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Victorian Popular Fiction Association

@vpfa.bsky.social
187 followers 93 following 160 posts

A forum for everyone interested in #Victorian and #Neovictorian popular fiction and culture. Hosts VPFJ Journal and Third Sex and Short Story Reading Groups 📚https://victorianpopularfiction.org/

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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Don't forget to sign up to our tea salon happening on Wednesday! A great opportunity to share all of those weird and wonderful archival materials or marginalia you've found but never had the opportunity to use in your work! Check your emails from us to sign up 🤩
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
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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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
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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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
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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Dr. Samantha Landau📚 @broomsticknpen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
And it’s hybrid conference!! 💓
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Emma Butler-Marr @19thcenturyem.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Ohh my God it's like it was made for me 😂
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
If you enjoyed this issue of VPFJ, please consider sending us a submission for the next general issue. Deadlines for submission are 31st January 2027. Find out more here: victorianpopularfiction.org/publications...
victorianpopularfiction.org
Victorian Popular Fictions
The Journal of the Victorian Popular Fiction Associationclick on the issue links below to accessOUT NOW! Issue 8.1 (Spring 2026)Issue 7.2 (Autumn 2025), a special number on Victorian Popular Fictio…
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
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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Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Featuring yours truly on Louisa May Alcott's *delightful* 'A Long Fatal Love Chase'. I feel very lucky to be able to have enormous fun reading a novel, then enjoy presenting on the novel at a conference, before then having even more fun researching and writing about it in more depth...
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The latest issue of Victorian Popular Fictions is now OUT! Read the full issue on our website: victorianpopularfiction.org/publications...
victorianpopularfiction.org
Victorian Popular Fictions volume 8 issue 1 (Spring 2026)
Table of Contents ArticlesJulia Kuehn and Diane Eveline van den Brink. The Good, the Bad, and the Popular: The Question of a Popular Canon and Other Methodological ContemplationsLinda K. Hughes. Cr…
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
We are very excited to share yet another addition to the Key Popular Women Writers Series: congratulations to Susan Civale on the publication of Mary Shelley! 🎉 This study reveals previously unseen continuities in Shelley's work and affinities with other women writers!
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
For The Third Sex Reading Group's first session back after summer, they will be looking at The Lilac People by Milo Todd. This is a novel about Nazi Germany and the trans community. If you'd like to attend, please send us an email with the subject FAO: Third Sex to vpfareadinggroup@gmail.com
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Feeling that midweek slump? Why don't you sign up to our writing retreat to get your creative juices flowing again? If you are a VPFA member, check your previous emails from us for a sign-up link. If you are not a member and want to join, become one here: victorianpopularfiction.org/membership-j...
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Huge congratulations to Joanna Turner on the publication of her new book, Marie Corelli, in our Key Popular Women Writers Series!! 🎉 The book explodes the myths of prior biographies, revealing Corelli the performer, her working-class roots, and her hidden periodical publications of the 1870s.
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Emma Butler-Way is back with another post in the 'On This Day in the Pages of the Victorians' series: August 28th! We have updates on Queen Victoria, advice for sweethearts, home remedies, and musical scores 🎼 Read the full post here: victorianpopularfiction.org/on-this-day-...
victorianpopularfiction.org
On This Day in the Pages of the Victorians: 28th August
A selection by Emma Butler-WayWe have a bumper issue of ‘On This Day’ today! If you want to know what Queen Victoria was up to, or if the periodicals have any advice for sweethearts look no further…
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Dr Joanna Turner @coppertapestry.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
What a wonderful feeling – it’s publication day for my book on Marie Corelli! Thanks to my amazing editors @helenaifill.bsky.social and Janine Hatter for all their support. I’m so proud to be a contributor to their series on Key Popular Women Writers. @vpfa.bsky.social @lboroenglish.bsky.social
The cover for Marie Corelli by Joanna Turner. It depicts an image of a woman in Victorian dress, standing on a rock and pointing out to sea. Her hair is blowing in the breeze.
