This coming Thursday, June 15th, at 4:00 EST, I will be interviewed by Dr. Karl Persson for an episode of the Signum Symposia series. I’ll be talking about my work on Charles Williams — about Chapel of the Thorn, the intro to the new Apocryphile edition of Taliessin, and maybe even about The Inklings and King Arthur. You can get more info and then register here to attend. This event is fully online, so you can watch or listen from anywhere. You can even call in on your phone and just listen if you’re driving, walking, jogging, or whatever. And it’s free — although we would love it if you would consider making a donation to Signum University to help support these events.
Here is the official event description from the Signum website:
In the seventy-two years since the death of Charles Williams – poet, novelist, editor, member of the Inklings, Anglican Christian, and occult master magician – his fame has waxed and waned. His reputation, never huge except among a small but dedicated cult following for his seven “metaphysical thriller” novels, has been hindered by the layers of obscure references in his works, the uneasy cohabitation of occultism and mystical Christianity, and some restrictions placed on his literary estate. However, this second decade of the twentieth century has seen a resurgence of interest in and availability of works by and about “The Oddest Inkling.” His official biography, a brilliant, comprehensive, and lucid study by Grevel Lindop, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. His works have entered the public domain in the U.K. Beautiful new editions of his novels have been released.
Sørina Higgins has been involved in the publication of two of Williams’ works. The first is an edition of The Chapel of the Thorn (a play written by Williams in 1912 and published in 2012 with intro and notes by Higgins, a preface by Grevel Lindon, and an essay by David Llewellyn Dodds. The second is and a new edition of Taliessin Through Logres (Williams’s 1938 collection of Arthurian poems) with an intro by Higgins. A third important work is forthcoming: an essay collection edited by Sørina Higgins entitled The Inklings and King Arthur.
Sørina Higgins and guest host Karl Persson will talk about these three works and other topics of interest related to Charles Williams, and will be delighted to answer audience members’ questions about this odd, magical, mystical writer.
The Oddest Inkling 
Wait, there’s a new Apocryphile Press edition of Taliesin? That’s awesome! I remember emailing them years ago in the hope that they were considering one. (And now, checking Amazon, it seems their edition has been out for almost a year. Wow.)
Looking forward to the (virtual) event.
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Sounds exciting! How long is it? (Four p.m. EST is 10 p.m., here, and the following day I’m involved in a Bach cantata project, where we will have to learn and perform BWV 33 as quickly as Bach’s choirboys did in Leipzig in 1724!)
Exciting, too, that you’ve got a new reprint edition of Taliessin through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars – and in paperback as well as ebook according to the Apocryphile website! (Amazon gives 27 November 2016 as its publication date – ?) This, then, is something different again from Grevel Lindop and John Matthews’ new reprint edition of all the Arthurian poetry published during his lifetime? Wow! Exciting days, indeed!
Barnes & Noble and Amazon even give us a chance to sample your new introduction, I see – which I did not pause to do, before writing this comment!
All good wishes for the interview, in any case! (Will it end up on YouTube, eventually, like so many other enjoyable Signum things? I hope so!)
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It’s supposed to be an hour long, but if there’s really great conversation happening, we might keep going. 🙂 Yes, it’s meant to end up on the Signum YouTube channel eventually. Hope you can be there!
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