October Events for Myth Lovers

Speculative fiction authors Rebecca Roanhorse , V.E. Schwab and many others are holding online talks. See who wrote the music to Hadestown, participate in a Viking-themed online Halloween murder mystery, listen to ghost stories at Sleepy Hollow, look at mythical characters in the Jack-O-Lantern Blaze, and more…

Samuel R. Delany Contends With the Conservatism of Myth

A Guided Sleep Meditation For The Nine-Headed Hydra Parents Of Halloween-Deprived Children

Disclaimer: Do not listen to this meditation while raiding villages. Remain in a place where you can safely relax, such as at home in the swamp amongst the wailing of your dearest ones.

Magazines That Publish Myth-Driven Fiction

If you enjoy reading fiction written by living, breathing authors or you're trying to publish work of your own, here's a list of magazines that have either mentioned myth-driven fiction in their submission guidelines or published pieces with such elements in them. I included the links to many of the examples I found.

December Events for Myth Lovers

This month, NYU is holding an online discussion to help you create a leadership persona inspired by mythology. You can also learn about terrifying holiday folklore from a virtual tour guide in Iceland. Order Harry Potter drinks from Steamy Hollows on Grubhub, and more.

Inspiration From Authors Who Love Myth

Stephen King hung his rejection letters on a nail on his wall. Kelly Link said that if your fans make your book trend for 24 hours about how much they hated it, you've arrived. For more such encouragement and good cheer, see this collection of quotes.

January Events For Myth Lovers

This month, go to the Louvre online and worship artistic masterpieces such as the Venus de Milo. You can also participate in virtual discussions about the mythology of the Tarot, goddess reading cards, trees, Lilith, or bats. A couple science fiction conventions are happening. Authors Alexandra Bracken, Melissa Albert, and Olga Grushin will be on book tour, to name only a few distractions available.

Ilana Simons Discusses How Psychologists Use Myth to Heal

Ilana Simons, a psychologist, has taught writing and literature, published a book on Virginia Woolf, performed an award-winning one woman show at The New York Fringe Festival, and more. These days she makes animated movies about psychological topics for www.Ilanasimonsart.com, and she blogs for Psychology Today. I asked her how she uses mythology to help her patients. (To read the transcript, click on the Tarot card. To watch the video interview, click on the Freud picture below).

How Psychologists Use Myth to Heal: Video

John Hamilton Mortimer’s Man Attacking a Monster is in the public domain.

Ilana Simons is both a psychologist and award-winning multimedia artist. When treating patients, she uses "Voice Dialogue" therapy, a technique influenced by those such as C.G. Jung. (To read the transcript of this interview, click on the Tarot card above. To watch the video interview, click on the Freud picture here).

February Events For Myth Lovers

My favorite event this month is an online presentation on "“Who’s Your Mummy? Mummification As A Business In Late And Roman Period Egypt" -- but there's more! You can learn about the mythology of the toothed vagina, the goddess Circe, Ancient Roman ideas of technology, the Mayans, and Atlantis, among other things. Science fiction convention people can attend Boskone, Foolscap, and Capricon online.

March Events for Myth Lovers

Learn about the biblical connections of a winery in Israel, the mythology behind India's festival of spring, and how to read Mayan hieroglyphs (which you might need when you time travel). If you live in New York, you can watch a fairy tale themed light show in Dumbo, go to an outdoor movie, or visit the exhibit “I Saw God and She Wasn’t Made of Money.”

Video: What the Story of Cupid & Psyche Tells About Love, Women and Marriage

The longest and most central story set within the overarching narrative of The Golden Ass, "Cupid and Psyche" tells how a woman achieves immortality through her sexual relationship, completion of tests, and ultimate marriage with a god. Carl Jung's student Erich Neumann described the myth as portraying "the psychic development of the feminine" -- a journey from the "dark, sensual paradise" with a man to the attainment of individuation effected through love. But was Neumann right? To see the recording of this video presentation for the NYC JCF Roundtable, click on the picture above.

April Events for Myth Lovers

It's time for that big celebrity show everybody watches in spring: the Philip K. Dick Awards! Norwescon is online this year and includes everything ranging from movie watch parties to a presentation about witches. Also in April you can play online trivia about mythology, learn about the mythological roots of superheroes, and read Norse runes, among other things.

