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Born March 25, 1961 in Coventry England, and now living near the ancient City of Ephesus in Turkey, Stephen Mangan (also known as kwaw, Koy Deli and SteveM in the Tarot world) has had an active internet presence since the 1990s.
Since c.2002 he has been a regular participant in discussions of the tarot’s history and iconography in some of the most popular forums dedicated to the subject such as at alt.tarot, then at TarotL and LTarot, the Tarot History Forum of Aeclectic, Tradition des Tarots de Marseille and the Tarot History Forum. He's also a contributor to Tarotpedia and in the past has often contributed background information during the preparation of articles at Trionfi.com on the base of his extended readings, especially in poetic and iconographic topics.
Stephen has a specific interest in poetry: "I have always been an avid consumer of poetry, and have returned in the last couple of years to my youthful interest in the writing of poetry. The re-awakening of my interest in writing poetry has also changed the focus of my interest in the tarot, and I tend to view it as an invention of a poet, akin to a Fernando de la Torre or a Matteo Maria Boiardo, and as representing a poetic narrative. I am not stating that as a historical statement, but rather as a way I choose to look at the tarot and developing it in a particular way for the moment. Consequently, I tend to view its figures as representing the common themes, tropes and motifs popular among poets of the period. Naturally, I have become more interested in its role in tarocchi appropriati and as a sort of poetry gaming device. My focus is less on its history than on its potential as both a subject for poetry and as creative tool, a sort of narrative machine in which my interest in history and iconography remains an important part, albeit an incidental one."
Most recently Stephen has been focussed on researching the figures, themes and emblematic and ritual symbolism of the Sola-Busca tarot, some of which for example may be seen in his contributions to a discussion of the "Sola Busca Riddles'' on the Tarot History Forum :
http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1041
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