Orpheus Rising is a sparkling immersion in adventures of great beauty, danger, and the unexpected, with a climax that will move anyone to a sense of joy. A daring retelling of the Orpheus legend in modern guise, Sam and his father, John, set off to rescue Sam's lost mother, Madelyn, from "The Far Land of Fear" and "Dread City", a startling, imaginative view of the afterlife. A fantasy set in terms of Sam's 10 going on 11 imagination, they are joined by Lepanto, a very wise Elephant who likes to dance, dressed in Edwardian elegance, through a series of adventures with a most unexpected ending.
Children will enjoy the sheer inventiveness of the story-telling, and adults the unexpected depths of Sam and his father's journey to the completion of
their hearts' desire... Lee is also a poet whose output has been called "visionary" "vibrant" "a voice beyond epoch" variously compared to Browning, Auden, and in its freedom, Neruda. A playwright too, he has brought characters to life as diverse as Rasputin and the last fox in Los Angeles... His texts of screenwriting and drama remain popular in their fields as well.
Lance Lee's selected poetry, Elemental Natures, appeared in the fall of 2020, capping 40 years of poetry publications. He is a past Creative Writing Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts. His work includes his poetry, works on screenwriting (A Poetics for Screenwriters), plays (Time's Up and Other Plays), novels (Second Chances), and various essays (in On The Waterfront, Cambridge Film Handbooks). As a dramatist has range of characters runs from the last fox in Los Angeles to Rasputin... An environmentalist, he was central in establishing the State Park system in the Santa Monica Mountains behind his home in the Los Angeles area. Half his family lives in North London where he and his wife routinely spend extended periods each year.
Ellen Raquel LeBow has illustrated among others Robert Finch's Special Places.... LeBow finds certain archetypal icons deeply compelling be they personal, ancient, or contemporary and draws what awes her. Much of the art in Orpheus Rising was made by carving through black India ink brushed over a board coated in white kaolin clay to expose the white clay. The lines are meant to give the illusion of drawing with light. She coordinates ART/MATENWA, a project that brings sustainability through art to women in Matènwa, Haiti. On the founding board of Wellfleet Preservation Hall, she splits her time between Wellfleet and Cambridge, MA with her long-time partner Seth Rolbein and their two goddaughters Hernitte Riviere and Woodmyha Rafa Lima.
