January Events For Myth Lovers
"shabby chic bathroom (or shall we say Vintage)" by katherine12481 is marked with CC PDM 1.0 and Domingos António de Sequeira’s “Gods on Olympus” is in the public domain.
Virtual Events
The author Alexandra Bracken will go on tour for her book Lore, in which nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals. You can see her on January 5 with author S.T. Gibson, and January 6 with Susan Dennard, and January 7th with Isabel Ibanez.
January 5 and 6, learn about the Greek mythology behind Harry Potter at an online camp for children 7 to 15 years old. Find out the connection between Harry’s fate and Zeus’ upbringing, what Perseus had to do with Hogwarts, and how Apollo inspired Gryffindor. Tickets $30.
On Saturday January 5 at 4 pm EST, the illustrator Anka Lavriv will give an online class about Ukrainian mythology, magic and divination. Tickets $45-$65.
On January 5, the Nebula-award winning author Sam J. Miller will read online as part of the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings series. Virtual participants can ask questions afterward.
On January 7, watch a free illustrated lecture about Pompeii.
On Saturday January 9, participate in an online creative writing workshop focused on the mythology of bats in England’s Rockingham Forest. You will explore the references to bats in literature, participate in writing exercises, and share your work for live feedback if you want. 2-4 pm in London or 9-11 a.m. EST.
On January 12 at 8 pm EST, watch Olga Grushin in an online discussion with Daniel Wallace about her new novel The Charmed Wife, in which Cinderella wants her Prince Charming dead.
On January 12, Melissa Albert will give an online talk about her new young adult book filled with dark folklore, Tales from the Hinterland.
At the new moon on January 13, Melissa Coaching Studio will read goddess cards individually and for the group of participants. This will spark conversation about how to form and affirm intentions for 2021.
On January 13 at 3 pm, participate in the online discussion “Like a Tree: How Trees, women and Tree People Can Save the World” at the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology.
Piero del Pollaiolo’s Apollo and Daphne is in the public domain.
On Wednesday, January 13, 8 p.m. PST watch a virtual lecture on "Lilith: Daughter of Heaven or Succubus?"
On January 15, join Vanessa Woolf’s story circle zoom room where you can listen to new tales, and tell your own, about demons and devils. Tickets by donation. Takes place at 19:00 in London and 2 pm EST.
On January 15-18, attend the Arisia science fiction and fantasy convention. The author guest of honor will be Suzanne Palmer. $25.
On January 20, play an online trivia game about Edgar Allan Poe and other Great American writers at noon, and then do it again on January 27th on the theme of classic literature.
On January 21, the author Dipa Sanatani, founder of Singapore-based publishing consulting services company Mith Books, will give an online talk about how women can channel goddess archetypes such as Lakshmi, who personifies wealth, to create abundance. Tickets $64.79.
January 22-24, participate in numerous speculative fiction themed programs ranging from “Mythology and Mythical Creatures” to having a fire dance (whatever that is) at Chattacon 34. $50.
Starting January 23 through 2021, you can see the virtual exhibit “Marija Gimbutas: Archeomythology of a Goddess,” which explores the archeologist and author’s early studies of Lithuanian folklore, her theories on the worship of a Mother Goddess in pre-patriarchal cultures, and more.
On Monday January 25, from 1 to 2:30 pm EST or 6 to 7:30 pm in London, learn about how psychologists can use the Oedipus myth for healing as part of the series “Greek Myths and Therapy: Online Seminars for Psychologists and Therapists.”
Gustave Moreau’s “Œdipus the Wayfarer” is in the public domain.
On Tuesday January 26, the Fiction, Fantasies and Epics Book Club at the Oxford Exchange bookstore in Florida will discuss Madeline Miller’s Circe at 6:30 pm EST.
On Tuesday, January 26, Beth C. Greenberg will present online at 7 pm EST about her book First Quiver (Cupid's Fall Book 1): “a sexy, modern romp that intertwines the lives of ordinary mortals with the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus.”
On January 27, participate in the online discussion “Animal mysteries in the Paleolithic” at the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology.
On January 28, listen to folk tales and songs actors and musicians in Leigh-on-Sea, England, at 7:30 pm in London or 2:30 pm EST. Tickets £15.
January 30-31, attend DVcon, a free two-day virtual writers conference for self-identifying marginalized book creators.
In the morning on January 31, attend an online workshop about the mythology in the Tarot. £20.00
Recurring Virtual Events
Moulage d'Aphrodite, dite Vénus de Milo is in the public domain.
If you would rather be in France right now, view a selection of thematically-themed works from the Louvre online, including (in my opinion) the best ones in the Sully Wing, which includes major works of Greek and Egyptian art such as the Venus de Milo.
