iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Helen McKenzie

NEW BLOG POST 📢 Adding to our series of posts about Neo-Victorian horror, Rebecca Hamilton, VJ René, and Megan Nash reflect on the genre’s potential to voice the unspeakable in "The Era of Neo-Victorian Horror Cinema is Here"! Read the full post here: victorianpopularfiction.org/the-era-of-n...

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

The 2026 VPFA Mary Eliza Root prize is now open! Deadline: 30th September 2026. To see if you are eligible apply, and for more details, please go to: victorianpopularfiction.org/mary-eliza-r...

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

Join us for our next Tea Salon to dive into some of the more unique finds we've all come across in the archives. If you are a member, check your previous emails from us to sign up. Not a member? Sign up here: victorianpopularfiction.org/membership-j...

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VPFA are now accepting abstracts for our 19th Annual Conference "Beaches and Borders in Victorian Popular Fiction and Culture". To read the full CfP and submission guidelines, head to: victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual-...

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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Listening to Clare, Claudia, and Sarah talk about pathways to readership and professorship, and I feel like there’s so much good info here for PGRs and ECRs as well. Already thinking of new VPFA professional development panels! #BAVS2026

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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

There’s something so satisfying about seeing a pretty presentation slide 🤣 If you’re undecided on which panel to attend this morning, might I suggest Panel 3E? 🥰 #RSVP26 #PrintInMotion

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Helen McKenzie @helenmckenzie.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

An emotional week... The fabulous @vpfa.bsky.social Conference #VPFAPublics full of fascinating papers, wine, and time with old and new friends! Then my last Sat teaching with Saturn Dance full of kind words, hugs, and tears (mostly mine!). A sensible if sad decision to scale back. Thank you all 🥹

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Emilie Laurent @emilieslaurent.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Truly honored and deeply grateful to have been awarded the Greta Depledge Prize for best postgraduate paper, given by @vpfa.bsky.social at its 18th annual conference for my paper on Arthur Machen’s manipulative storytelling. This award means more to me than I can put into words. Thank you ❤️

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Emilie Laurent @emilieslaurent.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

What a fantastic three days at #VPFAPublics in Liverpool! I had an amazing time in one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen. Such a joy to learn more about Victorian popular fiction while catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. Can’t wait for next year!

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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Welcome to our new VPFA co-President, Claudia Capancioni! #VPFAPublics

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

Helen McKenzie talking about M.E. Braddon's letters of recommendations to the Royal Literary Fund. Her letters frequently emphasise the innocence of the writer, and use very physical language #VPFAPublics

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Rebecca Nesvet @ttendthetale.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

#VPFAPublics: Helen McKenzie: more of the literary labor force: Mr. William Tinsley is "an untiring *****worker**** in the field of literature," said Braddon. His RLF app was rejected. (Emphasis Helen's.)

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Rebecca Nesvet @ttendthetale.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

#VPFAPublics Braddon recommended to the RLF the "praiseworthy life and intellectual labour" of writer Miss Edith Heraud.

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Rebecca Nesvet @ttendthetale.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

#VPFAPublics Helen McKenzie: The RLF and Braddon's letters of recommendation. Wrote about 1/2 for women writers, who "toiled and fought" - breadwinners and a frighteningly modern literary precariat.

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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Learning about William Holman Hunt’s orientalist religious works set in front of this beautiful backdrop. Absolute perfection. #VPFAPublics

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Helen McKenzie @helenmckenzie.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

My art does not stand up to the setting but was a fun and thought-provoking way to start the day, thanks @luciejones83.bsky.social, before great papers, Neo-Victorian author roundtable, and discussions over tea and coffee. An all round wonderful Day One at #VPFAPublics See you tomorrow!

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

Lucie Matthews-Jones @luciejones83.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Thank you to @vpfa.bsky.social for inviting me to give my 1st (pedagogy focused) keynote where I playful thought about What the Victorians Taught Me About Teaching? I focused on creative production, emotion, sociability&wellbeing. I shared some of my students creative work too. #vpfapublics

A lecture theatre environment. Looking onto a PowerPoint screen with a slide that reads What the Victorians Taught Me About Teaching?: Creative Pedagogy in the Classroom. In the front three desks with creative work on them.

