Fairy Tale Review Archive
Once upon a time …
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
graverobber’s ballad
bifurcating like a heart would/night scatters into pieces/reassembled like a girl should/be I tug the laces/of my boots and hold the shadows
The Winners of the 2019 Flash Fairy Tale Contest
On February 26, 2019, we asked our Twitter followers to tell us the biggest and most beautiful stories they could within Twitter's longer, and more...
Diptych: The Bunch, Your Duck/Dog
One day, we came home from a walk in the woods and found something waiting for us. It wasn’t a this, or a that, or a they; it was a bunch.
Fairy-Tale Files: How Loneliness Hurts
Is loneliness worth it, then, if it sometimes leads to great works of art?”
Fairy-Tale Files: The Secret to Old Age is… Necromancy?
This tale about everybody having to die doesn’t set too well with me.
All the Princesses
In the anorexia ward, otherwise known as the Island of Sad Princessess, she was the youngest
Fairy-Tale Files: Cryptographer’s Delight
King of the uncharactered, the Voynich manuscript takes cipher sleuthing to velum-unraveling heights. Antiquarian Wilfred Voynich purchased it from...
Suddenly
Suddenly is canon in folklore the way it’s canon in truth: the world changes.
Fairy-Tale Files: The Practicality of a Gargoyle
The phrase “Gothic church umbrella” doesn’t convey grotesquery, yet this was the gargoyle’s original purpose, their spouted heads diverting...
Fairy-Tale Files: The Flies
Unlikely to star in a fairy tale anytime soon, flies nonetheless play a role in the Grimm Brothers’ “The Brave Little Tailor.” A breakfast...
Fairy-Tale Files: The Storytime Reptilian
No tour of fictional turtles is complete without mention of the Chinese Bixi
The Field
nothing moves
let white rush in
the eyes,
still
in the display
once
Call for Submissions: The Charcoal Issue
We have decided to dedicate The Charcoal Issue to fairy tales as forms of resistance and protest.
Special Report: The Enchanted Quill
Scruple convinces Gargamel to locate the quill, which is protected by fire-breathing griffins in Castle Quill
Our 2016 Pushcart Nominations
We're thrilled to announce our Pushcart Prize nominations, all from The Ochre Issue. Poetry: Christopher Citro, "We're Actually Fabulous" Laura...
