An Interview with John Pistelli

“Major Arcana” is an expansive novel anchored by two protagonists a generation apart: Simon Magnus, a once-famous comic book writer whose disturbing and transcendent work led him to a position as a permanent adjunct professor; and Ash del Greco, one of his students, an online occultist with a spiral-scarred face and a conviction “that the human mind is superior to the totality of the real.” Written by John Pistelli, a professor (most recently at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities), literary blogger and novelist, “Major Arcana” was originally serialized on Pistelli’s Substack in weekly installments released over eleven months.