Take an online course with Stanford research scholar Adrienne Mayor in which you will “uncover the natural origins of stories about dragons. . .; ponder whether the Amazon horsewomen-archers of myth existed; consider the dilemmas of using poison weapons in myth and ancient historical times; and marvel at robots and other science fiction tales from the time of Homer.” $120.
Take an online mini-course about Rome, seeing how it exists not only in brick and mortar, but also in the realm of ideas, and through the eyes of locals and visitors. Topics will include Rome’s urban and architectural development, as well as its representation in maps and artworks from across the city’s exceptionally long lifetime. $99.
On Sunday mornings, Krista Lea will present an online meditation class that uses sound, aroma, poetry, and goddess mythology to focus on the archetype of the Divine Feminine. Tickets $11
The NY Mythology Group, which is associated with the Joseph Campbell Foundation, holds presentations and discussions about mythology related topics ranging from the Greek goddess Hecate to Carl Jung. Their events usually take place on Tuesday evenings at 8 pm EDT, and have been online since the pandemic started.
The Center for Fiction will hold a discussion group on Wednesday nights from September 16-January 6 about “ways in which pervasive themes drawn from oral tradition find their way into our collective consciousness, either perpetuated or subverted by current fiction.” Readings from authors including Octavia Butler, Catherynne Valente, Ursula LeGuin, Kelly Link, and Aimee Bender.
BSFW, or Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, meetings take place mostly online currently, but pre-pandemic were in the homes of writers mostly in Brooklyn but also on occasion Manhattan or Queens. Check out their calendar on meetup to attend their numerous writing workshops, social gatherings, meetings with editors/agents/authors, book clubs, and more. The group includes many published writers and has its own audio fiction magazine, Kaleidocast. If you post about your fetish for Olympian gods on their Facebook group feed, they (probably) won’t judge.
EREWHON BOOKS, a publisher focusing on novel-length works of speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, and related genres, holds readings usually on the second Thursday each month virtually for now and in a pre-apocalypse world at its high ceilinged office of many windows in Manhattan.
Fantastic Fiction at KGB is a monthly speculative-fiction reading series held on the third Wednesday of every month virtually for now, and in a pre-apocalypse world at KGB Bar in Manhattan. Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel host the event. As one might expect from a communism-themed bar, admission is free.
The NYC Greek Myth & Classical Lit Meetup meets every third Thursday of the month at the Cloister Cafe in the East Village to discuss the work of mostly long dead authors (e.g. Aristophanes, Dante.) The group has existed for more than a decade, so the long-term participants have already earned their unofficial classics PhD’s, and we already know that anybody who would do this for fun is as hip as a person can get.
The virtual exhibit Guiding Spirits: The Radical Witches and Women of OPUS presents materials highlighting explorations of mythological witches and the occult and supernatural underpinnings of depth psychology.
World Events
"Myth.Slide1.16" by c.a.francese is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Finncon Postponed until 2021
The International Association for Comparative Mythology’s 14th conference, “Death and Migration in World Mythology” takes place in Mexico City and has been postponed until June 7-11, 2021.
Worldcon is scheduled to take place in Washington D.C. on August 25-29, 2021. You can buy your ticket for their convention here.
U.S. Events
Readercon, a conference in Boston for readers and writers of science fiction, postponed until 2021.
The conference Anime Los Angeles 17 has been postponed for a year. Instead of this month, it will take place from January 6-9, 2022, in Long Beach California.
New York City Events
From November 27 until January 10, the LuminoCity festival will take place on Randall’s Island. The light sculpture exhibits feature Lumi, who is from the Unicorn Kingdom. $38 per person. Reserve in advance.
In a series of richly-imagined portraits, the artistic duo Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer explore the idea of Utopia in the age of the new diaspora. Young women who have been forced to uproot their lives are photographed like goddesses inside lustrous and surrealist-inspired sets. On exhibition in the Church Mission Building near 23rd street at Fotografiska New York until February 7.
On various Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays starting February 2021, you can enjoy a 90-minute psychedelic cocktail menu with the Mad Hatter in an immersive Alice in Wonderland experience. $65. Reserve in advance.
A seven-foot statue of Medusa holding the head of a Greek hero now stands across from the Manhattan courthouse that convicted Harvey Weinstein, the New York Post reported recently. The statue will be on view there until March. (It’s not an event, but you know, COVID. . . if you go to see this one, at least you’ll be outdoors!)
Look at paintings in a Met Museum exhibition that capture the Ramayana, an epic narrative composed by the Sanskrit poet Valmiki around the fifth century B.C. Or check out Arte del mar ("art of/from the sea"), which explores the artistic exchange around the rim of the Caribbean Sea before the sixteenth century, including objects rooted in mythological narratives.
Check out the images of buddhas, bodhisattvas, tantric deities, protectors and more at the Rubin Museum’s Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, which is open again with timed entry tickets for social distancing.
Marcantonio Raimondi’s “A Bacchanal”. CC01.0 Public domain.
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