A Song from Over the Edge of the World
Song of the beauty singers
Come the darkness, come the dawn
beauty will go on, go on, beauty will go on…
—song of the beauty singers from Over the Edge of the World
No one knew who the beauty singers were, or they pretended not to. If a beauty singer was caught, she could be banished over the edge of the world. Yet in the darkest, coldest hour before the stars dimmed, certain women rose from their beds and threaded their way through the streets And as they walked they sang…
Music composed and performed by Ruth Cunningham.
Events & More
Elizabeth is available for interviews, events, and workshops online everywhere and in person in the New York State’s Hudson Valley, the Metropolitan New York area, Western Connecticut and Massachusetts.
For more information, please contact her through this website.
August 7, 2025 | 6:00pm
Blue Heron Books, High Falls, NY
Kristen-Holt Browning and Elizabeth Cunningham in lively conversation with each other. Kristen is a poet and novelist, author of Ordinary Devotion. Among other things, we will discuss our craft and our passion for women in history and fiction.
September 4, 2025 | 6:30pm
Oblong Books, Rhinebeck, NY
The official public, in-person launch of Over the Edge of the World, A Fairytale Novel. A signature mix of storytelling and reflection, question and answer. The Beauty Singers will also be there, singing for you—and with you!
October 5, 2025 | Sunday morning, time TBA
The Dreaming Goddess, Poughkeepsie, NY
You know we will have a magical time at The Dreaming Goddess, with ritual and maybe divination and for sure singing. The Elemental Grannies will be there!
Elizabeth Cunningham in Conversation
My Life As A Prayer
Interview with Paul Cohen, founder and CEO of Monkfish Book Publishing Company, moderated by Jon M Sweeney, Monkfish Religion editor
The Return of the Goddess
Interview with Nancy Yearout, Nancy’s Psychic View on The High Road to Humanity
The Wild Mother
interview with Barbara McHugh, hosted by Banyen Books and Sound, Vancouver, BC
Workshop
Our Lives As Prayer: “A prayer is one who prays”
A workshop with Elizabeth Cunningham, author of My Life as a Prayer: A Multifaith Memoir
A workshop for anyone who wonders what is prayer? For anyone who prays, who wants to pray, who needs prayer, who is a prayer
Through guided meditation and interactive reflection, we will explore our experiences of prayer, the many forms prayer can take: spoken, sung, silent, tactile, embodied, within a religious tradition and outside of one, as part of a group or in solitude. Together we will consider ways to create a daily prayer practice or to refresh an existing one. We will complete our time with our own prayer circle.
Elizabeth Cunningham is an ordained interfaith minister and pastoral counselor. She is also the direct descendant of generations of Episcopal priests. A lifelong novelist, she is best known for The Maeve Chronicles, a series of award-winning novels featuring a Celtic Magdalen. My Life as a Prayer is her nonfiction debut. Her workshop “Our Lives as Prayer” is designed to share her work in a community context.
If you are interested in hosting “Our Lives as Prayer” please contact Elizabeth through this website for information about timeframe, honorarium and any other questions you might have.
“My Life as a Prayer is a wise and careful religious memoir written by a sympathetic contemporary religious seeker—a prayerful touch point amid a world of difficulties.”
—Foreword Reviews
“This is a memoir for anyone who wrestles with the sacred or divine. Cunningham prompts the reader to think for themselves. She practices prayer, listening, and wonder.”
—Spirituality & Practice
“Anything that breaks our isolation is prayer. Connection is prayer.”
—from My Life as a Prayer