Author Event: Pam Grossman's "Magic Maker" with Mitch Horowitz

Creativity and magic are one and the same.

Creative people often speak of being channels for inspiration, while others refer to communing with their muse. For many, this is more than a mere metaphor, as artists throughout history have employed magical techniques to tap into their creativity, express powerful messages, and connect with the sacred. From the songwriting divination of David Bowie and the bewitching shapeshifting of Beyoncé, to the Ouija board poetry sessions of Sylvia Plath and the abstract painting séances of Hilma af Klint, to the manifestation method of Octavia E. Butler and the daily meditation of David Lynch, mystical practices have been responsible for generating some of the world’s most beloved creations.

While there are many books on creativity out there, none of them examines the specific ways that magic has been embraced by creative visionaries throughout history, nor do they explore how makers can start using these methods in their own creative processes.

Magic Maker is the first. In this book, critically acclaimed author of Waking the Witch Pam Grossman shares how you can use magic to enhance your own creative practices. Smart, captivating, and gorgeously written, Magic Maker is filled with stories of artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers, and other creatives throughout history who have applied magic to their process. Grossman shows us how we can tap into the same inspiration for our own creative pursuits, whether it’s writing a song, a novel, software code, or figuring out our path in life.

Pam Grossman is a writer, curator, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the host of the internationally beloved podcast, The Witch Wave and the author of Waking the Witch and What Is A Witch. She is also coeditor and coauthor of the Witchcraft volume of Taschen’s Library of Esoterica series. Her writing has appeared in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, TIME.com, and many more. She divides her time between Brooklyn and the Western Catskills alongside her husband and their two feline familiars.

Mitch Horowitz is a PEN Award-winning historian, former vice-president at Penguin Random House, TV host at Discovery/HBO Max, and one of today’s most literate voices of occultism, mysticism, and the unexplained. He has bylines in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Time, and The Wall Street Journal, and appearances in Sundance-premiering movies, popular TV docuseries, and award-winning documentaries, as well as on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, NPR’s All Things Considered, and other major media.

[ABOUT THIS EVENT: The rear half of the store will be used exclusively for this event. The front bar will be open to the public for drinking & chatting. Book browsing will be limited to a few display tables and shelves closest to the front of the store.]

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