Victorian Popular Fiction Association

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.

@rs4vp.org @l19cmanmet.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social

CFP 📣 Join us in Loughborough 📍 for a day of Sensation fiction and health humanities organised by our very own @braddonite.bsky.social. ✨ See post below for details 👇

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…

🚨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

I'm grateful to @bavs-uk.bsky.social @vpfa.bsky.social @issegyptomania.bsky.social bsls.ac.uk @incsa.bsky.social @thebsls.bsky.social & so many individuals within the #Victorian #Gothic #Egyptomania #LitSci #PreRaphaeilite communities for friendship & support during my Research Fellowships.

What a joy it was getting this page ready to go! All the thanks to @helenaesser.bsky.social for the material!

Here we'll have reflections, contemplations, speculations and more (all of a Victorian/neo-Victorian nature, of course).

Interested in contributing? Follow the link below & get in touch!

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 …

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/

Don't forget to sign up for our Virtual Writing retreat - the perfect opportunity for dedicated Writing time for those upcoming winter deadlines ❄️

CURRAN FELLOWSHIPS awarded by The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
Applications due: 15 October 2025. Open to researchers of any age exploring the British periodical press of long C19. More information can be found here: rs4vp.org/awards/curra...

You can find a 'Historic View' link here, which gives you a moving snapshot of each of the archives from circa 100 years ago: exacteditions.com/historic/cahl

Exciting new Digital tool for Victorian scholars with
@exacteditions.bsky.social
,providing a new, fully searchable window into The Illustrated London News, The Illustrated War News, The Graphic & The Sphere. For more information: For more information: publisher.exacteditions.com

The reading packs produced by the @vpfa.bsky.social's third sex reading group are always gorgeous, and the discussions are always great. What's not to love!
Join us Wed 17th Sept @ 5.30pm UK time to discuss the highly problematic "Lodore". Everybody welcome... message for more details.

RSVP 2026 Conference Call for Papers: 'Movements and Migrations', to be held at Trinity College, Dublin, 23-25th July 2026. Share widely! @rs4vp.org

Membership To join the VPFA, or renew your membership, please complete our membership form:VPFA-Membership-Form 2025-26 (downloads Word Document)Full membership is £25 and Student membership is £10. Membershi…

f you are a VPFA member, check your previous emails for 'Upcoming VPFA events' to find sign up links. If you aren't a member, sign up here to receive your links: victorianpopularfiction.org/membership-j...

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!

COMING SOON for VPFA Third Sex Reading Group. Email vpfareadinggroup@gmail.com to be added to our mailing list to find out how to sign up for future sessions 📖

🚨FINAL REMINDER🚨 What better way to spend your Saturday afternoon (especially with the terrible weather we've been having) than with a nice warm cuppa ☕️ and some great conversation with people in your field? Become a member to get your sign up link! victorianpopularfiction.org/membership-j...

📢 Just a few weeks left to submit your abstracts for our exciting conference at the University of Stirling in January!

🗓 Deadline: 22 Sept
📩 Email: rrr@soton.ac.uk

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…

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

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...

Your reminder to become a VPFA member so you can attend our Virtual Tea Salon next month! ☕️✨️

VPFA Third Sex reading group will be returning for their first session of Season 6 on 17th September, 5.30-7pm. The topic will be Mary Shelley's Lodore, co-hosted with Susan Civale and Siobhan-Michelle Smith! Sign up here: www.eventbrite.com/e/lodore-tic...

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.

Membership To join the VPFA, or renew your membership, please complete our membership form:VPFA-Membership-Form 2025-26 (downloads Word Document)Full membership is £25 and Student membership is £10. Membershi…

Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox for our upcoming events and for information on how to register. Want to attend but you're not a member? Become one here: victorianpopularfiction.org/membership-j...

Step into the world of steam, scandal, and storytelling at our Virtual Victorian Tea Salon. Brew your favourite blend and join fellow members online for a lively afternoon discussion, creativity, and Victorian charm. All are welcome at our virtual tea table, whether sharing, reading, or sipping!

@bmi1854.bsky.social

The BMI's Victorian origins, links with popular authors (Charles Dickens a former President), and its ethos (then and now) of accessibility to people of all backgrounds and classes, means it is a perfect partner for us! [2/2]

Following our successful annual conference at the Birmingham and Midlands Institute, the VPFA is pleased to announce it is now affiliated with the Birmingham & Midlands Institute (www.bmi.org.uk) [1/2]

Add to your reading list!

Please allow me to recommend some summer reading, followed with an invitation to join our book discussion. Everybody is welcome so please share widely (this poster has the correct start time of 5.30pm!) The text and audiobook are available on Internet Archive/Gutenberg. @vpfa.bsky.social