Literary witches A celebration of magical women writers
Book - 2017
"Literary Witches draws a connection between witches and visionary writers: both are figures of formidable creativity, empowerment, and general badassery. Through poetic portraits, Taisia Kitaiskaia and Katy Horan honor the witchy qualities of well-known and obscure authors alike, including Virginia Woolf, Mira Bai, Toni Morrison, Emily Dickinson, Octavia E. Butler, Sandra Cisneros, and many more.
- Subjects
- Genres
- Biographies
Illustrated works - Published
-
New York :
Seal Press, Hachette Book Group
[2017]
- Edition
- First edition
- Language
- English
- Physical Description
- 128 pages : color illustrations ; 21 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references.
- ISBN
- 9781580056731
1580056733 - Main Author
- Other Authors
- ,
- Foreword / by Pam Grossman
- Emily Brontë: watcher off the moors, fantasy, and cruel romance
- Octavia Butler: sower of strange seeds, species, and the future
- Shirley Jackson: witch of villages, horrors, and omens
- Eileen Chang: enchantress of bitter love, treachery, and jewels
- Sylvia Plath: fury of motherhood, marriage, and the moon
- Toni Morrison: queen of miracles, generations, and memory
- Anna Akhmatova: koldunya of winter, endurance, and willows
- Joy Harjo: cosmic traveller of crows, horses, and survival
- Flannery O'Connor: seer of peacocks, weird country people, and glass eyes
- Sappho: siren of the lyre, honey, and ruins
- Forugh Farrokhzad: rebel of sensual love, green gardens, and perfume
- Emily Dickinson: specter of windows, flies, and the unexpected
- Audre Lorde: warrior witch of otherness, bodies electric, and sisterhood
- Angela Carter: fairy godmother of bloody tales, the circus, and mirrors
- Virginia Woolf: guardian of the waters, the porcelain, and the lexicon
- Sandra Cisneros: hechicera de los nombres, las casas, y la soledad
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman: soothsayer of utopias, creeping women, and evil wallpaper
- Jamaica Kincaid: sorceress of islands, venom, and histories
- Anne Carson: high priestess of scholars, volcanoes, and eros
- Leslie Marmon Silko: storyteller of rattlesnakes, turquoise, and the sacred desert
- Alejandra Pizarnik: fantasma of silence, death, and lilacs
- Mirabai: dakini of holy ecstasy, the Dark One, and ankle bells
- Anaïs Nin: undine of introspection, opulent dreams, and voyages
- Gertrude Stein: madame of roses, geometry, and repetition
- Yumiko Kurahashi: sibyl of masks, extraterrestrial eggs, and twisted fantasies
- Agatha Christie: Grand Dame of trickery, murder, and teatime
- Janet Frame: hermit of hospitals, belonging, and lost souls
- María Sabina: shaman of dew, hummingbirds, and mushroom language
- Mary Shelley: alchymist of monsters, children, the living and the dead
- Zora Neale Hurston: conjurer of hurricanes, zombies, and tall tales.
Drawing a connection between witches and visionary writers—both of whom are figures of formidable creativity, empowerment and general badassery—the author, through poetic portraits, pays tribute to the witchy qualities of well-known and obscure authors alike. 15,000 first printing.
Review by Publisher Summary 2An NPR Best Book of 2017Celebrate the witchiest women writers with an inventive guidebook that pairs imaginative vignettes with whimsical, folkloric illustrations. Literary Witches reimagines visionary writers as witches: both are figures of formidable creativity, empowerment, and general badassery. Through a series of thirty lyrical portraits, Taisia Kitaiskaia and Katy Horan honor the witchy qualities of well-known and obscure authors alike, including Virginia Woolf, Mira Bai, Toni Morrison, Emily Dickinson, Octavia E. Butler, Sandra Cisneros, and many more.Perfect for both book lovers and coven members, Literary Witches is a treasure trove of creative and courageous women who aren’t afraid to be alone in the woods of their imagination. Kitaiskaia and Horan conjure evocative, highly stylized depictions of history’s most beloved female authors, introduce enchanting new writers, and invite you to rediscover the magic of literature.
