The New Hyborian Age: Modern Visions of Robert E. Howard’s Worlds
Due Date: 03-31-2025
Scholarship of the works of Robert E. Howard often focuses on the author’s original stories printed in pulp magazines. These works helped to form the foundation of the sword and sorcery genre and established Howard as a masterful fantasist. However, the Hyborian Age continues to thrive through Howardian works that are only beginning to find purchase in academia. I am excited to announce a project to bring together scholars to discuss contemporary media that adapts or was inspired by the works of Robert E. Howard.
This anticipated volume seeks to analyze the impact Robert E. Howard has had on modern popular culture, either through works directly adapting his stories or popular media drawing inspiration from Howard’s writing. This collection of essays and papers seeks to look at the future to analyze the evolution of the Sword and Sorcery genre through trends and ideas found in contemporary stories of the Hyborian Age and Howard’s other fictional worlds.
Potential topics for essays include
- modern adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s works, including novels, comic books and graphic novels, films, webcomics, etc.
- reinterpretations of the works or characters of Robert E. Howard
- contemporary media set in the Hyborian Age
- pieces of popular media inspired by Robert E. Howard’s work
- discussions of the Marvel, Dark Horse, or other Howard-inspired comic books
- the evolution of the Sword and Sorcery genre
If you have an essay that does not fit one of these criteria, feel free to send me an email along with a pitch for your work.
How to submit:
If you are interested in submitting an essay to this project, please send a 500-word abstract along with a 150-word bio to cderosawriting@gmail.com by 31 March 2025. Selections will be announced at most two months after the deadline.
Once approved, submissions must be written in MLA style and should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words long.