Oshun and I have been planning the next few month's of character biographies, and we've decided to take a slightly different approach from how we usually handle scheduling bios. We are looking for someone willing to write a character biography on one of the following characters. The bio would be due on Friday, November 29, and would appear within the next three months. (It could be as early as the December newsletter, but since we're uncertain of other projects-in-progress, we can't commit firmly to that, but we can guarantee it will be in February's newsletter at the very latest.)
Here is the list of characters we are looking for:

• Celebrian


• Estë


• Gothmog


• Hador


• Idril


• Manwë


• Olwë


• Saruman


• Shelob


• Uinen

If you're interested in writing a bio on one of these characters, please comment here or let me know via PM or at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. Expectations for character bios are below the cut.

( Character Biography Expectations )

Do you write meta? Do you love creating and sharing resources about Tolkien’s world?

We are looking for new essays, articles, and references to publish in the SWG’s newly updated Reference Library. One of the facets of the SWG’s mission is to “create a reliable set of references to aid others wishing to learn more about Tolkien’s works, the craft of writing, and fandom culture,“ and our Reference Library exists to meet that goal. Essays, articles, and resources should be relevant to The Silmarillion, its fandom, or the creation of fanworks about it.

The full submission guidelines can be found here, but I think it is also essential to offer an important caveat: Also of great importance to us on the SWG is seeing fan voices represented in the scholarship on Tolkien studies. There are multiple venues already for academics who wish to publish their work in Tolkien studies. The SWG is committed foremost to sharing and promoting the work of fans, and we are willing to work with anyone who wants to see their work become part of our Reference Library.

Authors sometimes express anxiety over taking the next step from publishing their meta on their own blog to seeing it published elsewhere. We hear things like, “I’m not sure it’s good enough” or “It’s not the right style” or “I’m not comfortable with citing sources.” Angelica and Dawn, the SWG mods who work in the Reference Library, are both teachers in the humanities as well as having experience in academia and being authors themselves. We will never turn away an author who is new to nonfiction writing or not yet comfortable with its conventions. We will work with any author who wants to publish with us to meet the expectations of our Reference Library.

If you are interested (or even think you might be!), reach out to us at loremaster@silmarillionwritersguild.org or through any of our social media, including comments on this post. And of course, if you have an essay, article, or resource about The Silmarillion, its fandom, or the creation of fanworks about it, do see our submission guidelines for more information on how to send it to us.

If you are not a meta writer yourself but have a favorite meta author you think we should check out and talk to, please let us know!

And the more than 150 references we already have in our Reference Library can be found here.

We recently renovated our Reference Library, including a much-needed review and update to our guidelines. One of the biggest changes we put into place is that we now accept reprints of articles/essays that have been previously published or presented. This has been an unofficial practice on the Reference Library for some time now, and in the interest of transparency, we have finally formulated formal guidelines for accepting reprinted works on our site.

We hope our Reference Library will serve as a home for fan scholarship/meta about The Silmarillion, its fandom, and writing about it. To meet this goal, we established our peer-review guidelines, but peer review is often not appropriate for a work that has already been presented or published in another venue. Often, it is complicated--or even impossible--to make changes to such texts. In other cases, the vetting process for the prior publication may be equally or more stringent than our own, which makes a second vetting a poor use of time and resources.

As such, reprinted articles and essays must be approved only by Reference Library editors. (At the moment, that is Angelica and me.) We also reserve the right to determine what venues review articles/essays adequately enough that we are comfortable bypassing peer review. Reprints will be labeled as such in the Reference Library with information on the original publication.

So what previous publications would generally count as reprints for the SWG Reference Library? Essays, articles, or other resources that initially appeared in/as a

• peer-reviewed or refereed journal or fanzine


• reputable, recognizable blog/website not owned/controlled by the author


• university thesis or dissertation


• presentation from a convention, conference, panel, course, or workshop

Please note that this list is not exhaustive, so if you have an article, essay, or resource that you don't see listed above but think might apply, please reach out. All reprints will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

If you have an essay, article, or resource that fits the above and that you think would be a good fit for our Reference Library as a reprint, we encourage you to contact us with a link to or copy of the text, along with information on the original venue where it was accepted/appeared. We can be reached at loremaster@silmarillionwritersguild.org. As always, questions are also welcome on this post.

The complete guidelines for submissions to our Reference Library can be found here.

One of our prides and joys on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild is our Reference Library. It was part of the original site and is something we've put a lot of thought and care into. In recent years, however, as various real-life obligations got in our way, we neglected its upkeep. It's needed an upgrade for some time. Finally--we've been able to do just that!

Over the next week, I'll be posted periodically about how the Reference Library works, since many of you may not have been around when last we were actively soliciting submissions for it. We've also changed a few policies that, through experience, we learned could be made better. And we'll be reaching out for new references too.

But for now, I encourage you to take a look around our newly renovated Reference Library. We've changed the organizational system to make it easier to find what you're looking for. There are more than 150 references in our Reference Library, all carefully researched and cited.

If you write nonfiction/meta about Tolkien or might want to be involved as we resume work on our Reference Library, watch this space for updates! (If you're worried you might miss an update and want to stay informed, comment here or send us an email to loremaster@silmarillionwritersguild.org, and I will make sure to keep you posted.)