Dr. Martin Shaw

Dr Martin Shaw is a mythographer and author of eighteen books on myth and fairy tales. He founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University and his latest book Bardskull was book of the day in The Guardian. The Irish Times describe him as "an interloper from the Medieval". A rites of passage guide, Shaw lived for four years in a tent exploring remaining pockets of British wilderness.

His essays and translations have been frequently published in Orion, The Mississippi Review, Poetry International, The Sun & many more. His recent book Stag Cult was a number one bestseller at the London Review of Books. His conversation & catalogue with Ai Wei Wei can be found at the Marciano Arts Foundation.

Director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK, for twenty years Shaw has been at the leading edge of mythic consciousness. An Eastern Orthodox Christian, he is currently working on a book he describes as a ‘liturgy of the wild.’ Rod Dreher writes, "Martin Shaw is the lost Inkling", with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams naming him "a true and transformative enchanter."

https://martinshaw.substack.com

http://www.drmartinshaw.com/

Fr. Stephen DeYoung

The V. Rev. Dr. Stephen De Young is Pastor of Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. He holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from Amridge University. Fr. Stephen is also the host of the Whole Counsel of God podcast from Ancient Faith and co-hosts the live call-in show and podcast Lord of Spirits with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick. He is the author of the books Religion of the Apostles, God is a Man of War, The Whole Counsel of God, and Apocrypha: An Introduction to Extrabiblical Literature.

Richard Rohlin

Richard Rohlin is a software developer, Germanic philologist, and Orthodox Christian living in Texas with his wife and children. He speaks and publishes on Germanic poetry, the Inklings, and the Sacramental Imagination. He regularly contributes to Jonathan Pageau’s The Symbolic World YouTube channel through the Universal History series, which has recently launched a 6-week course studying the epic poem Beowulf.  

Richard co-hosts The Amon Sul Podcast, and has published several works of fiction and non-fiction. He’s currently working on a collection of essays called Finding the Golden Key: Essays Toward a Recovery of the Sacramental Imagination. His superhero pulp novel Guardians: The Eye of Horus is currently under development as a graphic novel. Richard is also a life-long tabletop gamer and wrapped up a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to produce Amboria: Roleplaying in the World Under Starlight, which is now in production and preparing to ship.

Neil DeGraide

Neil DeGraide is a music and film producer, composer, writer, author, entertainer, and visual artist. He's written and published over 300 songs for himself and various artists and his music has been featured on MTV, VH1, the TV series Psyche and The Hills, EA Games, AMC Theaters, and in ventriloquist Terry Fator's #1 Las Vegas show.

His awards include an Independent Music Award (IMA), two LA Music Awards, two Ziff Davis Awards for Design (Visual Art), and he was runner up for best musical score in this year’s Ambie Awards for the Culpable Podcast. He co-wrote the screenplay for Sweep the Leg starring the cast of the Karate Kid (predecessor to the Netflix series Cobra Kai), and he published a short fable called “The Three Golden Ropes”.

He and his wife lead the band Dirt Poor Robins. They have been crafting apocalyptic themed stories, music, and concept records for over 15 years for millions of listeners. Their most recent completed work is a film and concept record Queen of the Night, which he wrote, produced, directed, scored, and performed in. Their up-and-coming concept record Firebird is the band’s first journey into hagiography. 

Vesper Stamper

Vesper Stamper was born in Germany and raised in New York City. She writes and illustrates novels which tell, through both words and pictures, stories of history’s rhymes. Her debut illustrated YA novel, What the Night Sings, about the aftermath of the Holocaust through the eyes of a young musician, was a National Book Award Nominee, a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, a Morris Award Finalist, Golden Kite Honor Book and Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner, and was named one of the Best YA Books of 2018/9 by YALSA, the Wall Street Journal and Kirkus. Vesper has a BFA in Illustration from Parsons and an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from School of Visual Arts and is the host of the podcast Vesperisms: The Art of Thinking for Yourself, which aims to cultivate a re-humanized worldview through artistic thinking. She lives with her husband, filmmaker Ben Stamper, and her two teenagers, in the Northeast, and teaches illustration at School of Visual Arts.

Deacon Nicholas Kotar

Deacon Nicholas Kotar writes epic fantasy and science fiction inspired by Slavic fairy tales. He recently published Son of the Deathless, with illustrations by Vesper Stamper and Heather Pollington. He has recently been booking more speaking events to talk about the state of storytelling and what in the world can be done about it. 

You can find his books on Waystone Press, an independent publisher, and you can hear his conversations with other thinkers, authors, and artists, as he hosts the podcast In a Certain Kingdom and talks with Jonathan Pageau about fairy tales, Tolkien and the storytelling landscape. 

On his website, Deacon Nicholas directs his readers to Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin's wonderful lecture “The Spiritual Meaning of Stories” in which he suggests that fairy tales are indispensable for those of us who have lost our ability to see and appreciate the beautiful and transcendent in life. Kotar writes for readers who love classic fantasy like The Lord of the Rings but who aren’t afraid of a little darkness and honesty about the human condition.