Tag: fairy tales

September 1, 2025

An Interview with Nathan Frechette About “Whispers Between Fairies”

I rarely talk about my own work on Speculating Canada, but because I had the opportunity to co-write Whispers Between Fairies (Renaissance Press) with the wonderful Nathan Frechette, I thought this would be a good space to highlight his work. Whispers Between Fairies was written in collaboration with Nathan Frechette. For this collection, each of us would rewrite a fairy...

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December 6, 2023

An Interview of Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman About Folklore and Fairy Tales

Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman are both doctors of folklore and they run the Carterhaugh School of Folklore, and online school for teaching folklore in an accessible way. In our interview, we explore the diversity of folklore and fairy tales, examining things like shadow tales, the role of food in fairy tales, disability, and get a Folklore and Fairy Tales...

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March 27, 2021

An Interview with Amanda Leduc

Spec Can: To begin our interview, could you tell folks a little bit about yourself? Amanda Leduc: Absolutely! I am A Canadian writer currently based in Hamilton Ontario. I’ve been an avid reader of spec fic for most of my life, and have a BFA in Creative Writing and Philosophy from the University of Victoria and a Masters degree in...

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March 5, 2021

Heroes and Gods

A review of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow (Del Rey, 2020) By Derek Newman-Stille Gods of Jade and Shadow is a discourse on the Hero’s Journey while it also serves to disrupt that cycle. Silvia Moreno-Garcia presents readers with a girl in a fairy tale circumstance, being used and abused by her family. But Cassiopeia doesn’t seek out...

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February 22, 2021

Primordial Futures

A review of Amanda Leduc’s The Centaur’s Wife By Derek Newman-Stille Heather and Tasha are both storytellers. Both weave tales for their own needs. When meteors fall and humanity is left starving and disoriented, Heather carries on her father’s tradition of telling fairy tales to create a more magical life while Tasha keeps telling others the bigger fairy tale –...

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October 28, 2020

Living Through Fairy Tales

A review of Nathan Frechette’s “Cinderfella” in Whispers Between Fairies (Renaissance, 2020) Nathan Frechette’s “Cinderfella” is a biotext, a story of Frechette’s own body and transition told through fairy tales. Frechette explores the way that fairy tales have shaped his life, from providing a world away from a harsh outside world when he was young to providing a text of...

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July 19, 2020

What Big Teeth You Have

A review of Cherie Dimaline’s Empire of Wild (Random House, 2019) By Derek Newman-Stille A fascinating blend of Red Ridinghood, werewolf fiction, Greek myth, and Rogarou legends of Metis people from the Georgian Bay area, Cherie Dimaline’s Empire of Wild weaves together monstrous wolves into a book that is partially horror story and partially a call for social change. Like...

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May 11, 2020

Second Speculating Canada Writing Workshop: Writing Fairy Tales

Sign up  for the  second of Speculating Canada’s writing workshop series taught by Trent University instructor Derek Newman-Stille, MA, PhD ABD. Our workshop series allows us connect and write together and maybe to collapse some of the social distance by coming together online as a community. This workshop is free. Date: Thursday, May 14 at 7:00 PM EST Location: Online on...

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October 19, 2019

Fan Fiction, Oral Narrative, and The Book

Fan Fiction, Oral Narrative, and The Book By Derek Newman-Stille Last night, at a panel on fan fiction at Can Con in Ottawa, I began thinking about fan fiction as something connected to oral narrative and our human history of storytelling. I connected fan fiction to my past research in Classical Greek Literature and thought about the relationship of fan...

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June 24, 2019

A Fantasy Trans Memoir

A Fantasy Trans Memoir A review of Kai Cheng Thom’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir (Metonymy Press, 2016). By Derek Newman-Stille Kai Cheng Thom decided to include the word “Memoir” in the title of her book Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir, yet she also cleverly weaves fantasy elements...

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