The Conversation - Fan fiction: a writer's playground
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Have you ever finished a book or television series and wished you could stay longer in that world? Fan fiction is a thriving art form, with millions of women writing and sharing their tributes to favourite stories, by taking famous characters and placing them in new situations. Datshiane Navanayagam meets women who take part and study this world.
Dawn Walls-Thumma in the USA is a middle-grade teacher by day, and by night runs the Silmarillion Writers Guild, a community for fan fiction set in Tolkien's universe. This has led her to become a published Tolkien expert.
Kristine Michelle Santos in the Philippines is an associate professor of Japanese and researches Boys Love, the biggest genre of fanfiction in Japan and South-East Asia, and now a multi-billion yen industry.
Producer: Hannah Sander
(Image: (L) Dawn Wells-Thumma, courtesy Holly Lillis. (R) Kristine Michelle Santos, credit Aaron Vicencio)
Published on Monday, 15th June 2026.
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