K. A. Laity
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K.A. Laity, Ph.D is a Finnish-American medievalist and award-winning author, noted for the novel Pelzmantel: A Medieval Tale as well as numerous short stories, plays and scholarly essays.
Currently working on Unikirja, a collection of short stories based on the Kalevala, Kanteletar, and other Finnish myths and legends. At present, she teaches English literature, creative writing and film at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. [1]
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[edit] Life
K. A. Laity was born on a cold December 17th in Lansing, MI. She grew up in that state, where one is never more than six miles from a lake or river, spending a lot of time outdoors, camping, swimming, and fishing. Many weekends were spent in Kaleva, MI where her family has a cabin on Bear Creek. Her father's side of the family is Finnish, her mother's a much broader assortment of American immigrant cultures. She has two brothers, one older, one younger. She is married to noted comics scholar Dr. Gene Kannenberg, Jr.[2]
She attended Michigan State University, then moved to California to attend the University of Southern California. After graduating with an M.A. in International Relations, she moved to Boston and Cambridge, where eventually she worked for the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. After taking some courses at Harvard, she entered the University of Connecticut, where she received a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, an interdisciplinary program.
Recently, she held the position of Assistant Professor of English (Medieval) at the University of Houston-Downtown, where she taught medieval literature, creative writing and film, as well as advising the student literary magazine. Dr. Laity has traveled to Britain many times, to Belgium, Finland, Germany, Austria and France, and once spent a summer in Iceland. Dr. Laity recently received a grant from the Finlandia Foundation to journey to Finland. Her travels and her studies inform much of her writing.
Dr. Laity's 2003 novel Pelzmantel: A Medieval Tale (Spilled Candy Books) was nominated for the Aesop Prize and for the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award. She won the 2005 Eureka Short Story Fellowship, as well as the 2005 UHD Faculty Award for Scholarship/Creativity. Her first story submitted for publication, Revelations, won the Clive Barker Lord of Illusions Short Story Contest.
[edit] Artist's statement (from official website)
"I do my best to avoid being pigeon-holed. It is an uphill battle. I write across genres, employing very different styles from one project to the next, yet my voice remains clear. At the center of much of my work is a concern with storytelling itself. I delve into the mythic often, and explore the richness of folk and fairy tales. I believe the greatest sorrow of the age is our separation from our roots in the earth, which has made so many people forget that we are all connected, that everything is alive. I agree wholeheartedly with Roald Dahl that "those who do not believe in magic will never find it."
[edit] Selected Bibliography
[edit] FICTION
Pelzmantel. Novel. Spilled Candy Books , Feb 1, 2003. ** Nominated for Aesop Prize of the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society and for the International Reading Association Children's Book Award.
"Songs of Defiance." Poem. Forthcoming Bayou Review.
"Eating the Dream. " Short story. Under submission Eureka Literary Magazine.
"Fear and Loathing in Deptford." Short story. Under submission Word Riot.
"On Buffalo Bayou." Short story. New Texas Review (2005): 92-108.
"Vipunen." Short story. New World Finn 5.3 (Jul-Sep 2005): 22-24.
"Sun Thief." Short story. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress XXI. New York: DAW Books, 2004. 133-142.
"Kerttu." Short story. New World Finn 4.2 (April-June 2004): 7-9.
"When Little Joe the Krampus Met." Chapbook with The Joey Zone. December 2003.
"Sacrifice." Short story. New World Finn 3.2 (April-June 2002): 22-23.
"Touched by an Angel." Short story. Delirium (forthcoming 2003).
"Wordgeryne." Short story. Lovecraft's Weird Mysteries 5 (June 2002): 42-46.
Willimantic Frogs . Chapbook. May 2001.
"Sinikka Journeys North." The Beltane Papers 25 (2001): 14-19.
"Walpurgisnacht." The Seeker Journal 13.5 (2001): 6-9.
Three Penny Dreadfuls. Chapbook. June 1998.
"A Gift House." Masters of Terror's House of Horror (April 1998).
"The Eleventh Commandment." Rictus 9 (April 1997).
"Revelation." The Official Clive Barker Page, www.clivebarker.com . Winner, MGM/United Artists/Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions Short Story Contest, November 1995.
[edit] NON-FICTION
Elf-shot and Other Mysterious Maladies: New Scholarship on Old English Charms, with Richard Scott Nokes. In preparation.
Blood Feasts and Roof Riding: Women as Witches in Anglo-Saxon England. In progress.
[edit] ESSAYS
"Translating Saint as (Vi)king: St. Olaf in the Heimskringla." Viator 35 (2004): 169-202.
"Smokescreens: Transparent Disguises, Fog and Smoke in Fostbroedra saga." In preparation.
"Living the Mystery: Sacred Drama Today." Journal for the Academic Study of Magic.
"Illusory Adversaries?: Images of Female Power in Sandman: The Kindly Ones. " The Sandman Papers. Ed. Joe Sanders. Seattle: Fantagraphics, in press.
"Clive Barker" and "Books of Blood." Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia. Eds. S. T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemianowicz. Greenwood Press, in press.
