The Resilience of Imagination
June 20-23, 2024
National Conference Center,
Leesburg, VA
Mythmoot is an annual conference brings together students, fans, staff, and friends of Signum University, the Mythgard Institute, Signum SPACE, and Signum Academy. Our online and in-person completely hybrid event combines the best of scholarship and friendship in four glorious days.
Guests of Honor
Donato Giancola
From the epic triptychs of Peter Paul Rubens to the sublime graphics of Mondrian, Donato Giancola mines classical draftsmanship, renaissance narration, and modern aesthetics of composition to lay a foundation rich in historical associations for his paintings and drawings. Donato seeks to express stories which best define our humanity.
Donato is currently engaged on multiple fronts with his themed works for exhibition at fine art galleries, book projects for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, ongoing commercial assignments, and explorations on his developing themes of Empathetic Robots and astronauts. More information can be found at his website: donatoarts.com.
His artworks have graced the covers of over three hundred novels, appeared in scores of exhibitions, and landed him numerous peer honors notably including three Hugo Awards, twenty-three Chesley Awards from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, two Gold and six Silver Medals from the annual Spectrum, and many more. You may have seen his art from The United Nations, LucasArts, National Geographic, Scientific American, CNN, Random House, DAW Books, DC Comics, Microsoft, George Lucas, George R.R. Martin, US Postal Service, Wizards of the Coast, Heavy Metal Magazine, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Tor Books, Time/Warner, Milton-Bradley, and Hasbro.
Sparrow F. Alden
Sparrow F. Alden dances in the borderlands between the World Where the Stories Come From and the world with spreadsheets and logistics and bills to pay. She really does live in a one-room cabin in the woods, ready to receive heroes who need a night of respite on their quests, anchoring her clan of kith and kin and very good dogs. Her personal philosophy around story creation respects Stories trying to express themselves through their chosen Author — and respects writers plying their skills to tell their stories. She loves facilitating the development of writing skills and confidence in students of all kinds (she says it is almost literally impossible to “teach creative writing”). Her deep ambition is to invent Scribliotherapy, the art of the heart’s escape, recovery, and consolation through the writing of fiction.
Her poetry and creativity blog offers a glimpse into her nonlinear side; her M.A. thesis at Signum University explored color-coded spreadsheets as a tool for analyzing Tolkien’s works. Which is the dark side and which the light? Or is that not the question?
Kyle Latino
Kyle Latino is an artist and educator from Indianapolis. He holds an MFA from the University of Cincinnati in visual fine arts where he studied interactivity in art and games design as a fine arts practice. Kyle is an Associate Professor of game art and design at the Columbus College of Art and Design and runs a YouTube channel, called Map Crow, that covers the same subjects. He has published graphic novels and games while also self publishing books for tabletop roleplaying games.
Guest Lecturer
We are happy to welcome Dr. Tom Shippey, once again presenting from the comfort of his home!
Tom Shippey has taught medieval literature at six universities in Britain and America, including Oxford and Harvard, and for many years held the Chair at Leeds University once held by Tolkien. He is best-known for his books on Tolkien, which have been often reprinted and translated into many languages, including The Road to Middle-earth (1991), and Tolkien:Author of the Century (2000). His most recent books include Laughing Shall I Die: lives and deaths of the great Vikings (2018), Beowulf and the North before the Vikings (2022), and see further books at uppsalabooks.com.
Pricing & Registration Coming in April!
Registration Update: Pricing will be increased over previous year due to higher costs. Thank you for your patience as we try to ensure that every cent you spend on your ticket is one put to good use!
| Ticket Type | Adult | Child (6-14) |
| Full Conference | Early Bird Pricing Coming Soon! | Early Bird Pricing Coming Soon! |
| 2 day | Early Bird Pricing Coming Soon! | Early Bird Pricing Coming Soon! |
| 1 day | Early Bird Pricing Coming Soon! | Early Bird Pricing Coming Soon! |
| MootHub | $75 | $75 |
Information
Mythmoot registration will be through Blackberry. If you have not used Blackberry before you will need to create an account using one of the hyperlinks here or the Registration button below once registration is active.