"Galahad and the Grail," the debut volume in renowned British poet and priest Malcolm Guite's highly anticipated new series, "Merlin's Isle: An Arthuriad," is now available. The best-selling Rabbit Room Press title released April 20 to widespread acclaim.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 4, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- "Galahad and the Grail," the debut volume in renowned British poet and priest Malcolm Guite's highly anticipated new series, "Merlin's Isle: An Arthuriad," is now available from Nashville-based Rabbit Room Press. Since its April 20 release, the title has regularly topped multiple Amazon charts, including "Best Sellers in Poetry," "Best Sellers in Religious Poetry," "Best Sellers in Epic Poetry," and "Best Sellers in British & Irish Poetry."
Arriving to high praise from critics and fans alike, Daniel Nayeri, author of the National Book Award-winning title "Everything Sad Is Untrue," lauds Guite's "Galahad and the Grail" as "…a magnum opus in the making," while London's "The Times" says, "...that his book exists is a glorious miracle all of its own," and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams calls the work "vigorous and fresh…whets the appetite for much more."
Hallmarked by Guite's profound insights on courage, honor, and the spiritual journey, "Galahad and the Grail" tells of the legendary quest for the Holy Grail as reimagined through the eyes of the virtuous knight Galahad. The story is further enhanced by more than 25 exclusive illustrations from award-winning South Carolina-based artist Stephen Crotts.
Making history as the first multi-volume epic poem retelling of Arthurian legend since Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" in 1859, the "Merlin's Isle" series represents a true new classic of English literature, honoring the traditional ballad form while speaking with fresh vitality to modern readers.
"I have loved these stories since I was a child and I heard them from my mother who was a great storyteller herself but also had extensive knowledge of the medieval sources, especially the great gathering of those stories and their rendering into Middle English by Sir Thomas Malory in the 15th century," Guite says. "So, the version that first moved me was not some sanitized Hollywood version, but the real thing, haunting, numinous, continuously suggestive of the holy and beautiful reality of God and His saints and angels shimmering through the fabric of the stories of the knights with all their aspirations and all their human flaws."
"Malcolm Guite's fluency with the poetic traditions and stories of the past, along with his theological bent for illuminating the deep mysteries of faith, and his rare gift of making poetry approachable for the modern reader, have all endeared him to us as a kindred spirit and a fellow traveler," states Rabbit Room Press publisher Pete Peterson. "Despite its daunting scope, the four-volume 'Merlin's Isle' is an epic poem not constrained to the shelves of academia but bound as well for the young reader enraptured by tales of chivalric deed, or the light reader in search of the lyrical, or even the family reading aloud at day's end."
"Galahad and the Grail's" immediate resonance fuels anticipation for "The Coming of Arthur," the second volume in the series. The latter title will be available November 2 from Rabbit Room Press.
ABOUT MALCOLM GUITE
Malcolm Guite is a poet following the tradition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and George Herbert, a priest in the tradition of Lancelot Andrewes, and a scholar and literary critic in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. A Girton College Fellow at Cambridge University, Guite lectures widely in the United Kingdom and North America on theology and literature and is the author of several works of nonfiction and poetry, including "Sounding the Seasons: 70 Sonnets for the Christian Year" (Canterbury Press), which is now in its 10th printing, as well as "The Singing Bowl: Collected Poems" (Canterbury Press 2013), "Parable and Paradox" (Canterbury Press 2016), "Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge" (Hodder 2017), "After Prayer" (Canterbury Press 2019), "The Word Within the Words" (DLT 2021) and "Lifting the Veil" (Square Halo 2021).
ABOUT THE RABBIT ROOM AND RABBIT ROOM PRESS
Conceived in 2007 as an experiment in creative community, The Rabbit Room put down roots in a 150-year-old farmhouse in Nashville, Tennessee. The community's creative ventures now feature a podcast network, bookstore, Rabbit Room Press, and live events including the annual Hutchmoot conference.
Rabbit Room Press publishes works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that embody the mission of The Rabbit Room—cultivating stories that nourish Christ-centered communities for the life of the world. The boutique publishing house endeavors to create books that are beautiful both inside and out, titles not limited to any specific genre or market, but which adhere to a basic belief in the value of creative writing and storytelling.
For further information:
Media Contact
Emily Kohl, Turning Point Media Relations, 1 615-812-3469, [email protected], https://turningpointpr.com/
SOURCE Turning Point Media Relations
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