Goblins Might Interfere With COVID-19 Vaccine Safety

Tall, blonde, and glamorous goblins with mullet haircuts, while breaking out in song, will banish teenagers to bogs that smell of fecal matter, among other things (Lucas & Henson, 1986).

May Events for Myth Lovers

Yes, the witches at Catland Books for REAL have an online yoga class! This month you can also zoom with Marmar Mermaidpants, who will read and sing to you from her bathtub, among many other things.

June Events for Myth Lovers

This month there will be online events about everything from Baba Yaga to the Whore of Babylon. Even better, the list of in-person events is growing! See a mythology conference in Mexico, the new Harry Potter-themed bar in Manhattan, and so much more.

What Girls Need To Battle Writing Demons

A couple years ago I joined a women’s writing group that took an unconventional approach to workshopping. Instead of tearing each other’s work apart, we met to read books like Est'es’ Women Who Run With the Wolves and then wrote together. The picture above links to an essay that I wrote about this experience.

July Events for Myth Lovers

This month watch an online discussion of a new book that reverses the gender roles in the movie The Princess Bride. Or if you live in NYC, you can see outdoor performances, chat about books over lunch at Randall's Island, or tour a haunted house on Staten Island, among many other things.

I, Zeus, Deign an Apology to the Women Who Allege I Assaulted Them

Why is the Greek god of “justice” a rapist? How did Greece put a picture of his abduction of Europa on their 2 euro coin? Wikipedia tells us Zeus has "erotic escapades" and "amorous conquests," which is probably not how the women would describe them. The wiki on the entertainment website Fandom documents that Hera admired Zeus' “cleverness and resourcefulness” when he disguised himself as a cuckoo bird to get into her room without her consent.

It makes me mad, so I wrote this piece that parodies the public apologies of men who have gotten caught in #MeToo.

August Events For Myth Lovers

This month, you can participate in an online discussion about archetypal journeys, attend the coolest science fiction convention in America known as Readercon, and learn how dogs were represented in classical art, among other things.

The Fabulous Rejections of Those Who Write Magic

When I flipped through Bill Henderson and Andre Bernard’s collection of rejection letters, Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews & Rejections: A History of Insult, a Solace to Writers, I noticed patterns in some of the negative responses given to people who used speculative elements in their fiction, ranging from William Shakespeare to Margaret Atwood. Time and again, critics perceived mental illness, weirdness, vulgarity or frivolousness. They shook their heads in confusion. To see what I mean, take a look at the following quotes.

September 2021 Events for Myth Lovers

Learn about daily life in Biblical times, attend the Brooklyn Book Festival, or go on a romantic walk through hell with the comedian Simon Norman. If you live in New York and want to risk getting COVID, you can go to the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island! And Broadway reopens on September 14! Meanwhile, those who are rich can take tours of ancient ruins in Europe that are guided by archeologists and authors.

How To Turn “What If” Questions About Myths Into A Humor Piece

Many humor pieces ask a single “What if…? question about familiar characters or stories from mythology. For example, what if the Greek gods used Twitter? What if they were teachers in a public high school? You can generate endless numbers of these kinds of questions to see which yields the funniest answers. Here are three examples of humor pieces I didn’t write that I thought used this technique well.

October 2021 Events For Myth Lovers

This month you can discuss spooky things online like mortality in the "Death Cafe" or Silvia Moreno-Garcia's novel Mexican Gothic. The Village Halloween Parade takes place in person or watch it on NY1's website (although they might cancel the event in the last minute due to lack of funds.) New York Comic Con is also hybrid. Sleepy Hollow will have outdoor events about the Headless Horseman, or in NYC you can do cemetery tours and tell ghost stories in bars.

How Myth Can Save The World: An Interview With Pía Figueroa 

Pía Figueroa is the author of many books and the co-founder of the international news agency Pressenza. She published a book about her experiences with Silo, an Argentine whose philosophy taps into comparative mythology as a means to better attain self-transformation and end human suffering. In the following interview, Figueroa discusses how mythology has influenced her work and can help to solve current crises such as COVID, global warming, and inequity.