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

absolutely incredible 😍#VPFAPublics

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Siobhan-Michelle Smith @smdsmith.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

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

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

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...

victorianpopularfiction.org

Neglected Victorian Bestsellers with Roy Reads Anything

Helena Esser interviews Roy Bayfield about the most VPFA book club ever On YouTube, Roy Reads Anything heads up a year-long read-along that will be right up the VPFA members’ alley: We’ve got Marry…

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

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.

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

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.

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

CfP for VPFA's 18th Annual Conference is now live and the topic is 'Victorians and their Publics'. To read the CfP and full submission guidelines online, please head to: victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual-....

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

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!

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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!

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

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

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

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...

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

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 vpfareadinggroup@gmail.com with 'FAO: Third Sex'.

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT SERIES 🔦 : Claudia Sterbini, whose PhD traces the history of asexuality through the construction of ‘nonsexuality’ in fin de siècle sexology and literature. Check out her new article on non-sexual patients and doctors in The Island of Doctor Moreau: academic.oup.com/jvc/advance-...

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

The deadline for abstracts for 'The Victorian Short Story' VPFA Study Day has been extended to 16th January! We would love to see your proposal in our inbox at vpfaconference@gmail.com

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT! 🔦 : Milly Harrison. Milly has been a VPFA member since 2021. Her thesis, 'Deviant Cartographies', examines how British Weird fiction allowed late-Victorian authors to explore deviant masculinity. Harrison recently published in Gothic Studies: www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/...

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Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Christopher Columbus! I've written a new blog post for @vpfa.bsky.social, this time on the Christmassiness of Little Women adaptations... It was much harder than anticipated. I changed the ranking many times. I began to question everything. I still am... victorianpopularfiction.org/christmas-wo...

victorianpopularfiction.org

Christmas Won’t Be Christmas without ‘Little Women’…

A subjective ranking of Christmassiness by Emma Butler-WayIn my years of teaching Little Women in adaptation, the one question I have never asked either myself or my students is: ‘And what about ho…

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

This is the first of many Member Spotlights. We want to make this a fortnightly series, where we highlight any achievements of our Members, because YOU are the heart and soul of VPFA. Email vpfamedia@gmail.com with any achievements and a photo of yourself and we will be delighted to share.

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

New Blog post alert- 'Neo-Victorian Gothtober 2025' by Helena Esser. Some spooky neo-Vic gothic films and tv series recommendations for your Halloween watching pleasure! Read here: victorianpopularfiction.org/neo-victoria...

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

Submissions for the VPFA First Book Prize are now OPEN! Deadline is 31st December 2025. For full eligibility criteria and submission guidelines, go to: victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-book-pr...

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

Sign up to attend the VPFA's Third Sex Reading group's October session on Natasha Pulley's The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, a neo-Victorian novel To sign up this month, please email vpfareadinggroup@gmail.com with 'FAO: Third Sex No. 43' and ask to be added to the attendees list.

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

🚨Call for Papers! ❓Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day 🗺️Loughborough University 📅27 March 2026 💷 FREE For full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/studyday/for... Contact the organiser Anne-Marie Beller (@braddonite.bsky.social) at a.m.beller@lboro.ac.uk for more information

Mentally ill patients dancing at a ball at Somerset County Asylum. Process
print after a lithograph by K. Drake, ca. 1850/1855.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xswz3swa

CFP: Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities
A VPFA Study Day
Loughborough University, 27 March 2026

The Health Humanities and Victorian popular fiction intersect in revealing ways, offering insights into how 19th-century literature shaped and reflected contemporary understandings of health, illness, and the body. Popular narratives not only mirrored anxieties surrounding public health and medical progress but also contributed to shaping public perceptions of health and healing. Health Humanities approaches re-examine these texts to uncover how cultural narratives and literary representations influenced attitudes toward physical and mental well-being, gendered experiences of illness, and the ethics of care in an age of rapid scientific change.

