We are looking for three conference live "posters" for our 18th Annual Conference 6-8th July. You will be tasked with posting updates about the panels you attend on Bluesky, using #VPFAPublics, and Instagram stories tagging @vpfamedia. You need to be an in-person attendee.

Put the kettle on and step inside the nineteenth-century home! ☕️ From the material culture of parlour objects to the daily routines and invisible labour found in popular fiction and periodicals, we’re diving into the micro-histories of Victorian daily life. VPFA members check your emails for a link

Don't forget to submit your abstracts for our Science fiction Study Day! Deadline is 31st May, so you still have some time to think of an idea. Email your abstracts [email protected], and for more information head to: victorianpopularfiction.org/out-of-this-...

Our online Study Day, 'The "Critical Age" in Victorian Popular Literature' is only 4 days away!! Everybody is welcome, more info and registration here: victorianpopularfiction.org/the-critical...

Registration is OPEN for our 18th Annual Conference: "Victorians and Their Publics". 🌎Liverpool John Moores University 📅6-8th July, 2026 💸£20-135 (depending on in-person/ student status). To read the full conference programme and to register, head to: victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual-...

For @vpfa.bsky.social’s recent Online Study Day @hannaharmour.bsky.social and @jnam.bsky.social had the opportunity to present their respective research on Le Fanu’s “The Watcher” and on Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Many thanks to the organisers for coordinating such an inspiring event!

Bestselling novelist Marie Corelli was born today in 1854 as Caroline Cody. It’s a great day to perform a cover reveal for my volume of the @vpfa.bsky.social Key Popular Women Writers series on Corelli—out VERY soon. I am incredibly excited for it to be out in the world! @lboroenglish.bsky.social

Read VPFA's new blog post by Mary Eliza Root Prize's 2025 winner, Sophie Franklin! Post available here: victorianpopularfiction.org/mer-prize-re...

In a time of fixed-term or zero-hour contracts and uncertainty in HE, come join us as we discuss alternative careers. We'll hear from 3 members working outside academia, and there will be Q&A after! This event is free for VPFA members, so don't forget to check that your membership is up to date.

This is a great way to boost engagement with other scholars, while also helping students be able to identify how to create a coherent framework for an argument!

Don't forget to sign up for our writing retreat next Wednesday. If you're struggling with writers' block, this is for you! If you are a VPFA member, check your emails for the registration link. If not - become one on our website.

All set up for day 2 of @vpfa.bsky.social Short Story Study Day, featuring detective fiction #Sherlock #LovedayBrooke, the pychology of bigamy, sound in the short story, art and illustration ❤️

VPFJ is seeking to expand its pool of expert reviewers. Send an email to [email protected] with subject "VPFJ Reviewer Database" including: - A short CV (or link to institutional profile) and ORCID. - Preferred email address for contact. - Up to 10 research keywords - Any recent publications

You might find getting back to your writing difficult after the Easter break 🥚🐰🐥, so why not come along to our writing retreat next Saturday? If you are a VPFA member, the sign up link will be in your recent emails from us. Otherwise, become a member on our website to receive the link

Registration for VPFA Study Day 'The "Critical Age" in Victorian Popular Literature' is now OPEN! 📍 Online 📅 19th May 2026 🕑 10am-4.30pm (GMT) The study day will also feature a digital humanities workshop with Gale. More info and registration here: victorianpopularfiction.org/the-critical...

Absolutely thrilled to share the programme for the study day that I am co-organising on the "Critical Age" in Victorian Popular Fiction. Registration link in the comments. All welcome @vpfa.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social @cncsi.bsky.social

This month's session of the Third Sex Reading Group will be on Selby Wynn Schwartz's After Sappho (2022), co-hosted with Casey Maeve. If you'd like to attend, please send us an email at [email protected] with the subject FAO: Third Sex.

Fab day @ the VPFA Sensation Fiction & the Health Humanities study day yesterday. As ever, wonderful to catch up with everyone, make new connections, & be immersed in so much interesting research. Thank you @braddonite.bsky.social for putting together such a great day & programme! @vpfa.bsky.social

Registration for VPFA's Study Day 'The Victorian Short Story: Influence, Innovation and Legacy', is now OPEN. Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-victor... For the full programme, abstracts, and links to the short stories discussed, head to: victorianpopularfiction.org/the-victoria...

VPFA virtual Victorian tea salon exploring the feathered, furred, and feral stars of 19th century literature. Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creatures-... Free for VPFA members, £6.13 for non-members.

That was fun! Interviewed about my Neglected Victorian Bestsellers YouTube readalong project by @helenaesser.bsky.social for the @vpfa.bsky.social blog victorianpopularfiction.org/neglected-vi...

In a new VPFA Blog Post, Helena Esser interviews Roy Reads Anything (@edgerat.bsky.social) about his Neglected Victorian Bestsellers project. There's Marryat, Lytton, Corelli, Ouida, and more! Read the post here: victorianpopularfiction.org/neglected-vi... Roy's YouTube: www.youtube.com/playlist...

Join us on the 16th April at 6pm for an amazing interactive workshop led by Dr Catherine Pope, author of How to Publish Your PhD! Catherine will discuss the many steps of turning your thesis into a book. This event is open to VPFA members only, and space is limited to 30 people - check your emails.

