Tag: gender

June 21, 2024

An Interview with Clare Wall

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to bring Dr. Clare Wall’s voice to readers in an interview. Clare is a literary scholar and science fiction expert, focussing on climate fiction, apocalyptic fiction, and posthumanism. Dr. Clare Wall (she/her) is a contract professor in the Department of Humanities at York University in Toronto, Canada. She holds a PhD from York University in English Literature. Her research...

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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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May 24, 2021

Belonging Takes Place Beneath the Surface

Belonging Takes Place Beneath the Surface A review of Karleen Pendleton-Jimenez’ The Street Belongs To Us (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021) By Derek Newman-Stille America is a thin veneer over a much more complex world, and in 1984 when Muscatel Avenue is torn up there are new possibilities and potentials in the mud. In The Street Belongs to Us, Karleen Pendleton...

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May 20, 2020

An Experiment in Gender

A review of James Alan Gardner’s Commitment Hour (Eos, 1998) By Derek Newman-Stille I was originally trained as an anthropologist (for my Bachelor’s Degree and my Master’s Degree), so I always find books that explore the notion of anthropological researchers fascinating. James Alan Gardner’s Commitment Hour centres on a story of a scientist and his assistant visiting a small town...

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April 10, 2020

An Interview with Dr. Kelly McGuire About Pandemic and Outbreak Narratives

In light of the current COVID 19 pandemic, I wanted to interview Dr. Kelly McGuire, a professor and chair of the Women and Gender Studies Department at Trent University who has taught courses on epidemic and outbreak narratives and who researches medical history among her many research interests.  Interviewer: Derek Newman-Stille   Spec Can: Could you tell us a little...

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December 31, 2018

A Gingerbread House Waiting For An Old Lady

A Gingerbread House Waiting For An Old Lady A review of Kate Heartfield’s “Path Of White Stones” in Over The Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales From The Margins (Exile, 2018) By Derek Newman-Stille We like to assume that we own our houses – that we select them and buy them and that they become ours… but don’t we also become...

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December 24, 2018

Woke Beauty

Woke Beauty A review of Nicole Lavigne’s “Fairest Find” in “Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales From The Margins” (Exile, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille Nicole Lavigne tells a tale of a prince who measured his life by the fairy tales he was  told as children and finds himself confused when he encounters the complexities of life outside of story...

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December 22, 2018

Planted

Planted A review of Richard Keelan’s “The Waltzing Tree” in Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales From The Margins” (Exile, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille Richard Keelan’s “The Waltzing Tree” is a suburban fairy tale about loneliness and transformation. It is a tale about overcoming the distance that traditional modes of masculinity place between our bodies and the fear of...

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December 4, 2018

Skin Deep

Skin Deep A review of Nathan Caro Frechette’s “Skin” in Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales from the Margins (2018, Exile) By Derek Newman-Stille Selkies are creatures from Scottish folklore (but also noted in the Orkneys and Shetlands) who are capable of transforming from seal to human by shedding their skin. In many selkie tales, female selkies are stolen...

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October 8, 2018

Magical Autobio

Magical Autobio A review of Ronnie Ritchie’s “Star Kid” in We’re Still Here: An All Trans Comic Anthology (Stacked Deck Press, 2018) By Derek Newman-Stille In the comic “Star Kid”, Ronnie Ritchie intertwines autobiography and ideas of magic. They use ideas of astology to understand themself, sharing their early fascination with sun and moon symbolism and the relationship between these...

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