Marina Warner
Marina Warner is a writer of fiction, criticism and history; her works include novels and short stories as well as studies of art, myths, symbols and fairytales.
“My critical and historical books and essays explore different figures in myth and fairy tale, such as the Virgin Mary and Joan of Arc; more recently I have concentrated on fairy tales, including the Arabian Nights. I also write novels and short stories, often drawing on mythic or other imaginary predecessors to translate them into contemporary significance – to re-vision them.
Stories come from the past but speak to the present, and I have found that I need to write stories as well as deconstruct them and place them in historical contexts, because I myself love reading works of imagination, and I would like to join the conversation with admired predecessors, who range from Apuleius to Virginia Woolf, Italo Calvino, and Angela Carter.”
Recent Diary Entries
The Sarah Hughes Trust Lecture, Friday 2 December
Friday 2 December, The Sarah Hughes Trust Lecture, 6-9pm, Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole St, London W1G 0AE. Join Marina as she gives the Sarah Hughes Lecture, discussing the role of mythology and writing as well as the influence of art on creat …
POSTPONED “Viral Spiral: Multiple Shape-shifting from Ovid to Covid”, Thursday 24 November 2022, 6.00pm GMT
Marina is giving the inaugural lecture for the Centre for Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. In her lecture, “Viral Spiral: Multiple Shape-shifting from Ovid to Covid”, Marina will explore stories of multiple transformations in …
Inside the Cauldron – Kickstarter Campaign! 5 days to go
83% funded, with 5 days to go! Inside the Cauldron is a short non-profit film based on an unpublished essay by the British surrealist artist Leonora Carrington [1917-2011]. Carrington gave a copy to Marina Warner, who entrusted it to the filmmakers in …