Oxford has long been a centre of fantasy writing, home to authors such as William Morris, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Diana Wynne Jones, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Philip Pullman, and R.F. Kuang. Bloomsbury Publishing has likewise championed the genre, bringing readers works by J.K. Rowling, Susanna Clarke, Alan Moore, Sarah J. Maas, and many others.
The Oxford Fantasy Summer School 2025, organised by the University of Oxford and supported by a philanthropic gift from Bloomsbury Publishing, continued this rich tradition. Across three days of lectures and talks in September 2025, delivered both in person and online, participants were introduced to major writers and texts, and explored the past, present, and future of fantasy with leading scholars, practitioners, and publishers — including Bloomsbury author and Oxford alumna Samantha Shannon.
