Fairy Tale Review Archive
Browse submissions from past editions, web exclusive content, author Q&A, and more.
The practice of retelling fairy tales in the form of literary fiction is, if not quite hallowed, certainly established. The great Angela Carter’s revelatory 1979 story collection, “The Bloody Chamber” — a brocaded work of heady sensuality, intelligence and violence — remains the benchmark, but Kate Bernheimer’s Fairy Tale Review and the several excellent Bernheimer-edited anthologies spun off from it carry the standard forward. Those are just some of the more overt homages; Western literature owes as much to fairy tales as it does to Greek myth and the Bible.
-The New York Times
a disappearance beside the yatsushiro sea
Margaret Morri was the name Yoshikane Araki used when referring to an apparition who squeezed under the doorway or window mesh or rose between barrack floorboards to haunt the hot desert air above his straw mattress.
‘Covenant I’ & ‘Daphne’
the organ harvest is most/ delectable beneath fluorescent light/ rebelling against the heaving stars/
Sleeping Beauty’s Daughter
The day her husband died, Sleeping Beauty gave back to him the kiss he had bestowed upon her consentless lips sixty years before.
Fairy-Tale Files: Deceit
Little Red Riding HoodA girl, a grandmother and a conniving wolf. One of the earliest stories of deception we are introduced to as children, this...
Fairy-Tale Files: Kingdom, Phylum, Feral
The Stars & (Metamorphic) StripesAnimal transformation plays a role in many fairy tales, though “The Tiger’s Bride” by Angela Carter turns the...
Fairy-Tale Files: This One’s For the (Immortal) Kids
Eternal Revenue ServiceThe concept of an immortal child is synonymous with Peter Pan, who debuted in J.M. Barrie’s 1902 novel The Little White Bird....
Fairy-Tale Files: Ursa Inertia
East of the Sun, West of the MoonA peasant agrees to give his youngest daughter to a polar bear in exchange for wealth. All goes smoothly until the...
Fairy-Tale Files: Once Upon a Microchip
Yes Indeed, We Prefer the RobotIn “A Toy Princess,” a fairy tale from the 1877 collection On a Pincushion by English writer Mary de Morgan, an...
Fairy-Tale Files: On the Border
Folkloric HomecomingMichael Mejia's “Coyote Takes Us Home” is a contemporary fairy tale about a group of children traveling to the U.S.-Mexico...
Fairy-Tale Files: Organ Narratives…
The Three Army Surgeons The Brothers Grimm kick things off with this tale about a trio of surgeons gathered at an inn, trying to prove their...
Fairy-Tale Files: Elfology 101
Not Your Handmaiden’s YodaThe idea of an elf varies greatly across time and culture. Earliest descriptions are found throughout the Scandinavian...
Fairy-Tale Files: Gender Equality, Rising Through Time
Fa MulanAlso known as Hua Mulan, a legendary Chinese warrior from either the Northern Wei or Tang dynasty (accounts differ). The sixth century...
Fairy-Tale Files: Spader and a Haircut, Pandora to Wit
Edward ScissorhandsA cuticle-challenged Johnny Depp plays the incomplete project of an inventor whose death leaves Edward with blades for digits and...
Fairy-Tale Files: Bullying
The Ugly Duckling Bullied since the day he was hatched, Hans Christian Andersen’s titular character flees his barnyard abode to live among the wild...
Fairy-Tale Files: Rats and a Dark Chapter from Tucson’s Past
Victorian RatpourriWe’re a few months shy of National Rat Catcher’s Day, July 22, and 639 years past the Pied Piper’s hasty exit, per Robert...
