@glasgow.ac.uk), University of Glasgow, and Catherine Butler (ButlerC6@cardiff.ac.uk), Cardiff University, by 31 August 2021.
I don’t know about you but I’m fucking hyped.
(Unrelatedly, I have a YouTube video about rabbits and books coming out this Wednesday, make sure you’re following my channel when it drops…)