Best known for their annual Lord Ruthven Awards for best vampire fiction and non-fiction, I am honoured to introduce the Lord Ruthven Assembly (LRA) as the latest group to join our affiliate ranks.
Founded in 1988, the LRA provides its awards during the annual International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, hosted by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA). The LRA is an affiliate of the IAFA.
Our organisation and output has may overlaps with the LRA. For instance, our periodical, the Journal of Vampire Studies, received a special recognition from the assembly in 2021. The LRA’s current president, Elizabeth Schechter, recently joined our journal’s advisory board. Former LRA president, Amanda Firestone; former LRA vice president, Margaret L. Carter; and LRA founder, Lloyd Worley, are also members.
Of a more personal nature, my website, Vamped (https://vamped.org/), received a Lord Ruthven Award for Media/Popular Culture in 2017 along with The Vampire Historian podcast (https://thevampirehistorian.com/). I am also an admin of the LRA Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/lordruthvenassembly/) and LRA Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/lordruthvenassembly/).
Last, but not least, I also donated two URLs to the LRA for possible use as an official LRA website. My involvement with the LRA’s web presence, specifically with its Facebook page and group, and purchase of URLs, predates the founding of our association.1
If you would like to learn more about our affiliates program, read this page for more details: https://vampirestudies.org/affiliates/.
- I became an admin of the LRA’s Facebook group on April 6, 2014 and started the LRA Facebook page on April 7, 2014. I designed the current banner for the group and page, with help from Brad Middleton. Ironically, I am not an LRA member. ↩︎
Correction
July 5, 2024
In the original version of this post, Margaret L. Carter was referred to as the “current LRA secretary.” She has never served in this role, but was the LRA’s vice president until this year. I have updated the post to mention her former role and apologise for the error.
