Author: Nicholas Kotar

Hi! I'm Nicholas Kotar, and I write epic fantasy inspired by Russian fairy tales. As I've been doing research for my novels, I've found a lot of edifying and interesting articles in Russian about Russian history, culture, fairy tales, and traditions. None of them are available in English. What astounded me was how applicable so much of it was to our own day. The stories I found illuminate a lost past where Orthodoxy, history, and culture were all one and the same. In our own time of inner and outer fracturing, these people, events, and stories inspire us to think, act, and live differently--more in tune with our age-old faith, and less pandering to the demands of the fickle world. Plus, a lot of the stories I find are just plain fun and entertaining.

The Frog Princess: Talking Animals and Primordial Desires

· Nicholas Kotar
In case you haven’t heard, I have a new podcast with Ancient Faith Radio. I’m including part of the most recent episode for your reading pleasure here below. Enjoy! The Frog Princess: Talking Animals and Primordial Desires In my new podcast, I’ve talked much about Tolkien’s view of fairy tales. And so, you might not be so shocked to hear that I’m going to quote him again, even if in a slightly…

Forming the Moral Imagination with Fairy Tales

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I recently received a wonderful question from one of the listeners of my new podcast. I include it here, because it gets at the heart of what I’m trying to show you by retelling you these stories. For reference, here is the episode where I tell the story of Finist.   Here’s the question: Regarding the pattern at the end [of Finist], where the beautiful girl has endured much hardship, she manages…

The Kingfisher as a Symbol for Culture Creation in Crisis

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Isn’t this photo of a kingfisher one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen? It won an audience award a few years ago. For obvious reasons. I was mesmerized by it at the time, because it was such an unlikely photo. That perfect shot, with such perfect clarity. Had to be touched up, right? No. Turns out it was just 5,000 attempts at perfection. (There’s a lesson in there somewhere, I…

Culture During a Time of Quarantine: a Lecture for the Ancient Faith Speaker Series

· Nicholas Kotar
Recently I had the pleasure of being one of the featured speakers for the Ancient Faith Speaker Series, offered by the St. Raphael School. It was going to be essentially the same lecture I gave at AFCon last year, but that changed as soon as the world went crazy. So although the bones of the lecture are similar to my lecture on How to Create Christian Culture, it became mostly all about…

Creating Culture Deliberately with the Sheehans

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I was joyfully surprised to see my friends talk to each other about my favorite topic this past week. Now, as we slowly prepare to go back into the world ,now is the best time to think about how to consciously create culture and communities. And so, without further ado, the Sheehans speak with Jonathan Pageau about culture creation! Please share this post with as many people as possible! It’s time to…

Resilience in a Time of Pandemic

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I’m sure you’ve heard the word much these days: resilience. A catch word, of sorts. But what does it mean, practically speaking? And how do we become better at it? Last week, I had a wonderful conversation with Fulbright Scholar and psychology student Liza Kotar (who also happens to be my cousin). She is currently in Moscow practicing resilience in very real ways. Our conversation was wide-ranging and I found it challenging…

Being in Communion: Time to Remember the One Thing Needful

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Staying positive in this crisis can be difficult. Not because there is a paucity of good in the world. No, there are many who are astounding me with their creativity and their ability to make a good thing out of a tragedy. What worries me is how many Christians seem content with quarantine-worship at home, as though it were enough. Add to that some very odd assertions about the Church being merely…

Being in Communion: What Are you Afraid Of?

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I have the great pleasure of welcoming author Laura E. Wolfe, who wrote a wonderful guest post about fear and the coronavirus. Here is Laura, in her own words: Laura E. Wolfe is the author of Sasha and the Dragon (2017) and the forthcoming novella Gerasim (2020), both from Ancient Faith Publishing.  She’s using the current social distancing suggestions to catch up on her TBR bookcase, play more board games with her…

Being in Communion: Come and Navigate the Sea of Story with Me!

· Nicholas Kotar
Have you ever had the surreal experience of realizing you’re inside someone else’s breakthrough moment? When you’re seeing the lightbulb go off, or someone come to terms with their past, all right in front of your eyes? As though Oprah herself had suddenly come into the room and given everyone free stuff. Well, I had an experience like that recently. I was at a writer’s workshop. One of the writers there was…

Being in Communion: How to Create Culture during Coronavirus, part 1

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How are you all feeling? I’ve gone through the gamut of freaked out to cautiously optimistic to excited. Most of the time, I feel encouraged by much of what I see and I feel the profound rightness of this happening at this moment. Yes, there is much that is frightening and painful. But there is much more that is good, I’m convinced of it. As a friend of mine and priest said…