by Karen Joy Fowler The stories in Castles and Dragons are full of magical incidents. Terrible things may happen before the happy ending, but there are limits to how terrible. Good people get their reward, so do bad people. The stories are much softer than Grimm and Andersen.It was many, many years before I was […]
by Ari Berk I am living in Devon, England at the moment, in a medieval barn on the edge of the Dartmoor. In the small of hours of the night, in such a house, the mind rambles backwards and forwards in time, imagining the daily routines, the days and nights, the bread and butter, of […]
by Kim Antieau In many cultures, the prescription for chronic illness was a stay in the country (not necessarily the wild country). In ancient Greece, the chronically ill went to Asklepian Temples for relief. The priests created tenemos — sacred space — for the patient to help facilitate healing. The ill went to the temples […]
by Catherynne M. Valente III: The Sons of Veles I woke when the sea soaked my feet through. Not all at once — Caorle was as wet as Venice had been, when the salt–foam came laughing against the church–steps. When the water brushed my calves, my eyes slid open in the dim light of my […]
by Terri Windling Charles Dickens once stated that Little Red Riding Hood was his first love, and if only he could have married her, he would have known perfect bliss. For me and for other women I know, our hearts were won by Peter Pan — that charming, exasperating rascal of a boy, killer of […]
by Terri Windling Contemporary poets have also looked at the tale through the eyes of its different characters, finding in the story’s themes issues relevant to our lives today. Carolyn Williams–Noren gives voice to the least sympathetic character in the story in "Rapunzel’s Mother": I can’t explain why I wanted that simplething so much: dark […]
by Terri Windling "In the mid–path of my life, I woke to find myself in a dark wood," writes Dante, in The Divine Comedy, beginning a quest that will lead to transformation and redemption. A journey through the dark of the woods is a motif common to fairy tales:young heroes set off through the perilous […]
by Kim Antieau I think in stories. I may even feel in stories. I have done so as long as I can remember. When I became chronically ill, I looked for answers in stories. I wrote them, and I read them. The story I came back to again and again was the fairy tale "Silver […]
by Ellen Steiber About a week later at three A.M. on Sunday morning, Patrick wakes me up. "The police are downstairs," he says. "They need to ask you about Nonie." I get up, my heart locked with dread. This is it, I think. She’s gone. And she is. The police are responding to a call […]
Arthur Rackham illustration for Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens Barrie obliged his parents by completing his degree, but returned home still determined to be a writer, landing a job with the Nottingham Journal and sending submissions off to the London papers. The St. James Gazette began to publish Barrie’s stories of Scotland in his mother’s […]