Dark Reads Exclusive! The Literary Tarot Kickstarter Campaign.

Welcome to Dark Reads, today I’m bringing you some exciting news about The Literary Tarot campaign that is live on Kickstarter right now!

Featured authors include Charlie Jane Anders, Margaret Atwood, Leigh Bardugo, Emil Ferris, Lev Grossman, Victor LaValle, Marjorie Liu, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Rebecca Roanhorse and More!

I am so excited about this deck, it combines two of my passions; Tarot and Literature! I will include information on this upcoming deck, details regarding the Kickstarter along with exclusive quotes provided for Dark Reads from newly announced authors who have joined the project (including quotes from Lev Grossman and Erin Morgenstern!)

I find the whole concept of this deck really exciting and I think you will too! This truly is a massive collaboration between the world or Tarot, classic literature and some of the finest names of modern Literature.

Each Tarot card is paired with an author who then pairs the card to a piece of classic literature that embodies that particular card. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick to Lewis Carol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

As well as acclaimed authors there are also some of the biggest names in the Comic Book area, Marjorie Liu, creator of horror fantasy comic Monstress, Kick-Ass co-creator Mark Millar just to name two!

I actually cannot express how excited I am by this whole project.

The Campaign will be running until the end of June, don’t miss your chance to be a part of it!

Join the campaign and back the deck on Kickstarter here

About The Literary Tarot

Brink Literacy Project, are a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the world through storytelling. To create their latest endeavor, The Literary Tarot, they have reached out to some of the greatest authors and cartoonists of our time and asked them to pair a tarot card with a seminal book that embodies the meaning of the arcana. 

Working with a diverse and talented art team, they have tapped into the magic of these stories to bring a whole new kind of tarot deck to life… 

The deck will feature the complete set of all 78 tarot cards, illustrated with a stunning, limited palette and gold-foil accents.

Like any story, the meaning unfolds as its characters interact—with each other, with the whims of fate, with obstacles in their paths. The meaning behind your tarot reading unravels like these plots; the story of our past, present, and future unfolding as each new card is drawn, chapter by chapter, revealing the course of our lives.

I would like to share some of the cards with you, they are just so stunning!

The cards will be 2.75” x 4.75”, printed on premium heavyweight stock and inlaid with foil on both sides.

Join the campaign and back the deck on Kickstarter here

The Guidebook

Each deck will come with a lovely mini guidebook. In its pages, you’ll find the meaning of each tarot card, written through the lens of its literary pairing by the amazing wordsmith who took up its mantle.

Newly Announced Authors And Exclusive Quotes for Dark Reads

Joe Abercrombie, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Saint Gibson, Madeline Miller, Chris Roberson and More Join The Literary Tarot

Ellen Azevedo: 

“I am so honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to this project alongside so many of my favorite authors. I’m still in shock! The deck that all of these artists and writers have come together to create is so ridiculously beautiful and just really really cool. And the cause it’s supporting is equally cool. Dani and the entire Brink Literacy Project and F(r)iction team are amazing people with a beautiful mission to bring storytelling to underserved communities and people worldwide. I’m so proud to contribute in my small way to their incredible work!” 

K-Ming Chang:

“The process of writing and reading often feels like communing with forces and selves and worlds that are beyond our everyday consciousness and awareness, and I love that this tarot deck allows us to consult and connect with the literary figures and texts that have shaped us, haunted us, and alchemized us. This is such a beautiful storytelling tool, and I’m so excited to be a part of this collaborative process.”

Erin Morgenstern:

“I bought my first tarot deck in the early 90s at one of those stores in the mall that would appear briefly in a haze of incense and crystals only to vanish entirely. It has been both delicious and surreal watching tarot become more and more popular since then.

The tarot itself is composed of so many stories for interpretation that a literary version feels like a perfect match. I am absolutely delighted by this project and it’s an honor to be included amongst such a stellar collection of authors. Pairing a long-time favorite classic with a tarot card allowed me to see both of them in new and different lights.”

H.E. Edgmon:

“I can’t imagine a more perfect project for me to be part of. Literary Tarot combines three of my life’s passions: storytelling, the occult, and social justice. With this deck, Brink is creating actual magic.”

Patricia A. Jackson:

“Nothing saddens me more as a literature teacher than when I hear disparaging remarks about the great classics. In the race for diversity, we have forgotten that representation does not mean purging the past, which is why so many cultural embodiments of the Tarot exist. The Tarot teaches us to move forward in our consciousness, to learn from, but not dwell and stagnant on the past. This is the courageous mission of the Brink Literacy Project and F(r)iction editorial teams: to assist marginalized peoples transform and uplift their voices through the healing power of storytelling.”

