Contents of head, slightly filtered

It's that time of year again! The SWG challenge mods have been busy concocting challenges for 2026 that we hope will inspire and intrigue our fanworks creators. As part of our challenges, participants receive small "postage stamps" in a collection on their profile, and for the past three years, we have invited artists to help us create those stamps. No matter your level of expertise with traditional or digital art, we welcome all volunteers who'd like to share their work with challenge participants!

If you'd be interested in creating a set of stamps for one (or more) of our 2025 challenges, here is how it will work:

• Comment here (or otherwise contact the mods) and beginning on Monday, December 22, we will grant access to a bare-bones list of the 2025 challenges, the number of stamps needed, and the due date. If you want to remain absolutely unspoiled as to upcoming challenges, than this is probably not for you! We will send additional details on the challenge and specific stamps needed once you choose the challenge you want to work on.
• Create your set of stamps. You have a lot of creative free rein here. Stamps must
  • include the month number of the challenge. Most of the time, we also include the challenge name (or part of it) too, but this is not required.
  • thematically match the challenge that month.
  • be appropriate for all audiences: no violence, blood/gore, nudity, or sexual content.
  • use our templates or a similar postage stamp template that is not drastically different from ours. (Please check with us first.)
  • use only art and images that you have permission to use, which means that you must own the copyright or have permission from the copyright holder to use the image for this project, or the image is in the public domain.
• Email your completed stamps to the mods before the due date! We will send you a reminder about a month before your stamps are due.

Please note that while we can (and will) credit you as an artist on the challenge page and any announcements about the challenge, we cannot include credit on the stamps themselves or with every appearance of the stamps on our site.

You will also have the option of designing the challenge banner for that month if you wish to do so. (It is not required.) Banners are used on the challenge page, as well as in announcements on our site and social media about the challenge. Requirements for stamps apply to banners as well, with the addition that the banner should include the challenge name, dates, and text "SWG Challenge" or "Silmarillion Writers' Guild Challenge" somewhere on the banner. We prefer that the art used on stamps not be used on the banner as well. Banners should be at least 500px wide.

In participating in this project, you are granting the SWG the right to use your stamps and banner, including any art or photography that they contain, on our website and social media, in accordance with the terms described here. This includes minor modifications, such as resizing graphics to work with the layout of our site.

If you are interested in learning more or gaining access to the sign-up page, please comment here or contact us. Sign-ups are first-come, first-served, and we will close sign-ups on December 31 or once all have been filled, whichever comes first.

We are in a season of celebration! Many of our members celebrate holidays during the month of December. For some of us, it is the season when darkness begins to again give way to light. For our group, we spent the last year celebrating our 20th birthday, and at the end of the month, many of us will welcome a new year and the sense of renewal that brings.

We will be hosting a live reading on our Discord server around the theme of celebrations. The reading will be held on Sunday, December 28, at noon Eastern Time. (Find this time in my timezone.)

Anyone is invited to read. If you want to be on the event program, you can sign up here. Fanworks on the program will be linked so that attendees can follow along, read your full fanwork if you are presenting just an excerpt, and leave comments. There will also be an open mic block at the end of the program that is open to anyone who wants to read.

• You can read a selection from Tolkien or a fanwork that you wrote that connects to the theme of celebrations. Celebrations is meant very broadly. Selections do not have to focus on seasonal celebrations. Excerpts of longer fanworks are welcome but should be able to stand on their own reasonably well.
• You must be the author of the fanwork you sign up. If you want someone else to read your fanwork, that is fine, but it is up to you to find a reader. (And please don't sign up until you do!) During open mic, however, you should read only fanworks you authored.
• Please limit your reading to five minutes or less, thereabouts, and sign up one piece. Additional selections can be read during open mic if time permits.
• You will need to join our Discord to participate. Not a member of our Discord? If you are an SWG member, log in and scroll to the bottom of the page for an invite link in the footer. Non-SWG members can contact the mods for an invite link. An open invite will also be posted on SWG social media shortly before the event begins.

We also welcome people to attend who just want to listen.