The Literary Tarot Kickstarter adds Scott Snyder, Holly Black, Terry Brooks, Stephen Fry, and more

Nearly a month ago the Brink Literacy Project launched The Literary Tarot Kickstarter and it has surpassed its goal of $80,000 and then some, but they aren’t done yet. Today, revealed exclusively via AIPT and with only 46 hours to go, we can tell you new contributors have been added to the project and they are some of the biggest names in fantasy, comics, and acting too.

Those creators include Scott Snyder, Stephen Fry, Terry Brooks, Holly Black, Joe Abercrombie, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Saint Gibson, Christopher Golden, Chloe Gong, Danny Lore, Mel Hilario, Madeline Miller, Chris Roberson, Samuel Sattin, and Spike Trotman. Each creator is working with the Brink Literacy Project’s art team to bring a specific tarot card to life.

Here’s a full rundown of the creators added to the lineup along with some details on which cards they’ll be tackling:

• Fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie, best-selling author of the First Law trilogy
• Bestselling author Holly Black (The Cruel Prince Trilogy and Book of Night)
• Bestselling novelist Terry Brooks (The Genesis of Shannara novels)
• Fantasy writer Cassandra Clare, author of bestselling YA series The Mortal Instruments
• Writer and illustrator Ezra Claytan Daniels, creator of the acclaimed graphic novel Upgrade Soul and writer of BTTM FDRS
• Writer, actor and comedian Stephen Fry, author of The Liar, Making History and The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within
• 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
• Novelist Chloe Gong, New York Times best-selling author of These Violent Delights
• 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)
• Comic book writer Scott Snyder (American Vampire and Nocterra)
• Cartoonist and publisher Spike Trotman, creator of webcomic Templar, Arizona, and founder and owner of Iron Circus Comics

They join an already impressive lineup of creators who are tapping classic literature to bring a unique and entirely new way of playing and displaying tarot cards. Already attached to the project are creators like Margaret Atwood, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Brian Bendis, Stephen Graham Jones, Victor LaValle, Marjorie Liu, Mark Millar, Greg Rucka, and dozens more.

If you’d like to learn even more about the project, make sure to check out our interview with Brink Literacy Project CEO Dani Hedlund.

But wait, there’s more! Check out exclusively here for the first time Literary Tarot card art from the creators below.

Cassandra Clare’s Great Expectations with Page of Lights

Courtesy Brink Literacy Project

Damian Barr’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Six of Light

Courtesy Brink Literacy Project

Leigh Bardugo’s The Secret Garden as the Ace of Parchment

Courtesy Brink Literacy Project

Race Garber’s’ NEW AND FIXED The Scarlet Pimpernel with the Five of Ink

Courtesy Brink Literacy Project

Willow Wilsons Vanity Fair and the Wheel of Fortune

Courtesy Brink Literacy Project

E Lockhart’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and the Ten of Parchment

Courtesy Brink Literacy Project

Greg Rucka’s The Adventures of Huck Finn and the Knight of Ink

Courtesy Brink Literacy Project

Brian Bendis’ War of the Worlds as the King of Ink

Courtesy Brink Literacy Project

To date, the project has been supported by more than 9,000 backers. There’s still time to get in on the project as the Kickstarter ends Wednesday morning at 9 AM PST.

Courtesy Bink Literacy Project

An image from the Literacy Tarot deck. Courtesy Bink Literacy Project

An image from the Literacy Tarot deck. Courtesy Bink Literacy Project

An image from the Literacy Tarot deck. Courtesy Bink Literacy Project

For more on this news, read the official press release below.

(June 28, 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.

New contributors include:

• Fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie, best-selling author of the First Law trilogy

• Bestselling author Holly Black (The Cruel Prince Trilogy and Book of Night)

• Bestselling novelist Terry Brooks (The Genesis of Shannara novels)

• Fantasy writer Cassandra Clare, author of bestselling YA series The Mortal Instruments

• Writer and illustrator Ezra Claytan Daniels, creator of the acclaimed graphic novel Upgrade Soul and writer of BTTM FDRS

• Writer, actor and comedian Stephen Fry, author of The Liar, Making History and The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within

• 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

• Novelist Chloe Gong, New York Times best-selling author of These Violent Delights

• 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)

• Comic book writer Scott Snyder (American Vampire and Nocterra)

• Cartoonist and publisher Spike Trotman, creator of webcomic Templar, Arizona and founder and owner of Iron Circus Comics

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 Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with Four of Parchment (Pentacles)

• Ellen Azevedo (F(r)iction #16) pairing William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream with Seven of Light (Cups)

• Damian Barr (Maggie & Me) pairing Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer with Six of Light (Cups)

• Brian Michael Bendis (The Ultimate Spiderman) pairing H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds with King of Ink (Wands)

• Joel Kim Booster (Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents) pairing Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with Queen of Ink (Wands)

• Maggie Downs (Braver Than You Think) pairing Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass with Eight of Ink (Wands)

• H.E. Edgmon (The Witch King) pairing Robert Louis Stevensons’ The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with Strength

• Amal El-Mohtar (This is How You Lose the Time War) pairing  Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon with The Star

• Emil Ferris (My Favorite Thing is Monsters) pairing Charles Dickens’ Bleak House with Three of Ink (Wands)

• Race Garber (F(r)iction #6) pairing Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel with Five of Ink (Wands)

• Alix E. Harrow (The Ten Thousand Doors of January) pairing Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo with Justice

• Jonathan Hickman (East of West) pairing Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness with Ten of Quills (Swords)

• Mel Hilario (Debian Perl) pairing L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with Three of Light (Cups)

• Tini Howard (X of Swords) pairing Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations” with Temperance

• Patricia A. Jackson (Forging a Nightmare) pairing Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers with Six of Parchment (Pentacles)

• E. Lockhart (We Were Liars) pairing Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Ten of Parchment (Pentacles)

• Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties) pairing Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla with Ace of Light (Cups)

• Mariah McCourt (Ash & Thorn) pairing Jane Austen’s Persuasion with Five of Parchment (Pentacles)

• Carrie Morgridge (Every Gift Matters) pairing Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book with Two of Ink (Wands)

• Alec Nevala-Lee (Astounding) pairing Sophocles’ Antigone with Two of Quills (Swords)

• Rachel Pollack (Godmother Night) pairing Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex with Knight of Quills (Swords)

• Damian Rogers (An Alphabet for Joanna) pairing Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book with Nine of Parchment (Pentacles)

• Greg Rucka (Stumptown) pairing Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Knight of Ink (Wands)

• Catherynne Valente (The Orphan’s Tale series) pairing Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” with The Empress

• Jeff VanderMeer (the Southern Reach trilogy) pairing Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis with Six of Quills (Swords)

• Ayelet Waldman (The Mommy-Track Mysteries series) pairing Jane Austen’s Emma with Two of Light (Cups)

• Lidia Yuknavitch (The Book of Joan) pairing Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway with Ten of Light (Cups)

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

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

• 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. To support the campaign, visit Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brinklit/the-literary-tarot

For more updates on the Brink Literacy Project Campaign, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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