Broadstairs author Madeleine White has secured a three book deal.
US publishers Sea Crow Press have signed Madeleine up for Maiden, Mother, Crone, a memoir in verse exploring the spiritual feminine, which will be published in March 2025.
A second edition of her The Horse and the Girl, a series of 30 linked narrative poems, looking at issues such as relationships, climate change, growing older, life, death and change in general, is due to be published in January 2025 and a further anthology is scheduled for March 2026.
Maiden, Mother, Crone is a memoir in verse, challenging the traditional approach to faith by using Madeleine’s own stories. It takes the reader on a journey from ‘mother goddess’ to modern faith, taking its cues from the older, more matriarchal nature and Celtic and Nordic traditions.
Folklore and mythology
Madeleine said: “ To be able to bring the collection to life with Sea Crow Press, an award-winning, women-owned publishing house created to amplify voices, is a dream opportunity. I’m excited for Maiden Mother Crone to be out in the world!
“I’ve always been fascinated by folklore and mythology. Growing up in Germany, and discovering my Canadian roots in my twenties, I was keen to connect the identity of who I was to where I was. The more I looked, though, the more this seemed to slip away. Indeed, some of the darkest days came from getting lost in the impact early experiences had on my life. However, even the most damaged trees will grow towards the light…
“Part of my recovery, mentally, physically, and spiritually, has been based on the concept of service. By using my own experience, strength and hope and my identity as a writer to help others understand their own journey, I’ve tried to give back. Added to this, the idea of unity, coming together as a community, is critical. I’ve spent my life standing on the shoulders of my grandmothers and women like them! Resilient, strong, loving and ultimately there: willing to share their lives, their love and their own journeys to help me find my own way through.
“For me, though, none of these things are enough in and of themselves. For as long as I can remember, I’ve also been a spiritual seeker. From a catholic atheist childhood to a blazing moment of recognition around the power of the spiritual feminine when reading the Mists Of Avalon as a teen, to starting to seek solace in traditional faith when my life was falling apart some ten years later.”
Debut novel
Madeleine published her debut novel Mother of Floods in 2020. The book follows the tradition of writers such as Margaret Atwood – The Handmaiden’s Tale – and Paulo Coehlo -The Alchemist – exploring what it means to be human in the 21st century and how people develop cultural, spiritual and digital identities.
Mum-of-three Madeleine is a former freelance journalist whose first big article was for the Evening Standard in the 90s looking at how her family dealt with her father’s bi polar disorder. The article coincided with the release of the Robert de Niro film looking at the topic, Mr Jones.
The former Clarendon grammar student later turned to teaching and was the brains behind Oi! Magazine produced for and by young people and launched with Marlowe Academy. The magazine went national as So! in 2009. She later worked on Nina-Iraq.com magazine- launched with world bank – for women in Iraq.
The magazines were all platforms to give disenfranchised communities a voice.
Madeleine said: “My writing journey to this point has been part of the pattern. The ideas I’ve flagged, were initially presented in Mother Of Floods, my debut novel published by Crowsnest Books in 2020. Conceptualised in order to give some of the wonderful women I’d met in my work in international development a voice, it quickly developed into something wider and deeper.
“The Horse And The Girl was a transitional collection, in which I started understanding the power of nature through Lucie, a middle-aged mare who came into my life unexpectedly. The connecting force between me and her, translated into one between me and the natural world, a place I’d only had superficial access to up until then.
“Now in the spring of 2024, I can finally say I’m a writer, a creator of worlds. I believe everything I’ve been through has contributed to me being secure enough in this identity to invite others in to join me. I also know this invitation to my world is best issued through poetry, bringing people together who might share similar ideas. Indeed, poems, written in response by beta readers, gave rise to the idea of a Maiden Mother Crone Anthology. Based on collecting women’s experiences written in response to poems from this collection, and co-edited myself and Mary Petiet, it will be published in Spring 2026.”
