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
Two Poems | Karthik Sethuraman
man in the land of Uz you don’t know the first thing about a crow where to trace its roots when to call the doctor in the summer what words...
Because A Sharp Girl Must Be A Changeling
And the men say put her over
the fire just to see, and the women
say bake her a cake in a thimble,
just to see
"Queen of Hearts" and "Libra Season"
Everyone
has a story about human greed and a flood. The Queen
licks the blood from her blade.
Winners of the 2018 Fairy Tale Review Awards in Poetry and Prose
As always, we were stunned by the high quality of the submissions we received, and so grateful to our esteemed final judges.
Homecoming
We were always trying to get her attention. ‘Your mother is busy,’ said our father. ‘She is an important woman.’
Three Enter the Dark Wood
It’s the one about the bears and their blonde:
In their many beds I left many cells,
called my multiple personalities down
‘D’ & ‘G’
D is for dragon and damsel, diamond and diadem. For deciduous woods, their dropping leaves.
In Which Hansel Is Gretel and Gretel Is Hansel
This hurts a lot, but it’s true. It is astral projection gone wrong.
Planting Petals
My sister puts petals back into the earth.
Winter Father Persimmon Sleep
as a child I couldn’t sleep
my parents tried ignoring me holding me
stroking fingers down my back
but still I cried into the winter nights
Meet the Editors! Part Two
This time, we’re bringing you a behind-the-scenes look at a smattering of our newer readers!
The Robe
Our father is a woodcutter driven to drink, and when he drinks he likes to talk.
Elegy for a Child Trapped Underground
After the failed attempt to crawl up and out
the long neck of the well, I tried telling
forty seven tarnished pennies about you
Monster, a Meaning
Monstrum: a sign, a portent,
From the Latin, monere: to warm, from
the root men to think.
Salamandrine, My Kid
The twittering machine lies in its crib, rehabilitating its connections.
