I write, teach, and make magic for all forms of justice and a regenerative world.
My bio:
BrightFlame (she/they) writes, teaches, and makes magic for a just, regenerating world. Her fiction appears in Solarpunk Magazine, Bioluminescent (Android Press, 2023), Solarpunk Creatures (WorldWeaver Press, 2024), and other publications. The Working, her debut solarpunk novel, launches summer 2024 (Water Dragon Publishing). Her globally acclaimed workshops foster interconnection and resilience, and help us expand our notion of what is possible. She co-founded the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University that features her workshops and nonfiction. She lives on unceded Lenape land (Turtle Island/US) with a human, a forest, a labyrinth, the Fey, hawks, bees, ponds, turtles, monarda, fox, fungi, rocks, and many other nonhumans. Musings, doodles, and more at https://brightflame.com
More:
My adult speculative novel, THE WORKING, will launch Summer 2024 from Water Dragon Publishing. It’s perfect for those who cry Yes! to feminist Witches and love the natural world. A modern coven must thwart a looming eco-cataclysm and find the key to the bright future we need.
THE WORKING is a contemporary version of Alix E. Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches intersecting N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became. In it, I embed my flavor of magic and activism, plus Ancestor wisdom. Readers hail THE WORKING for its diverse characters, justice notes, ecofeminism, and real Witchcraft.
My lunar- and solarpunk stories are featured in Bioluminescent (Android Press, 2023), Solarpunk Creatures (World Weaver Press, 2024), in Issue 6 of Solarpunk Magazine, and in Issue 5 of Optopia. Another is slated for a forthcoming solarpunk anthology.
I have a growing number of CliFi stories on submission, and plan to collect my solarpunk into a novella.
I write nonfiction for the Columbia University sustainability education center I’m affiliated with, for instance “Towards Solarpunk Futures.” My essay “Weaving Magic in the Mundane” is included in Honoring the Wild (February 2023).
Many of you have urged me to write nonfiction books collecting my magical teachings. For now I prefer fiction. But you can join me for a class or workshop.
Active and teaching in the worldwide Reclaiming Tradition for decades, my workshops with internationally acclaimed author Starhawk offer tools to shape our world. My recent Witchcamp teaching and workshops help us stay centered and resilient in these spinning times and widen our energy and effect on the world. I’ve offered versions of Storying a Bright Future to both magical and mainstream audiences, including for an international collaboration through Columbia University.
Solarpunk is a great description for how I move through life. It describes my writing and teaching. See my article to understand more about this movement, aesthetic, and genre.
Peruse my writing and class offerings for more about my work.
And then there’s play . . .
The ocean, the forest, the mountains and lakes: immersing myself in the green and blue of the Earth feeds me, inspires me, heals me.