Tuesday, September 27, 2011

An Added Page: Imbas Forosnai by Nora K. Chadwick

After I had a lengthy search and jumped through a bunch of hoops to find the online copy of Nora Chadwick's article, Imbas Forosnai, only to find that it was in three nearly inaccessible parts via the Wayback Machine, I spent today editing the text and putting it up as a page here on Searching for Imbas so that it would be much more easily findable and accessible for everyone else who might want to read it.

I've cleaned up the formatting, checked for typos, and added the footnotes missing from Molly's original transcription of the article on her Geocities site. Please feel free to pass the word, and the link.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

An Added Page: Erynn's Publications

I've added a new page to Searching for Imbas that contains cover graphics and purchase links and information for all the books I've written or have contributions in. You can find the new page here or in the tabs above.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Searching for Titles

I'm currently considering titles for my upcoming poetry collection and haven't decided on one yet. You (yes you!) can help me make up my mind by popping over to my LiveJournal to vote on my options. This isn't a binding poll, obviously, but I do want to know what my readers think is the best of the bunch.

Thank you!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Swimming in publishing news

Among all the other publication news I've gotten recently, I received confirmation today that Hiraeth Press will be publishing a volume of my poetry next fall. I haven't decided on a title for the volume as yet, but I have the contract in hand and will be looking it over soon.

This is a very exciting milestone for me. I've been having poetry published off and on for many years now, in journals and more recently in anthologies. To have a volume of my own poetry published is an honor and a pleasure. There are so many poets who never get to this point in their work. Getting poetry published, unless you do it yourself, can be a very difficult proposition, so it's a thrill to have someone interested enough in my writing to want to print it and send it out into the world.

I reviewed a nonfiction volume from Hiraeth Press a while back -- Jason Kirkey's The Salmon in the Spring, and was very impressed with both the content and the quality of the book itself. I think this bodes very well for the finished volume when they print my poetry.

I'll keep you updated as I get more information on this new volume!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

PantheaCon 2012 part deux, and a new book

Here's the joint session proposal involving myself and Finnchuill of Finchuill's Mast:

The Vision Poet

Poets have held roles as seers and visionaries in many archaic and traditional cultures worldwide, performing and practicing as intermediaries with the sacred. In the modern era, certain poets reclaimed/reinvented the poetry of the see-er, including Arthur Rimbaud, the Surrealists, and later the Beats. Today some of us are reconstructing archaic seer-poet traditions like that of Gaelic filidecht, along with working within the modern visionary poet lineages mentioned. Listen to two poets, Erynn Rowan Laurie and Michael Routery, talk about these practices. Writing exercises will follow, so bring something to write with.

I'd also like to announce that my article "Since Feathers Have Grown on My Body: Madness, Art, and Healing in Celtic Reconstructionist Spirituality" will be published in Disability and Religious Diversity: Cross-Cultural and Interreligious Perspectives. It is due to be released by Palgrave Macmillan on October 25th. Sadly, they've misspelled my name on the web page, and I fear they may have done so in the book as well, but I emailed the editors today to (once again) ask that they spell my name correctly. We'll see what happens.

Despite the misspelling, I'm very excited by this publication. The anthology is from an academic publisher and should bring some attention to the CR community and our theologies from the academic community. My article addresses the geilt phenomenon and its similarities to manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans and others, taking examples from Irish, Welsh and other literatures and discussing some of my own experiences as a veteran and how the geilta have been a helpful model to me for examining my own issues with disability and "madness."

In connection with this article, I was asked to speak on this topic at an upcoming University of Washington class on "Medicine, Illness, and Culture," being taught by a friend of mine. I'm looking forward to this opportunity. It will not be the first time I've spoken on PTSD, but it will be the first time I've spoken outside of a Pagan context about the geilt connection. It will, however, be the first time this article will be used in a classroom setting as study material, which I also find very exciting.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A new ebook! Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom

My book Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom is now available as an ebook from Smashwords. It's currently selling for $7 in a number of different electronic formats. Please feel free to pass the word to anyone you think might be interested.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A frequently asked question about ogam

A question that I get asked all the time is why I pronunce the word "og-um."