"Clive Barker" and "Ramsey Campbell." Supernatural Fiction Writers . 2nd edition. Ed. Richard Bleiler. Farmington Hills, MI: Scribners, 2003. 61-70, 177-188.
"Constructing a Female Hero: Iconography in Les aventures extraordinaires dAdle Blanc-Sec ." International Journal of Comic Art 4.1: 163-169. Reprinted in Quadrado.
"False Positives: The Katherine-Group Saints as Ambiguous Role Models." Magistra 7.2: 64-99.
"A High Steppin' Filly: Effluent Juissance in Dame Darcy's Meatcake." Indy: Spring 1998. (25 ms pp) Reprinted as Dame Darcy e os poderes da BD in Quadrado 3:3 (2001): 46-52.
[edit] NOTES
"Coming Together from Many Nations: The Conference on Women and the Divine." Beltane Papers 36 (Autumn 2005): 41-42.
"Casting the Circle: Ritual and the Body of the Goddess." Circle 94 (Summer 2005): 19-20.
"Ancient Texts and Venerable Tales. " Celebrating the Pagan Soul. Ed. Laura Wildman. Citadel Press, 2005.
"Hunter S. Thompson: RIP." UHD Dateline March 4-24, 2005.
"The New Medievalism: Visual Rhetoric and Christianity in Modern Films. " The Beltane Papers 33 (2004): 48-49, 64.
"The Sound of Magic: The Kantele." The Beltane Papers 31 (2003): 30-31, 62.
"Holy Maidenhead! Or How Our Medieval Foremothers Were Sold Virginity." The Beltane Papers 27 (2002): 39, 61.
"Taking the Goddess to Class." The Seeker Journal 14.3 (2002): 3-4.
"Awaiting on You All: George Harrison 1943-2001." The Seeker Journal 14.1 (2002): 9-11.
"Anglo-Saxon Yule." The Seeker Journal 13.12 (2001): 4-5.
"Walking Among the Elders." Circle 82 (2001): 6-7.
"An Early Witch Trial." The Seeker Journal 13.11 (2001): 7-8.
"A Most Unusual Totem Animal." Circle 81 (2001): 21.
"Music is Praise." The Seeker Journal 13.8 (2001): 3-4.
"Teaching Medea." The Beltane Papers 25 (2001): 10-11.
"Goddess, Waiting." The Seeker Journal 12.12 (2000): 5-6.
"Edward Gorey 1925-2000." Obituary. TheComicStore.com. April 2000.
[edit] TRANSLATIONS
"Against the Water Elf Disease." Translation. The Bayou Review (2003): 35.
"Anglo-Saxon Charm Against a Wen." Dual-text translation. The Seeker Journal 13.5 (2001): 12-13.
"Against a Swarm of Bees: An Anglo-Saxon Charm." Dual-text translation. The Seeker Journal 13.3 (2001): 11.
"Erce: Earth GoddessAn Anglo-Saxon Charm." Dual-text Translation. Avalon Rising 1.3 (1999): 14-15. Reprinted as Erce: Earth Goddess. The Seeker Journal 13.2 (2001): 18-19. Reprinted in The Pagan's Muse.
[edit] REVIEWS
Anglo-Saxon Propaganda in the Bayeux Tapestry by Meredith Clermont-Ferrand. Book review. English Language Notes. Forthcoming.
Meet the Beatles by Steven D. Stark. Book review. Forthcoming.
Historical Dictionary of Witchcraft by Michael D. Bailey. Book review. Under submission Journal for the Academic Study of Magic.
Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo. Book review. New World Finn 5.3 (July-Sept 2004): 26.
Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi. Book review. New World Finn 5.2 (April-June 2004): 26.
"Japanese Magic: The Girl-Friendly Films of Hayao Miyazaki." With Wendy Goldberg. Film review. Femspec 5.1 (2005).
Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker. Book Review. The Beltane Papers 27 (2002): 54-55.
"'Celebrating Pale Hecate's Offerings: My Favorite Witchcraft Films." Film reviews. The Beltane Papers 27 (2002): 52-53.
"Magic as Performance Art: The Ritual Art of Alan Moore." The Seeker Journal 14.4 (2002): 8-9.
The Book of Zines: Readings from the Fringe by Chip Rowe. Book review. Other Voices 1.2 (1998).
Dark City. Film review. Millennium (March 1998).
"Alien Four: Foot Fetish." Film review. Millennium (December 1997).
"Two Movies Clive Barker Hopes You'll Never See." Film review. Weird Times 1.4 (1996): 6-8.
[edit] ZINE
Wombat's World (1996-2000 published irregularly, now a blog)
[edit] PLAYS
Fiasco. Staged reading, October 2005, Univerity of Houston-Downtown.
Con-Eire. Debuted at Trinoc-con, July 2006, Durham, NC.
The Infamous Medieval Studies' Holiday Party Plays:
"Sir Thopas, M.A." "The Absolutely Fabulous Life of St. Margaret as Tolde by Marie de Brooklyn" "Sir Gawain and the Black Knight" "Dame! A Non-Singing Musical" "Ethelred the Ill-Advised: Or How the English Nearly Became Danish Before Breakfast" "The Saga of Saint Olaf (King) Down in Guthbrander Dale"
