About Inanna Arthen

Inanna Arthen began studying vampire literature and folklore in the 1960s, when she persuaded a reluctant librarian to allow her to borrow Montague Summers' The Vampire in Europe and an unabridged copy of Dracula from the adult stacks. In the years since then she has amassed a collection of non-fiction and scholarly material in the field of vampirology that includes academic monographs and unpublished doctoral dissertations along with more popular works.

In 1987, the editor of FireHeart magazine asked Inanna to write an article about her researches into vampires as an occult phenomenon. The article, "Real Vampires," was published in issue #2 of FireHeart, but found a global audience when it was first placed online in early 1997. In August of 1997, Inanna responded to the sensation her article caused by creating the website By Light Unseen. Now one of the best-known and most visited websites for those interested in vampire folklore, fiction and fact, By Light Unseen incorporates an archive of rare non-fiction articles and an online bookstore with nearly seven hundred titles.

Inanna is a trained actor and public speaker, and considers herself a story-teller as much as a writer. As a child, she entertained her friends by telling long improvisational tales spun out of thin air, and she covered the backs of her school worksheets with drawings of the fantasy creatures she created with her best friend. She began putting fiction onto paper in her teens, but art and performance always tied into her writing. For Inanna, language has to sing and fiction has to "play." Even her academic articles are written to be read aloud.

Inanna brings a lifetime of highly varied and colorful experience to her fiction. An initiated Pagan priestess, she holds a Masters of Divinity degree from Harvard University and has facilitated several small Pagan working groups. She regularly designs and leads services for Unitarian-Universalist churches. A trained psychic and professional Tarot reader, Inanna has taught classes in psychic development, meditation and "practical magick working," and has extensive knowledge and experience of every branch of paranormal phenomena. She worked for ten years in a battered women's shelter and has been trained in domestic abuse, substance abuse and mental health counseling. She is a member of Broad Universe and New England Horror Writers.

Born in Vermont, Inanna has been a resident of Massachusetts since 1971. She loves New England fervently and never plans to leave, even if the glaciers return. She lives in Pepperell, Massachusetts with four cats and a disgraceful number of books.