Witch: An Anthology

by Michelle Tea (Editor)

An exploration of the Witch, as radical archetype, in ancient and contemporary life.

An adult woman haunted by her childhood muses on the foster system, institutions, and the medieval tale of a girl given to a witch. A genderqueer Brooklynite learns of their past life as a murdered sorceress. An uptight participant at a Northern California witch camp finds community in the kitchen. A professor uses magic to help students under attack by right-wing politicians.

In this collection of manifesto, poetry, playscripts, and prose, the archetype of the Witch is honored and unpacked, poked and prodded, owned and othered. From work centered in antiquity to writing which illustrates how primordial occult energies continue to enliven our world today, WITCH: Anthology lays bare a wilderness of myth, magic, trickery, and power swarming beneath the surface of contemporary life.

With work from CAConrad, Edgar Fabián Frías, Amanda Yates Garcia, Ashley Ray, Brooke Palmieri, Yumi Sakugawa, Kai Cheng Thom, Ariel Gore, Myriam Gurba, Fariha Róisín, and many others.

Genres: Anthologies, Short Stories, Horror

Paperback

About the author

Michelle Tea (born Michelle Tomasik) is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, prostitution, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachusetts and currently lives in San Francisco. Her books, mostly memoirs, are known for their views into the queercore community. In 2012 Tea partnered with City Lights Publishers to form the Sister Spit imprint.

Reviews

[Hayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly the most successful thing for me was the amazing cover.
I was hoping for lots of fiction pieces and sadly a lot of it was more spiritual non-fiction which just left me cold.

[Alice Bates · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this book was super enlightening, but other bits were really quite dull to me.

I suppose the purpose of an Anthology is that it is a collection of things and, like all collected things, not everyone is going to like all of it.

I definitely think that this is a “take what you need and leave what you don’t want” kind of book.

I was expecting a lot more non-fiction work, but nevertheless some of the stories were interesting enough and also bookmarked a few things to go back to and read again.

🌿🌿🌿

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

The curse of the anthology strikes again!!!!!

[Marlou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this a couple of weeks ago, i <3 witches

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was disappointing and I quickly skimmed most of the entries. But that was my own fault not the anthology. I had thought it was going to be queer horror stories but it was instead lots of essays on individual people's practices. The one I found the most interesting was about discovering queer magic in the 70s and how that influenced practice today. Please don't let my review put you off if you are a modern witch you'll probably love this. Just not for me.

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good stories. A bit of a pick-and-mix situation with a few really interesting and thought-provoking stories. It just left me wanting to look up the writing of a few of them and then skip the rest. I might come back for particular stories.

[Elysia Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

i would actually give it a 3.5 if i could figure out how to do that.

my hyper fixation with witches continues, i love magic and this book was so cool.

also yay relatively short chapters, my attention span loves you guys !

[B Pod · Rating 4 out of 5]

some pieces really spoke to me, some didn't... the more books rooted in queer magic the better