Tag: fairy tales

December 20, 2017

La Befana

Here is a holiday story for you this December. Renaissance Press is creating a tour of different websites where authors can showcase their fiction and they invited me to participate and share a short story with readers.   This post is part of the Renaissance Holiday Blog Roll. Find out what it’s all about here and check out some other...

Categories Fiction Comments: 0

October 11, 2017

Slavic Myths and Human Monsters

A review of David Demchuk’s The Bone Mother (ChiZine, 2017) By Derek Newman-Stille David Demchuk’s The Bone Mother brings together snippets of strange lives into a tale that hints at connections between these individual stories and provides shadows of a larger narrative tying them together. Each of Demchuk’s tales ties in with a snapshot shown at the beginning of the...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comment: 1

July 9, 2016

Tales of Her Own

Tales of Her Own A review of Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins (Joanna Cotler Books, 1997). By Derek Newman-Stille In Kissing the Witch, Emma Donoghue casts a web around traditional fairy tales, drawing them together into one narrative thread by having a character from each tale introduce the next tale as her own. Characters both...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

June 17, 2016

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 67: A Discussion of Sandra Kasturi’s The Animal Bridegroom

In this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio, I explore the folkloric poetry of Sandra Kasturi’s collection The Animal Bridegroom. I explore Kasturi’s poetic re-imagining of several fairy tales and the power of the spoken word. You can listen to this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio at the link below. This audio file was originally broadcast on...

Categories On Air Comments: 0

June 8, 2016

Goosed Into The Truth

Goosed Into The Truth A review of Tim Wynne-Jones’ “The Goose Girl” in Black Thorn, White Rose Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Prime Books: 1994 By Derek Newman-Stille Tim Wynne-Jones’ “The Goose Girl” is a re-telling of the Grimm Brothers’ tale of the same name, but it is also a discussion of the nature of re-tellings and of...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comment: 1

June 4, 2016

Do Emperors Dream of Electronic Nightingales?

Do Emperors Dream of Electronic Nightingales? A review of Michelle West’s ‘The Nightingale’ in Once Upon a Galaxy Edited by Wil McCarthy, Martin H. Greenberg, and John Helfers (Daw, 2002). By Derek Newman-Stille Michelle Sagara West (here writing as Michelle West) takes Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Nightingale” from once upon a time into the (un)Happily Ever After, transforming myth into...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comment: 1

May 27, 2016

Home is Where the Chicken Legs Are

Home is Where the Chicken Legs Are A review of Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll’s Baba Yaga’s Assistant (Candlewick Press, 2015) By Derek Newman-Stille Masha’s tale begins with stories from her grandmother about the witch Baba Yaga. Her grandmother was once kidnapped by Baba Yaga and had to outwit the witch in order to gain her freedom. Masha, delighted by...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

April 15, 2016

Fairy Tales Estranged

Fairy Tales Estranged A review of Sandra Kasturi’s “The Animal Bridegroom” (Tightrope Books). By Derek Newman-Stille    “The Animal Bridegroom” leaves a breadcrumb trail of poems to bring the reader through cultural myths and legends to a place of self-reflection. Sandra Kasturi uses fairy tale themes to open a pathway into the deep woods of myth, where she explores the changeable...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

March 27, 2016

What Makes Fairy Tales So Brilliant?

What Makes Fairy Tales So Brilliant? By Derek Newman-Stille Fairy tales always exist in multiplicity, in versions. There is never one TRUE version, but rather a fluid polyphonic group with multiple voices sharing different takes on the same tale. Fairy tales possess the magic of changeability. Born in oral narratives, they have the power to shift and change with each...

Categories Editorials Comments: 0

March 24, 2016

Quote – Wolves and Indigestion

“The way through the forest is walked by shapeshifters and wolves who suffer from indigestion, having eaten too many grandmothers.” -Sandra Kasturi – Chaos Theory (in The Animal Bridegroom)

Categories Quotes Comments: 0