Journeys to the Land of Faerie.. and telling the Tale

This event took place on 9 November 2023. The information below is correct as of the publication date.

Myths and stories about fairies and their worlds known as Faerie or Fairyland have a long and resonant place in British folklore especially. Multiple versions of these supernatural beings appear in ancient tales and classic texts from Gawain and the Green Knight to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Peter Pan. Fairies abound in fantasy novels including Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, John Crowley’s Little, Big, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan and Mr. Norrell and Jeannette Ng’s Under the Pendulum Sun.

Fairies reveal themselves in our world throughout folk tradition and literature, but it is only through great courage or by mysterious accident that humans have travelled to the Land of Faerie itself.

Join writers, artists and musicians Ellen Kushner, Jeannette Ng and Terri Windling in conversation with Diane Purkiss as they explore these fantastical journeys, and the realms discovered.

Ellen Kushner is the author of acclaimed works of literary fantasy, an award-winning audio book narrator and stage performer, the past creator and host of public radio’s national series Sound & Spirit, and a popular teacher and lecturer. She divides her time between New York City, Paris, and anywhere else that will have her. Among her works, Ellen published her first novel in 1987, the cult classic urban fantasy Swordspoint, which was followed in 1990 by Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and further novels in her Riverside series.

Sam Lee is a Mercury Prize nominated folk singer, writer, conservationist, song collector, award-winning creator of live events, broadcaster and activist. Alongside his organisation, The Nest Collective, he has shaken up the music scene breaking boundaries between folk and contemporary music: inviting in a new listenership interrogating what the messages in these old songs hold for us today. His most recent album is Old Wow (2019) and his 2021 debut novel The Nightingale, notes on a songbird tells the epic tale of this highly endangered bird and their place in culture folklore, folksong, music and literature throughout the millennia.

Jeannette Ng is an author best known for her 2017 novel Under the Pendulum Sun, for which she won the Sydney J Bounds Award for Best Newcomer at the 2018 British Fantasy Awards. She also won the Astounding for Best New Writer in 2019, and the Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2020. Originally from Hong Kong, Jeannette now lives in Durham, UK. She has an MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She runs live roleplay games, performs hair wizardry and sometimes has opinions on the internet.

Diane Purkiss is Professor of English Literature at Keble College, Oxford. She is the author of the highly acclaimed The Witch in History, Troublesome Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories and English Food: A People’s History

Terri Windling is a writer, editor, and folklorist specialising in fantasy and mythic arts. She has published over forty books, receiving ten World Fantasy Awards (including the Life Achievement Award in 2022), the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFWA Solstice Award. She has edited many of the major fantasy writers in the field; writes fiction for adults and children, nonfiction on fairy tales and faery lore, and a long-running blog on myth, nature, and creativity: Myth & Moor.