Something very strange is happening to the ring of stone lions at the center of the Alhambra, lions that have refused to spit water for five hundred years, until suddenly one of the lions is gushing every evening. Ring of Lions explores the power of memories, rooted in history and belief, as mysteries around the last Moorish kings of Spain become entangled with a series of recent deaths at the Alhambra, castle of the last Emir of Granada. The novel takes readers across timelines and through folktales as it is told by characters of several generations whose cultural, religious and scholarly motives have drawn them to southern Spain and the Courtyard of the Lions.

Cass Dalglish digs deeply as she brings historical characters and mythological figures to life in her fiction and poetry, from her quest for the earliest of women writers (Nin), to her jazz poetry rendition of Enheduanna’s ancient Iraqi pictographs (Humming the Blues), to Ring of Lions, a contemporary tale set in Spain’s Alhambra Palace, the castle of the last Emir.

As a professor of English at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Cass was lead designer and first director of Augsburg’s MFA in Creative Writing. She studied and lived in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Cuba, and traveled to Andalucía to research Ring of Lions. She lives in Minneapolis, where she worked early in her career as a broadcast journalist.

Cass holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a PhD in Writing with a concentration in Ancient Women’s Literature from the Union Institute & University. Her curiosity has also led her to the study of languages, mythology, and energy practice.

Jack El-Hai writes nonfiction books, longform narratives, podcasts, and the free monthly Damn History newsletter for writers and readers of popular history. He covers medicine, history, science, and crime.

His book Face in the Mirror is a 2025 title, published by Mayo Clinic Press. Among his other books are The Nazi and the Psychiatrist and The Lobotomist. His articles have appeared in Smithsonian, The Atlantic, GQ, Wired, Scientific American, The Washington Post Magazine, and many other publications.

Jack is a past president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and a past board chair of the Loft Literary Center. He lives in Minneapolis.