This blog is now moving to Substack. To keep up with my latest announcements, news of new books, readings, etc, please visit:
https://paracelsus1966.substack.com/
See you there!
Author of The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order, The Cathars: The Rise & Fall of the Great Heresy, The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics, Andrei Tarkovsky, and New Waves in Cinema. Wigtown Poetry Prize winner 2011; Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature's Emerging Writers 2012; Plough Poetry Prize 2013 (longlist); Poetry Business Pamphlet Comp. shortlist 2017; Wells Poetry Competition 2017 & 20 shortlist; Templar Portfolio Award winner 2017.
This blog is now moving to Substack. To keep up with my latest announcements, news of new books, readings, etc, please visit:
https://paracelsus1966.substack.com/
See you there!
My poem 'Eternal Return' has just been Longlisted for the 2023 Fish Poetry Prize, judged by former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Full details of the winners can be found here.
My documentary/essay film on David Lindsay, A Vast Shadow House, will receive its world premiere at the Maine International Film Festival on 12th July. The film will screen again the following day. Tickets and more info can be found here.
Admired by the likes of Philip Pullman, Nina Allan, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, Lindsay’s novels explore the theme of a real world, hiding behind the mundane everyday. Influenced by the German Romantics and the fantasies of George Macdonald, Lindsay’s books depict a world of illusion that must be transcended and ultimately escaped from. This essentially gnostic philosophy predates the work of Philip K. Dick, who explored similar themes, by some 30 or 40 years. Lindsay’s later work became more matriarchal, feminist and pagan in its themes, although the vision of the false and true worlds remained.
A Vast Shadow House explores Lindsay’s life and works, the philosophy in his works, the difficulties he had in finding an audience, and his posthumous success. It features interviews with some of Lindsay’s original supporters and champions, including critic and poet J. B. Pick, biographer Bernard Sellin, and critics Harold Bloom and Gary K. Wolfe. Also appearing are Alan Moore (comics writer, novelist, wizard), Brian Stableford (sci-fi author, translator), and Gary Lachman (writer, and, in a previous life, founder member of Blondie – although we didn’t get around to discussing Gary’s musical career in the interview. That will have to wait for my next film…). My filmmaking colleague Louise Milne acts as our guide and interviewer.
My poem "The Troubles" has been shortlisted for the 2022 Fish Poetry Prize, judged by former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
I've decided to launch a Patreon, which can be found here: www.patreon.com/seanmartin. If you're interested in my work and would like to support me, I'd be very grateful. Subscribers can expect patron-only blog posts, videos, drafts of works-in-progress, and probably other things as well (when I have anything else!). I'll try posting every fortnight to start with, and see how we go. I've never done this king of thing before, but I'm hoping that it will be a worthwhile thing to do; it should certainly remind me to keep writing!
This week's update: I am working on updates for A Short History of Disease, which will be published in the spring. I hope to get those done by the end of this week, so that next week I can get on with the next book, which has been on the back burned for far too long.
I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year, and let's hope this year is better than the last two...