Tarot cards have played a significant role in a host of books over the years. The Literary Tarot, a new endeavor from Brink Literacy Project, puts a different spin on the relationship between the Tarot deck and the literary world. The contributors, including the likes of Kelly Link, Victor LaValle, and Kieron Gillen, paired specific books with specific cards, each one illustrating a deeper connection between the book’s themes and those of the card in question.
For the Five of Lights, Erin Morgenstern opted to pair it with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The project is now available via a Kickstarter campaign.
“We aren’t simply creating something beautiful and magical for our readers, we’re using the profits from this amazing deck to support a whole year of nonprofit programming,” said Dani Hedlund, CEO of Brink Literacy. “We know that stories have the power to change lives, and we’ll be using this funding to support diverse, emerging voices, teach literacy programs in the populations that need it most, and foster a love of literature worldwide!”
“I wish I could take credit for the Literary Tarot idea, but alas, the entire idea was an offhand comment from my partner,” Hedlund added. “Lots of tarot things had been brewing around us—we published our first story about tarot in F(r)iction, a friend of ours ran a successful tarot Kickstarter campaign, and we started talking about doing an entire issue themed around Arcana—so my partner ripped out a tarot deck I didn’t even know he had and gave me my very first reading.
“I was so impressed by the storytelling and creativity of the reading—l ikely aided by the numerous pints imbibed—and at its close, he put his shiny gold deck back and said, ‘You know, you should make a deck but with literary characters.’ Little did he know that I’d like the idea so much that it would take over the next six months of my life!”
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