I have a PhD in British & Irish Modernist literature, specifically looking at the influence of occultism and ceremonial magic on twentieth-century plays. I’ve taught and published on many aspects of modern literature and am available to teach courses, lead workshops, host discussions, participate in interviews or roundtables, give talks, or teach you how to do any of those yourself.
Check out The Oddest Inkling blog, devoted to the study of British writer Charles Williams.
Here are some articles, chapters, and paratexual matter I’ve published:
“Spirits on Stage: Rosicrucian Magic in The Countess Cathleen.” International Yeats Studies Vol. 6, Is. 1 (January 2022). 21–45.
“[Re]Cycled Fragments: The End of Sweeney Agonistes.” The T. S. Eliot Studies Annual Vol. 3 (October 2021). 181–213.
“Charles Williams and Friendship Sub Specie Arthuriana.” VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center (December 2018). 31–50.
“Double Affirmation: Medievalism as Christian Apologetic in the Arthurian Poetry of Charles Williams.” Journal of Inklings Studies, vol. 3, no. 2 (October 2013). 59–96.
“Is a ‘Christian’ Mystery Story Possible? Charles Williams’ War in Heaven as a Generic Case Study.” Mythlore vol. 30 no. 1/2 issue 115/116 (Fall/Winter 2011). 77–90.
“‘The Weird Dominions of the Infinite’: Edgar Allan Poe and the Scientific Gothic.” Penumbra: A Journal of Weird Fiction No. 1 (Summer 2020). 203–23.
“The Inklings Among Other Arthurs.” The Lamp-Post, vol. 37/38, no. 3/1 (2018). 35–67.
“Intertextuality in Beowulf and the Inklings.” The Lamp-Post, vol. 36, no. 2 (2018). 30–41.
“Introduction—Present and Past.” The Inklings and King Arthur (Apocryphile Press, 2017). 1–11.
“The Matter of Logres: Arthuriana and the Inklings.” The Inklings and King Arthur (Apocryphile Press, 2017). 25–59.
Introduction. Taliessin through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars by Charles Williams (Apocryphile Press, 2016). 1–16.
“The Development of Sehnsucht in the Letters of C.S. Lewis.” New York C.S. Lewis Society Bulletin 471 (January/February 2016). 1–10.
Introduction. The Chapel of the Thorn: A Dramatic Poem, by Charles Williams, edited by Sørina Higgins, (Apocryphile Press, 2014). 5–38.
“Arthurian Geographies in Tolkien, Williams and Lewis.” New York C.S. Lewis Society Bulletin 462 (July/August 2014). 1–8.
“Is a ‘Christian’ Mystery Story Possible? Charles Williams’ War in Heaven as a Generic Case Study.” Christianity and the Detective Story, Walter Raubicheck and Anya Morlan, eds. (Cambridge Scholars, 2013). 2–19.
Gardeners of the Galaxies
Gardeners of the Galaxies: How Other Worlds Teach Us to Care for This One. Edited collection, with Dr. Brenton Dickieson. Authors are currently drafting their chapters; check back for periodic updates.
The Inklings and King Arthur
Will King Arthur ever return to England? He already has. In the midst of war-torn Britain, King Arthur returned in the writings of the Oxford Inklings. Learn how J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield brought hope to their times and our own in their Arthurian literature. Although studies of the “Oxford Inklings” abound, astonishingly enough, none has yet examined their great body of Arthurian work. Yet each of these major writers tackled serious and relevant questions about government, gender, violence, imperialism, secularism, and spirituality through their stories of the Quest for the Holy Grail. This rigorous and sophisticated volume studies these topics for the first time.
Taliessin through Logres
This is a new edition of Charles Williams’s two mature volumes of Arthurian verse: Taliessin through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars, released in 2016 by Apocryphile Press. Previously, this poetry was out of print and difficult to obtain. This inexpensive volume contains a new introduction that I wrote for Taliessin, guiding the reader through the delights and challenges of these obscure but rewarding poems, giving instructions for first readings and rereadings, and noting important themes. Through the voice of Taliessin, King Arthur’s poet, and other famous Arthurian characters, these timeless poems explore sacramental objects, the Two Ways of theology, the Image of the City, CW’s distinctive anatomical geography, and the revelatory and salvific power of poetry.
The Chapel of the Thorn
The Chapel of the Thorn is now available on Amazon. This is an early play by Charles Williams (written in 1912 and published for the first time in 2014 by Apocryphile Press), edited and introduced by Sørina Higgins, with a preface by Grevel Lindop (Charles Williams’ official biographer, author of Charles Williams: The Third Inkling (OUP 2015), and an essay by David Llewellyn Dodds (editor of the Charles Williams volume in Boydell & Brewer’s Arthurian Poets series). The Chapel of the Thorn is a two-act verse drama in which Christians and pagans contend for control of the Crown of Thorns. Its themes of spiritual tension, sacred vs. secular power, and religious war are as powerful now as they were when Williams wrote this play just over one hundred years ago.