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Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Today sees another entry for the @vpfa.bsky.social Blog's On This Day series, featuring royal happenings, a volatile convalescent, notes on quietness, advice for sweethearts, miracle cures, and some musical notes... victorianpopularfiction.org/on-this-day-...
victorianpopularfiction.org
On This Day in the Pages of the Victorians: 28th August
A selection by Emma Butler-WayWe have a bumper issue of ‘On This Day’ today! If you want to know what Queen Victoria was up to, or if the periodicals have any advice for sweethearts look no further…
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
NEW BLOG POST 🧟‍♀️👻 Shannon looks at newly trending Neo-Victorian horror fiction and reflects on both its global interest and its appeal to readers living in unhinged times. Read the full post here: victorianpopularfiction.org/exacting-rev...
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
NEW BLOG POST 🤩Our James Malcolm Rymer expert, Rebecca Nesvet, reviews Birmingham Rep's production of Sweeney Todd and how it reveals 'the timeliness of penny dreadfuls': victorianpopularfiction.org/the-failure-...
victorianpopularfiction.org
The Failure of Institutions: Sweeney Todd Restages the Timeliness of Penny Dreadfuls
Birmingham Rep’s production reviewed by Rebecca Nesvet Victorian melodrama was not a purely escapist genre, nor was it necessarily conservative. With its mix of epic action and often plebeian chara…
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
We are delighted to share with you two new wonderful publications by VPFA members! Gothic Masculinities in the Victorian Age, ed. by Ruth Heholt and Mariaconcetta Constantini and Valerie Fehlbaum's edited collection of Ella Hepworth Dixon's short stories, Sidelights on the Feminine Temperament.
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Liz Hedgecock @lizhedgecock.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
...for the @vpfa.bsky.social conference at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social. I was on with JC Briggs, who writes the Charles Dickens Investigates series, and we had a great time (and some lovely feedback). #booksky #amwriting #historicalmystery #victorianmystery #authorupdate 3/?
The Moot Room at Liverpool John Moores uni, which was the roundtable venue. It used to be a chapel and still has the vaulted ceiling and stained glass. Some of my book covers (and those of JC Briggs) are displayed on a big screen. Get me!
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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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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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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Our 18th Annual Conference is now over, and some of you may be staving off the post-VPFA conference depression. Not to worry, because we have JUST the cure: Volume 8, issue 1 of Victorian Popular Fictions Journal 🤩💫 Read it online here: victorianpopularfiction.org/publications...
victorianpopularfiction.org
Victorian Popular Fictions volume 8 issue 1 (Spring 2026)
Table of Contents ArticlesJulia Kuehn and Diane Eveline van den Brink. The Good, the Bad, and the Popular: The Question of a Popular Canon and Other Methodological ContemplationsLinda K. Hughes. Cr…
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Dr Joanna Turner @coppertapestry.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
This is SO GOOD! Julia Kuehn and Diane Eveline Van den Brink open the latest issue of @vpfa.bsky.social journal with a polemical article that includes a case study featuring Wilkie Collins and Marie Corelli.
victorianpopularfiction.org
Victorian Popular Fictions 8.1 1 Kuehn and van den Brink
The Good, the Bad, and the Popular: The Question of a Popular Canon and Other Methodological ContemplationsJulia Kuehn and Diane Eveline van den BrinkDownload PDF hereAbstractThis article challenge…
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Claudia @ccapancioni.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Thank you so much #VPFAPublics. What a fantastic conference and so much to look forward to thanks to @vpfa.bsky.social wonderful community!!!
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Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
A *fantastic* time at #VPFAPublics the last few days. Fascinating papers, fruitful discussions (Some fun things on the horizon)... Caught up with old pals, made some new ones - every year I'm blown away by the incredible warmth of @vpfa.bsky.social. All the thanks to Jo and Janine for organising!
