As you doubtless all know, Professor Tolkien taught at Oxford University, and wrote much of his famous work while there. He was a Fellow of Pembroke College, and in January Pembroke will be hosting the first in what will be an annual series of lectures on fantastic fiction in Tolkien’s honor. I’m delighted to see that the chosen speaker for the inaugural lecture is the fabulous Kij Johnson. The lecture will be at 6:00pm on January 18th, and Kij will teach a 2 hour course on fiction writing at 10:00am the following morning. Both will be free and open to the public.

You shouldn’t need me to tell you that Kij is one of the finest writers of short fiction working today. Her Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award wins stand testament to that. This is a unique opportunity for UK writers to hear a very fine exponent of the art speak.

Kij tells me that there will be some official publicity in the New Year, but for now all we have is a notice on Pembroke College’s Facebook page. I’ll link to the official announcement as soon as I hear it is up.