Health Humanities is a particularly useful approach to sensation fiction because it illuminates the ways in which these emotionally charged, often morally ambiguous narratives explore and interrogate concepts of the body, illness, and mental health. Sensation fiction, with its focus on secrets, trauma, nervous disorders, and abnormal psychological states, frequently dramatizes the anxieties of Victorian society surrounding health, gender, and identity. By applying the lens of Health Humanities, scholars can uncover how these texts reflect and shape contemporary medical discourse. Interdisciplinary approaches also highlight how sensation fiction critiques institutional medicine, domestic care practices, and the pathologization of women’s experiences. Ultimately, Health Humanities allows us to see sensation fiction not just as entertainment, but as a culturally significant form that negotiates the meanings of illness, morality, and human vulnerability in a rapidly changing world.

20-minute papers are invited on any aspect of the health humanities and sensation fiction. Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Madness, Hysteria, and the Sensation Heroine
• The Role of Doctors and Medical Authority in Se…

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

Excited to announce that the VPFA blog has launched! Thanks to Emma Butler-Way for her hard work in getting it ready for today, for more information check out the blog at the link below: victorianpopularfiction.org/the-vpfa-blog/

victorianpopularfiction.org

The VPFA Blog

The VPFA Blog Welcome to the VPFA Blog! Here we will have ponderings, reflections, speculative readings, and more, for the reading pleasure of our fellow Victorianists. If you would like to submit …

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

Join us for a virtual writing retreat designed for VPFA members! Working on a conference paper, article, thesis, or admin tasks? this structured retreat offers dedicated time, body doubling, and proven productivity techniques inspired by Rowena Murray. Drop in or stay the full day!

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

The Editors of Victorian Popular Fictions are looking for guest editors for autumn special issues from 2027 - 2030. Please see the attached CFP. The deadline for proposals is 30th September 2025, and we are very happy to take any queries, please just email us at vpfjournal@gmail.com.

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

The 2025 prize is now open! (deadline: 30th September 2025). The prize offers the winning scholar two nights' accommodation (with breakfast and dinner) for up to three days' research at Gladstone's Library. To find out more about eligibility and process: victorianpopularfiction.org/mary-eliza-r...

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Reposted by Helen McKenzie

Read about the projects and experiences of previous Mary Eliza Root prize winners (Anne Chapman, Lin Young, Jon Potter, Asma Char, Adele Guyton, Helen McKenzie, and Joanne Knowles) here: victorianpopularfiction.org/mer-prize-re... Apply by 30th September for your chance to visit Gladstone's Library

victorianpopularfiction.org

MER Prize Reports (Blog)

Mary Eliza Root Award Reports 2017: Anne Chapman, King’s College London Anne was awarded the prize for her research into ‘Day of Rest: Structuring Sunday’, which explores the ways…

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Spot the owls for #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay! An 1898 design in Jacquard woven wool by Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, 1857-1841, sold by Liberty's (it was also produced as a wallpaper) victorianweb.org/art/design/t...

Little owls among foliage in a pattern of muted yellows, brown and green

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Andrew King @andrewkingc19.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Hear hear! It's the @vpfa's deeply rooted refusal of hierarchy in the interest of welcome and joy combined with serious intellectual ambition, isn't it? It's proof renewed every year that fun and rigour make a great alloy!

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Helen McKenzie @helenmckenzie.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

The last time I was at the @bmi1854.bsky.social was as a kid playing in a music competition with my brother....this week I was back for the @vpfa.bsky.social Annual Conference! It's been absolutely wonderful; thank you to everyone! #VPFAExtremes

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Anna @annaulrika75.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Grill extends the metaphor of the Victorian asylum to include Audley court and reads Lady Audley herself as a character who wields medical agency instead of as a patient/mad person. #VPFAExtremes

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Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

HUGE shout out to Keira for handling being the sole speaker like a pro! I certainly enjoyed chairing this panel, even if it was a slightly unconventional one. I'm *always* game for talking about Jane Eyre - this was an absolute pleasure. Thank you Keira for being such a good sport! #VPFAExtremes

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Helena Ifill @helenaifill.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

A great meal with great conference pals! @vpfa.bsky.social #VPFAextremes

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