Once and Future Tales: What was, what is, … What if?
Australian Fairy Tale Society Conference 2024

Call for Presentations – Submissions now open here
EXTENSION – Submissions now close at midnight AEST on March 8th!
SUBMISSIONS HAVE NOW CLOSED

The Otherworld… Everywhen… Standing in the story-space…

“Once upon a time” takes us into a place where time moves differently.

Fairy tales allow us to time travel to the past and scry into the future, uncovering lessons from what once was and paving the way for what might be. We can create conversations with our ancestors, premonitions for our descendants, and dreams of our here and now. Like King Arthur and Finn Macool, what tales lie waiting for our clarion call? And which, like Briar Rose, must be put to sleep for a spell?

Through folk and fairy tales we stitch together motif and memory, epics and anecdotes creating letters from the past to the future. But how do we hold these tales in our hearts here and now?

Do we tell stories because they have happened or because, maybe, they are yet to be?

“Time comes into it.
  Say it.             Say it.
The universe is made of stories
not of atoms.”
from The Speed of Darkness by Muriel Rukeyser

We invite you to submit proposals for what you could present at our 10th annual conference, drawing from the creative invitation above. We encourage a variety of forms and ideas. Please submit your proposal on our online form here by midnight 8th March 2024 (extended from the initial date). Submissions are now closed.

The 2024 conference will be primarily held face-to-face, with some hybrid/online sessions.

As always our focus is on the Australian interpretation and confections to fairy tales, particularly contemporary diverse Australia. As AFTS Conference-goers delight in diversity, we are looking for –

• Talks of no more than 25 minutes, with the option of 5 minutes Q&A
  • These could be case studies of projects with a fairy tale basis
  • Analysis of a particular tale or tale type
  • Histories, research, and more! Be creative!
• Panel discussions of no more than 25 minutes, with the option of 5 minutes Q&A
• Performances of no more than 10 minutes, with an option for 5 minutes’ Q&A
• Displays of your books, art, puppets, toys, costumes, etc for sale, or to decorate our venue.
• Stalls to sell your merchandise

All submissions will be responded to in early April, so that the full program can be announced mid-to-late-April.

The Australian Fairy Tale Society was established to investigate, create, and communicate fairy tales from an Australian perspective.  Local Rings gather five times a year, and our Magic Mirrors gather by Zoom almost every month, to explore specific fairy tales like a book club for fairy tales.

Some previous conference themes include The Fairy Tale in Australia, Transformations, Into the Bush, Gardens of Good and Evil, Magic Mirrors: The Seen and the Unseen, and Fairy Tales: Flesh or Fossil. We have an irregular Ezine and have published an original Anthology, South of the Sun: Australian Fairy Tales for the 21st Century.