Claire Hero /
April 24, 2019
Genie in Pieces

About The Author

Claire Hero

Claire Hero is the author of the full-length poetry collection Sing, Mongrel and three chapbooks: afterpastures, winner of the 2008 Caketrain Chapbook competition, Cabinet, and Dollyland. Her poems and stories have appeared in such journals as Bennington Review, Black Candies, Black Warrior Review, Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, Denver Quarterly, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.

 


The world of fairy tales is a crystallization of our own—children are harmed, monsters are real—but it is also a world that allows for transformation. Paupers become kings, animals turn human, and the self need not be contained by the body’s rigidity or the finality of breath. A few years ago I began taking biology classes, and my childhood immersion in fairy tales allowed me to understand the wonder and strangeness of the biological world. With the story of Genie, combining science with fairy tales allowed me to imagine new possibilities for her.