About
K. A. Laity is the award-winning author of How to Be Dull, White Rabbit, Dream Book, A Cut-Throat Business, Lush Situation, Owl Stretching, Unquiet Dreams, Chastity Flame, and Pelzmantel, as well as editor of Respectable Horror, Weird Noir, Noir Carnival and Drag Noir. She also writes historical fiction as Kit Marlowe and crime as Graham Wynd. Her bibliography is chock full of short stories, humor, plays and essays, both scholarly and popular. As a 2011-2012 Fulbright Fellow in Galway, Ireland she worked in digital humanities at NUIG. Dr. Laity teaches medieval literature, film, gender studies, digital humanities and popular culture at the College of Saint Rose, where she is also the director of the Digital Humanities Initiative. She divides her time between New York and Scotland. Education
PhD University of Connecticut 2003 (Medieval Studies); MA University of Connecticut 1995 (Medieval Studies); AM University of Southern California 1985 (International Relations); AB Michigan State University 1983 (James Madison College – International Relations) Publications
‘Wearing My Last Skin: Ritual in Leonora Carrington’s “My Mother is a Cow”.’ The Enquiring Eye 4, Museum of Witchcraft & Magic, forthcoming 2022.
“Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know: The Celtic Fairy Realm in Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.” The Celtic Obsession in Modern Fantasy. eds. Dimitra Fimi and Alistair Sims. forthcoming 2022.
‘Spoiling all the Paintwork: Mark E. Smith, Art Renegade.’ Always Different, Always The Same: ed. Eoin Deveraux, forthcoming 2022.
‘The Hermeneutics of Noise: The Sounds of Salvation in Russell’s Tommy.’ The Films of Ken Russell. ed. Matt Melia. forthcoming 2022.
‘Stalking the Stalker: Jamie Thraves Adapting Patricia Highsmith’s Cry of the Owl.’ Film International 19.3 (23 Feb 2022): 49-53.
“Not Entirely Flattering: Revealing Mr Simonelli’s Fairy Nature.” Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural 6 (2 Mar 2021): 47-57.
‘Stranger Dangers: Sexuality, Adolescence & The End of Everything.’ Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon: 16 Feb 2021.
Projects
Currently working on Rauf Coilyear (older Scots Charlemagne romance) and on the lookout for any interesting medieval references to colliers; also working on the fiction of Leonora Carrington as well as the porous border between gothic and noir. Upcoming Talks and Conferences
Tarot Noir: William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley: online talk 2 Mar 2023 via the Victor Wynd Museum/Last Tuesday Society
Detective Instinct: Duelling Amateur Sleuths in Crimson Peak: Captivating Criminality, 2-5 Mar 23 Memberships
Societas Magica; Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship; Popular Culture Association