The name of the early Irish alphabet can be properly spelled two ways.

The more commonly seen modern spelling is ogham, pronounced "oh-am." The Old Irish spelling, ogam, is pronounced "og-um." Both are correct. You can use either or both. I prefer the "ogam" version, but that's purely a personal preference. It doesn't reflect on a person's knowledge of the system at all (unless they try to tell you you're wrong when you use one of those spellings or pronunciations).

Thursday, September 8, 2011

An update: the Esoteric Book Conference and my current writing

This weekend I'll be at the Esoteric Book Conference in Seattle.

I'm not presenting anything at this conference, but I'll be seeing many of my friends and acquaintances, both local and from further afield. My publisher will be there, as will Hex Magazine, which is reprinting my Amanita muscaria article from "Shaman's Drum" in its new issue, #9.

I've been hard at work writing this past year or so. A number of projects have been finished and turned in, including my piece on geilta and PTSD, which will be published in an academic anthology from Palgrave Macmillan late this year. My essay, "Since Feathers Have Grown on My Body: Madness, Art, and Healing in Celtic Reconstructionist Spirituality," will be published as chapter three of Disability and Religious Diversity: Cross-Cultural Narratives and Inter-Religious Perspectives, edited by Michael Stoltzfus and Darla Schumm.

My first piece of fiction, "Birth," is the opening essay in The Scribing Ibis: An Anthology of Pagan Fiction in Honor of Thoth from Bibliotheca Alexandrina. I was delighted to be included in this volume, which was released late last month.

My book A Circle of Stones: Journeys and Meditations for Modern Celts is going back into print from Immanion/Megalithica, the kind folks who printed my ogam book. It should be available sometime next year. I'm negotiating to have sound files available so that people will be able to hear the pronunciations of the Irish and Gaelic prayers involved.

I'm currently finalizing my finished draft of "Queering the Flame: Brigit, Flamekeeping, and Gender in the Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan Community" for an upcoming Immanion/Megalithica anthology on queer magic. I'm very excited by the work I've done on this piece and hope that it will receive some attention. This is not the only Brigid themed work I'm engaged in at the moment; an essay I'm working on for Scarlet Imprint's next anthology on sacred poetry, Mandragora, deals with Brigid as a totemic figure for sacred poets in filidecht, and themes of visionary poetry and burial/incubation/enclosure as initiatory. It's a lot of interesting material.

I'm also at work on an article for a new esoteric magazine, "Phosphorus", dealing with issues of racism, homophobia, and misogyny in certain segments of the reconstructionist movements, focusing primarily on CR's response to Steve Akins, his forgeries/plagiarisms, and his Stormfront connections. Both the Mandragora essay and the "Phosphorus" piece are due in by Samhain. Thankfully, they don't have to be very long. I'm currently at work on the local group's Samhain ritual at the moment, as well.

Once I've got those together and dealt with my notes for next year's PantheaCon, I'll be settling in to work on my book on Brigid and flamekeeping. I believe that I've mentioned this project here before: it will be based on my own flamekeeping practice, and on the liturgy of the CR flamekeeping group, Brigid's Irregulars. Much of the work I'm doing with all of this poetic and Brigid material will be tapped into for my trip to Ireland with the Sisterhood of Avalon next year. We'll be doing a pilgrimage to a number of Brigid sites, though details are still being worked out.

I should note that my friend Finnchuilll, of Finnchuill's Mast, is putting in a joint proposal to PantheaCon involving the two of us discussing visionary poetry and doing some work with writing and visionary exercises for poets and writers interested in both the Gaelic tradition of filidecht and the connections of writing and mysticism generally. I'm very excited about this potential session and hope that we'll be able to do this for the con.

I can't exactly give excuses for my spotty posting here, but I can say that I've been exceptionally busy this past year, and I hope that the results will be exciting for more than just me!