Join us for a mid-week, mid-afternoon writing retreat and beat that afternoon slump! As usual, this event is free for VPFA members, but we have now opened this up to non-members for a small fee of £5 (£6.13 inc. Eventbrite fee). Sign up is available here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1984543534...

📢 LAST CALL, BOOK GIVEAWAY ends this Thurs. Repost to win 1 free copy of *Theatrical Afterlives: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Novels on the Stage* (OUP March 2026). global.oup.com/academic/pro....

With all the hype around Wuthering Heights since Emerald Fennel's (wild?) adaptation, we thought that this would be a great opportunity for a discussion of Emily Brontë's classic novel for a VPFA collaboration with the Society of Young Publishers.

Our fantastic doctoral student Sarah Dutson is organising the next of our North-West Long Nineteenth-Century Research Seminars, which is a hybrid event focusing on postgraduate and early career research on 19c afterlives. For more info, please click here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nineteenth...

Today is your final opportunity to submit an abstract for the VPFA study day on the 'critical age". Get submitting!!

I went to a VPFA 'Turning your thesis into a monograph' workshop in 2022. After completing my PhD, I thought I'd maybe mine my thesis for a couple of articles and leave it at that. I left the workshop motivated, re-inspired, and my monograph is now in production 👀 So: sign up! @vpfa.bsky.social

Join the VPFA for a workshop on publishing Victorian Popular Fiction! ✅ Turning your thesis into a monograph. ✅ Writing a winning book proposal. ✅ Insights from the VPFJ editorial committee. ✅ Handling peer review & rejection 📅 26th February at 6pm 🔗 See your emails for the registration link!

Just 9 days left to get an abstract in for this @vpfa.bsky.social study day on "The Critical Age". Please re-post to share as widely as we can. Thank you!

Thomas Vranken & Atele Dutt, ‘Speaking in Tongues: The Texts Haunting Stevenson’s Samoan Adaptation of “The Bottle Imp”’, Victorian Popular Fictions 6.2, 2024 @vpfa.bsky.social #C19 9/10 victorianpopularfiction.org/publications...

Want to discuss Allison Epstein's new novel FAGIN THE THIEF? To join the informal discussion of the novel, please email Rebecca Nesvet at [email protected] for zoom link or more information. 📆6-7PM BST, Tuesday 24 March.

New VPFA Study Day Announcement 📢: 'Out of this World: Science Fiction in the Victorian Period'. Read the CfP on our website: victorianpopularfiction.org/out-of-this-.... @bavs-uk.bsky.social @rs4vp.org @thevicsoc.bsky.social @global19c.bsky.social

Feeling start of year de-motivation? Sign up for our virtual writing retreat to get those creative juices flowing! If you are a member, all information will be in an email from us, or get in touch with [email protected] to find out more.

The next session of VPFA's Third Sex Reading Group is Sarah Waters' Affinity! Lots of interesting things to be included in the pack from the queer space of the seance room and prison, to intertextuality, and the connection between spiritualism and sexuality. To join email [email protected]

don't forget to send in your abstracts for this VPFA study day. Women's bodily experiences are so often overlooked in fiction, so this study day is so important for bringing those to light.

For those of you who need some mid-week inspiration, why not join us for our next virtual writing retreat? It is the perfect opportunity to get some work done in two solid writing blocks. 11 Feb 2-4pm (GMT) Free for all VPFA members - check your emails for more information on how to register!

The next special issue of Victorian Popular Fictions Journal is “Human–Animal Relations in Victorian Popular Literature and Culture” and will be guest-edited by Dr Bethany Dahlstrom & Dr Helena Esser. For full CFP and submission guidelines, please see: victorianpopularfiction.org/wp-content/u...

Now it's actually out, here's another plug for my new book about #Victorian New Humour, where I prove that Jerome is better than Joyce. Just now realising I should have called it FUN de siecle. @bavs-uk.bsky.social @vpfa.bsky.social link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Fun de siècle would have been a great title! A fascinating piece of research that we can't wait to get into. Congratulations on your publication 😀

Check out Helena's new blog post as she considers some new and upcoming Neo-victorian novels and whether they are becoming more unhinged and innovative. Let us know if you have read any of the texts, and any thoughts you may have

Looking for some unusual neo-Victorian reads? The @vpfa.bsky.social blog's got you: victorianpopularfiction.org/is-neo-victo...

Start the year gently with conversation, curiosity, and a cup of tea. We invite you to revisit familiar Victorian texts, share what still resonates, and explore how our research questions evolve over time. Free for all VPFA members - check your emails for more information on how to register!

I'm constantly revising my list of reasons why we don't use AI in my class. This one is specific to a first-year writing intensive. Free to borrow/adapt! 🙂

You heard it here first: next Third Sex session useful to anyone interested in Kent history! Sign up by emailing [email protected] to express interest!

Born in Ramsgate, we'll have you know! And yes, she's on the KMO site...

VPFA's Third Sex Reading Group are back with their first session of 2026! In this session, co-hosted by Crescent Rainwater, they will be discussing Netta Syrett's The Victorians. If you would like to attend or be put on the mailing list,please email [email protected] with 'FAO: Third Sex'.

Hello 2026! Here's to a great new year, the same fabulous you, and a new(ish) CFP to submit an abstract to....

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Katie Brandt's doctoral research analyzes representations of intoxication and addiction in realist literature of the time, and how addiction itself can be a theoretical foundation for understanding the development and formal technologies of realism in Vic. lit.