November 2021 Events for Myth Lovers

If you're feeling sad about your dysfunctional family over the looming holiday season, you can watch a play about Agamemnon's homicidal one. Louise Erdrich will be doing virtual talks about The Sentence, in which a bookstore's most annoying customer decides to come back and haunt it as a ghost. You can also listen to the writers of a folk horror anthology read their work online. Seeking hope? Try “Praying for Godot: A Two-Nun Show" at the New York Comedy Festival.

Six Myth-Driven Writing Prompts

If a tale has lasted for more than a thousand years, it seems reasonable to emulate it. Here are some exercises that you can use as writing prompts for your own work, for teaching in a classroom, or for thinking about different approaches to crafting narratives. I hope these will help you generate material.

December Events For Myth Lovers

This month you can join online discussions about Shakespeare, Erin Morgenstern, comics, ancient Romans, vampires, and death. In New York City, you can see illuminated art installations, tours of neighborhoods decked out for Christmas, Charles Dickens at a Christmas celebration in a centuries-old house, ice carvings, and more.

Facebook Groups For Myth Lovers

Inquiring authors need to know: where do the people who read mythology hang out online? Facebook is certainly one place. I’ve compiled the following list of groups, organized from largest to smallest. Groups that discourage promotions are ranked separately.

January Events For Myth Lovers

This month you can share stories with others online for no less lofty goal than regaining "the authorship of your life's narrative", learn about the classic comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, and discuss the mythology of beekeeping, among other things.

How A Celtic Goddess Redefines Feminine Holiness

Brigid Burke is the founder of Chthonia, a website and podcast that explores the meaning of the dark feminine and death. She announced in January that she signed a contract to write Phantom Queen: Encountering The Morrigan by 2024. Writingmythology.com asked Burke to talk about the many forces that the Morrigan represents -- death, fate, battle frenzy, and sovereignty, for example -- and how her stories can help people in modern times to deal with everything from anxiety of COVID to overthrowing the patriarchy.

February Events For Myth Lovers

This month you can learn online about "good girl" comics, the archaeology of tattoos, traditional stories involving menstruation, or how Hercules can help with addiction, among other things. Those in New York can see surreal art exhibits, Lunar New Year celebrations, or films that celebrate Black History Month. Or, pretend it's still Halloween and share ghost stories over a fire pit in an outdoor bar.

How To Write Humor About The Pandemic

I teach financial writing at NYU SPS, and when my supervisor asked me to participate in a series of extracurricular webinars about different ways to document the pandemic, I said I would do a lesson on humor. Click on the picture above to watch the webinar, in which I explained how to come up with a comedic premise, analyzed examples, and provided a writing prompt. At the end of the slideshow, you will find resources where you can find more inspiration.

March 2022 Events For Myth Lovers

This month you can attend online talks about Egypt's first female king and cross-dresser, an ancient empire in Southeast Asia, afrofuturism, ancient Greek drinking games, and more. See hard-hitting authors like V.E. Schwab, Sarah Ruhle, and Sheree Renée Thomas, the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Or, in NYC, take a tour of women warriors in the Met or participate in exhibits and performances that celebrate Asian culture.

April Events For Myth Lovers

This month you can watch online talks about Norse, Chinese and Scandinavian mythology or hear about Croatian folklore on a virtual walking tour of one of their towns. In New York, you can attend a fairy-tale themed soiree in Brooklyn, see Emily St. John Mandel read, or play D&D.

May Events For Myth Lovers

This month, learn about African folklore, death, Circe, ancient games, the spring rituals of the pre-modern British, and more. If you are in NYC, see Jennifer Egan, anime performances, a dance of the Trojan War, or Midsummer Nights Dream.

Paintings of Classical Antiquity That Pay Homage To Breasts

Many of the forward-thinking, high-minded male painters who influenced modern philosophy and pioneered cultural movements had the genius to recognize the need for women to bare their chests whenever possible. Click on the picture above to see some masterpieces.

June Events For Myth Lovers

This month you can join online conversations about Homer's Iliad, Jennifer Saint's new book Elektra, ancient Indian mythology, the Egyptian god Osiris, and more. If you live in NYC, watch the City Opera's Pride series in Bryant Park, see the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, or participate in an immersive experience inspired by the television show Stranger Things.

“Sonja Ryst is the Dorothy Parker of mythology.”

— Melissa Rosati, host of the Manhattan Neighborhood Network show The Goddess Reader.