Sunset view over the River Mersey from Albert Docks. Old lamppost in the foreground
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Claudia @ccapancioni.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
After many ideas and productive conversations, the second day of #VPFAPublics ended with a joyful conference dinner. We are starting with a much awaited keynote first thing tomorrow morning: Tara MacDonald’s ‘Public Institutions, Private Care: Sex Work and Care Work in Victorian Popular Fiction’.
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Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The Bodies panel was certainly one of my favourites too. Fascinating research presented at #VPFAPublics day 2.
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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Starstruck 🤩 Got to meet one of my academic heroes today and hear her amazing keynote on sex work and care work in Victorian Pop Fiction. How can we be more caring and sympathetic in our community social care systems? #VPFAPublics @tara-macdonald.bsky.social
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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
@andrewkingc19.bsky.social talking about how Victorians marketed Pop Fiction - and I’m very excited to learn more about Victorian marketing, particularly design and product placement! Makes me think of my trawling through Punch for crumbs of context! #VPFAPublics
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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Can you imagine trying to de-anonymise 22 Victorian sensation novels? Because Janine Hatter can! What an amazing project 😱 #VPFAPublics
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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
“Murder by beast rampage” just makes me think of “30-50 wild hogs” 🤣🤣 #VPFAPublics
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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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Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
@helenmckenzie.bsky.social ‘s new research on Braddon’s letters to the RLF and philanthropy more generally is very exciting and points to some really fruitful new areas of discovery.
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Liz Hedgecock @lizhedgecock.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Had a great day yesterday at ‘The Victorians and their Publics’ conference at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social, courtesy of @vpfa.bsky.social. I learnt lots and have more books and stories to add to the reading pile! #booksky #authorevent #academicconference 1/2
The Moot Room at Liverpool John Moores University (it's a former chapel, hence the vaulted roof and stained glass). The big screen has book covers displayed on it, some of which are my Sherlock books and some of which are JC Briggs' Charles Dickens Investigates books. A pic of the front of the conference programme giving conference name, date and venue (as in main skeet).
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Helena Ifill discussing Charlotte Riddell's direct addresses to the reader, arguing that they were used as part of her campaign to become "the" novelist of London. city. Though she was interested in the lives of city women, her USP was the lives and hearts of city businessmen #VPFAPublics
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Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Jo’s fantastic Corelli book will be out in August!
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Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Absolutely loved being part of this panel! Always fun talking about Victorian and neo-Victorian corsets, bodies, and so on...!
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David Ibitson @arry-k-arry.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Relieved to be finally at the @vpfa.bsky.social conference & have Victorianist info & ideas piped into my brain. 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the Victorian Popular Fiction Association.' #VPFAPublics
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Rebecca Nesvet @ttendthetale.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
#VPFAPublics Nishtha Trehan: Robert can invade Lady Audley's space, go through her things, and read her letters because she is a woman. :(
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Dr Joanna Turner @coppertapestry.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Bodies - WHAT A PANEL at #vpfapublics It was absolutely brilliant! I loved hearing from Megan Nash, Anna-Maria Grill, and @ebutler-way.bsky.social about their fascinating research! @vpfa.bsky.social
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Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Presented my #VPFAPublics paper this morning in the Moot Room, which is gorgeous. I felt a bit like I was preaching a sermon!
A chapel-like roomA room at LJMUMoot room
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David Ibitson @arry-k-arry.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Currently on my way to Liverpool for #VPFAPublics like Lady Audley on her way to burn down an Inn. Can't wait.
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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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Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
A great reminder from Dr Jennifer Jones in her session on creating good writing habits this morning. I spend far too much time trying to have the ‘perfect’ first draft, which often results in unfinished projects. Reflecting on how I can ‘un-perfect’ my process at #VPFAPublics ✍🏻
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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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Rebecca Nesvet @ttendthetale.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
#VPFAPublics Debora Sarnelli: Collins commodities himself! ("I may become once more a saleable commodity in the English book-market" (1867)
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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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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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