Alix Harrow:

“Books have always been my personal tarot cards. They reveal and obscure, they tell me where I’ve been and where I’m going. Brink Literacy’s Literary Tarot deck is a project of perfect logic and perfect whimsy, in service to a wonderful mission.”

Lev Grossman:

“I’ve known the people at Brink for years now and it’s an honor just to support the special, essential work they do. But on top of that, the Literary Tarot is a thing of beauty, gorgeous and fascinating and featuring a once-in-a-generation gathering of authors. It’s an instant classic, a labyrinth that will reward deep wandering. The books illuminate the Tarot, and the Tarot illuminates the books.”

Charlie Claire Burgess

“For those unfamiliar with it, tarot can seem intimidatingly occult and impenetrably arcane. But tarot actually works much like a good book: using metaphor, imagery, allusion, and plenty of imagination, the tarot tells us the story of ourselves. As a writer and a tarot reader, I’m thrilled that the team at Brink, with their thorough appreciation for the uncanny and for innovative storytelling, have at last united these magical bedfellows in the Literary Tarot.”

Hart Hanson:

“The Literary Tarot Project takes the poetic genius of a major literary work and renders it in the distilled symbolism of the Tarot, then re-translates it back into words. Crazy! Inspired! The most playful smush of word and image since the invention of the caption.”

Damian Rogers:

“I love the way that this project connects the traditional tarot cards with works of literature, because the link between image and story is central to my relationship with the tarot. It’s also an opportunity to support the incredible work of the Brink Literary Project.”

Non Exclusive Quotes

Stephen Graham Jones:

“This beautiful tarot deck’s going to tell my future, my past, and my present — surprise, 

it’s all books, all reading, all writers. Shuffle it however you will, it always comes back to story.”

Marjorie Liu:

“For those of us who love to read, we know that oftentimes there is no better guide, no better education on how to be human than a good book. So, of course it seems fitting that a tarot deck flow into creation from characters who have already guided so many of us on this adventure called life—and that here, one hopes, there is even more enlightenment to be had.” 

Join the campaign and back the deck on Kickstarter here

Head over to the Kickstarter page for more author profile images and more!

Newly Released Contributors

(June 22, 2021) Brink Literacy Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the world through storytelling, is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for The Literary Tarot, an ambitious and unusual collaboration with some of the greatest authors and cartoonists of our time. Today Brink Literacy Project is announcing a second wave of all-star contributors to the project, all of whom have been asked to pair a tarot card with a seminal book that embodies the meaning of the arcana.

second wave of announcements, new contributors include:

• Fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie, best-selling author of The First Law trilogy
• Writer and illustrator Ezra Claytan Daniels, creator of the acclaimed graphic novel Upgrade Soul and writer of BTTM FDRS
• Novelist Saint Gibson, the author of A Dowry of Blood, a retelling of the story of Dracula’s brides
• Bestselling novelist and comic book writer Christopher Golden, author of novels Ararat, Strangewood, and Of Saints and Shadows and co-creator (with Mike Mignola) of the comic book universe known as The Outerverse
• Comics writer Mel Hilario (Debian Perl)
• Danny Lore, writer of the comics Queen of Bad Dreams and Quarter Killer
• Novelist Madeline Miller (Circe and The Song of Achilles)
• Bestselling comics writer Chris Roberson (House of Lost Horizons and iZombie)
• Acclaimed novelist and comic book writer Samuel Sattin (Bezkamp and Wolfwalkers)

Working with the storytellers and a diverse and talented art team, Brink Literacy Project has tapped into the magic of classic literature to bring a whole new kind of tarot deck to life. The original wave of contributors included folks like Margaret Atwood, Vita Ayala, Victor LaValle, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Stephen Graham Jones, Roxane Gay, Mark Millar, and dozens more. 

New card and literary pairings, announced since the project first launched, include:

• Joe Ambercrombie (The First Law trilogy) pairing The Christmas Carol with Four of Parchment (Pentacles)
• Ellen Azevedo (F(r)iction #16) pairing Midsummer’s Night Dream with Seven of Light (Cups)
• Damian Barr (Maggie & Me) pairing Tom Sawyer with Six of Light (Cups)
• Brian Bendis (The Ultimate Spiderman) pairing War of the Worlds with King of Ink (Wands)
• Joel Kim Booster (Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents) pairing Pride and Prejudice with Queen of Ink (Wands)
• Maggie Downs (Braver Than You Think) pairing Leaves of Grass with Eight of Ink (Wands)
• H.E. Edgmon (The Witch King) pairing The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with Strength
• Amal El-Mohtar (This is How You Lose the Time War) pairing Emily of New Moon with The Star
• Emil Ferris (My Favorite Thing is Monsters) pairing Bleak House pairing Three of Ink (Wands)
• Race Garber (F(r)iction #6) pairing The Scarlet Pimpernel with Five of Ink (Wands)
• Alix Harrow (The Ten Thousand Doors of January) pairing Count of Monte Cristo with Justice
• Jonathan Hickman (East of West) pairing Heart of Darkness with Ten of Quills (Swords) 
• Mel Hilario (Debian Perl) pairing The Wizard of Oz with Three of Light (Cups)
• Tini Howard (X of Swords) pairing The Cold Equations with Temperance
• Patricia A. Jackson (Forging a Nightmare) pairing Three Musketeers with Six of Parchment (Pentacles)
• E. Lockhart (We Were Liars) pairing Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Ten of Parchment (Pentacles)
• Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties) pairing Carmilla with Ace of Light (Cups)
• Mariah McCourt (Ash & Thorn) pairing Persuasion with Five of Parchment (Pentacles)
• Carrie Morgridge (Every Gift Matters) pairing The Junglebook with Two of Ink (Wands)
• Alec Nevala-Lee (Astounding) pairing Antigone with Two of Quills (Swords) 
• Rachel Pollack (Godmother Night) pairing Oedipus Rex with Knight of Quills (Swords)
• Damian Rogers (An Alphabet for Joanna) pairing Pillow Book with Nine of Parchment (Pentacles)
• Greg Rucka (Stumptown) pairing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Knight of Ink (Wands)
• Catherynne Valente (The Orphan’s Tale series) pairing Wife of Bath with The Empress
• Jeff VanderMeer (The Southern Reach trilogy) pairing Metamorphosis with Six of Quills (Swords)
• Ayelet Waldman (The Mommy-Track Mysteries series) pairing Emma with Two of Light (Cups)
• Lidia Yuknavitch (The Book of Joan) pairing Mrs. Dalloway with Ten of Light (Cups)

Previously announced Major Arcana card pairings include:

• PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist K-Ming Chang (Bestiary) pairs The Magician with Wu Cheng’en’s sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West
• Amal El-Mohtar (author of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning novella This Is How You Lose the Time War) pairs The Star with Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Emily of the New Moon
• Lev Grossman (The Magicians Trilogy) pairs The World with King Arthur
• Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Victor LaValle (The Changeling) pairs The Tower with H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Outsider“
• Talia Lavin (the author of Cultural Warlords and the host of the Moby Dick Energy podcast) pairs The Devil with Herman Melville’s Moby Dick
• Isaac Marion (the author of the bestselling Warm Bodies series) pairs The Hermit with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 
• Bestselling Mexican Gothic novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia pairs The Lovers with Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence
• The bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng, pairs The Hanged Man with T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
• Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winning novelist Rebecca Roanhorse (Black Sun) pairs Death with Bram Stoker’s Dracula 

For the Minor Arcana, each suit is renamed to reflect the literary tools that brought them to life (Ink, Quills, Light, and Parchment). Minor Acana Pairings include:

• Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning writer Charlie Jane Anders (Victories Greater Than Death) pairs the Knight of Light (Cups) with Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones
• Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale) pairs the Queen of Light (Cups) with Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
• Vita Ayala (The Wilds) pairs the King of Light (Cups) with Homer’s The Odyssey
• Bestselling author Leigh Bardugo (Ninth House and Shadow and Bone) pairs the Ace of Parchment (Pentacles) with Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden
• Kelly Sue DeConnick (co-creator and writer of Bitch Planet) pairs the King of Quills (Swords) with Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations
• Bestselling writer Roxane Gay (The Bad Feminist) pairs the King of Parchment (Pentacles) with Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
• The Hugo Award-winning writer of Die, Kieron Gillen, pairs Five of Quills (Swords) with Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment
• Bestselling horror writer Stephen Graham Jones (The Only Good Indians) pairs the Three of Quills (Swords) with W. W. Jacobs’s seminal, supernatural short story “The Monkey’s Paw”
• Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning writer Kelly Link (Get in Trouble) pairs the Two of Parchment (Pentacles) with Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
• Bestselling comic book writer Mark Millar (Jupiter’s Legacy) pairs the Ace of Quills (Swords) with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• Erin Morgenstern (The Starless Sea) pairs the Five of Light (Cups) with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

The artists for Literary Tarot are:

• Major Arcana: Samantha Dow
• Light: Shan Bennion 
• Ink and Box Design: Ejiwa “Edge” Ebenebe 
• Quills: Isabel Burke 
• Parchment: Bradley Clayton 

The Literary Tarot campaign will run throughout the month of June, don’t miss your chance to back this beautiful deck. Click here to back

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