When the Tolkien Society announced in November 2024 that it was creating a new U.S.-based event called “Westmoot,” to be held in May 2025 in Kansas City at the National World War I Museum and Memorial, I knew I couldn’t miss it. Kansas City is practically my backyard!
After talking with Yoli and the kids, we decided that Josie and I would attend, and I began making arrangements.
And as I went through the Westmoot registration page, I stumbled onto the “Call for Proposals” section. “The Westmoot committee invites proposals for papers, panels, events, and activities related to the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien,” the page read. “All proposals are welcomed and will be considered.”
I love public speaking, and the idea of talking about Tolkien was very appealing. But I worried I’d be out of my depth. Many of the talks at these events are presentations of academic papers.
But I was struck by the idea of somehow connecting Middle-earth to the American Midwest. After all this first Westmoot was going to be hosted right here! Josie and I did some brainstorming, and eventually I cooked up a proposal for a talk.
“It has often been said that J.R.R. Tolkien wanted to make a ‘mythology for England,’ but echoes of Middle-earth can be found right here among the monuments, mounds, and muddy rivers of the American Midwest,” I wrote.
I called it “Reflections on Middle-earth from a Middle American.” I wasn’t sure if they’d go for it. I’m not an academic, and I wasn’t proposing a formal research paper. Instead, this would more of a presentation of personal reflections.
At last, in March, I got the verdict: They had accepted my proposal! But that meant now I had to actually write it and find visuals for the slides. I spent weeks and weeks reading, writing, revising and rehearsing. I got good feedback from Josie, Ludi, and others.
Then, as the conference neared, we ran into a hitch: We had overlooked that Josie was scheduled to take an AP test at school during the first day of the conference. Eventually we decided that I would drive to K.C. on Thursday participate in a Tolkien trivia event. Then Josie would join me Friday evening for the opening ceremony, riding an Amtrak train by herself after school.
Ahead of the conference, I connected with three other attendees — Josh, Shaun, and Jen — to make a team for trivia. We used Josie’s suggested name: “The Quiz-tari” (a reference to Tolkien’s wizards, the “Istari”). Since the trivia event was being put on by the WWI Museum, I did a quick re-read of John Garth’s “Tolkien and the Great War,” thinking there might be a lot of questions related to Tolkien’s war service. That didn’t turn out to be the case, but still somehow we managed to win third place! It was a fun night, and a great way to get to know some new people in this brand new environment.
I spent Friday morning rehearsing my talk and making final changes. At lunchtime, I headed to the museum for a tour led by Ed Burley emphasizing Tolkien connections. It was absolutely fascinating. The rest of the evening was taken up with the opening ceremonies, including performances and a masquerade with some amazing costumes. Unfortunately, Josie’s train ride was delayed, so she didn’t get to see it, but I recorded some of it for her. She arrived just in time to get a little bit of food from the reception right before they closed up shop.
Over the next two days she and I saw a lot of really cool seminars and sessions. Among my favorites was a session by Marquette University archivist Bill Fliss presenting an unpublished single-page manuscript containing a discussion between Gandalf and Samwise Gamgee about the latter’s choices. I’ll never forget it.
My own talk went really well. It wasn’t jam-packed like the sessions led by Tolkien stalwarts, but that’s pretty much what I expected. Regardless, people seemed to enjoy it. (I did make one boneheaded blunder near the start: I forgot to drink. My mouth dried and I choked up briefly. Sigh)
Unfortunately, as of Dec. 23, 2025, we’re still waiting for videos of the Westmoot sessions to be published. But I’ve been told that the Society has now hired a third party to finish editing them, so hopefully I’ll be able to share something soon. If you’d like to read the talk, instead, you can find a copy of it at this link.
