Timeless Tales Announces 3 Rapid-Fire Poetry Submission Windows

Devoted readers of Timeless Tales Magazine may know that we've only been accepting poetry since 2016. While poetry may not have the same mainstream readership of fiction, I've always felt that a truly great poem offers the same depth and complexity of a short story, but in a more compact vessel. Writers are born loving words and therefore, it takes so much discipline for an author to restrain their ever-flowing thoughts into such a tiny package. Once we started publishing poetry, I can't help but feel like it's a gap in our older issues.

I've also found times when an idea for a retelling has occurred to me, but none of the stories I receive  fit into that particular gap. I think, "Wow, I wish someone would send me a Puss & Boots retelling about a tiger!", but none magically appear in my inbox. I usually just shrug it off and move on. Until now.

We're trying something new this year. A normal full-size issue usually takes over 4 months to release (hence why we've never managed more than two a year!). So instead of a brand new issue this Spring, we are going to revisit our old themes and add one poem to each. And I'll even give some hints about what I'm hoping to read and what writers should avoid.

NOTE: If you have a great poem retelling that doesn't fit my hints, that's totally fine. As long as you're thinking outside the box, I can't wait to read it. But for goodness sake, please read through the original issue before you submit to make sure you're not repeating an idea we've already published. It could really save you time (or might inspire you with a new idea).

These submission windows will come and go fast, so don't blink or else you might miss them!

To submit, please read our submission guidelines. We will follow all the usual guidelines, but we will only be accepting ONE poem (okay, maaaaaybe two) per theme. Here are the deadlines:

• Puss in Boots: Deadline EXTENDED to March 4

• Hints: 1. I'd love to see a retelling where Puss isn't a house cat. Lions, leopards, griffins, and sphinxes are all encouraged. 2. Something that focuses on the often overlooked ogre encounter would be great. 3. A crossover with the Count of Monte Cristo (just because I think "The Cat of Monte Cristo" would be a fun title). 4. A crossover with The Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz . 

• Pandora's Box: April 14-19

• Hints: The seven deadly sins concept already has a story in this issue, so unlikely to publish a poem with that angle. I'm kind of surprised we didn't have more submissions about the biblical counterpart to this myth (Adam and Eve), so you could try that as a potential twist. No promises I'll love it, but it's an idea. Oh, or what about the box being a volcano?

• Twelve Dancing Princesses: June 9-14

• Hints: Don't send me poems from the shoes' perspective, please. Or a poem with a ballet setting. We already have stories with those angles. What about mixing the tale with some Bluebeard elements? Or the 12 tribes of Israel? How about a crossover with Bluebeard?

Good luck and I cannot wait to see what you send me!

Jane Yolen's Anticipated Baba Yaga "Verse Novel" and How Taisia's 'Ask Baba Yaga' Advice Column Helped Make it Happen

Yolen’s Finding Baba Yaga is a story in verse
about a teenage runaway who finds herself drawn
into the world of the mythical Slavic witch,
as she sets out to make her own fate,
“a theme that has never been more timely than it is now.”

It's Ms. Yolen's first ever "verse novel" (see below for details on its inspiration) and to say it's highly anticipated by the fairy tale community and Baba Yaga aficionados, might be understating things a tad. Best of all, it's nearly here...

• There is a title. (Finding Baba Yaga)

• There is a book. (It's in the "pre-release" promotion phase)

• There is a release date. (October 30, 2018 - that's this year!)

• There is a cover. (See above)

• And there is an excerpt! (Click HERE, and scroll down, to read it)

• There is also SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT we need to clear up... (read on - you can take a shortcut to the words in bold if you're in a rush)

Little Ivan and Baba Yaga by Julie Rouviére

We're talking about Jane Yolen's long-anticipated book in verse, Finding Baba Yaga. The Mary Sue got the exclusive cover reveal and interview so we're pointing the way, in case you missed the announcement.

There's a little bit of information we wanted to set straight, however. We were very surprised to find Once Upon A Blog/InkGypsy credited with posting the Ask Baba Yaga advice and for being the catalyst that got the book going. In Jane Yolen's introduction, she adds this PS:

PS: In July 2013, I discovered the very strange website http://fairytalenewsblog.blogspot.co.uk which has an ongoing set of weekly posts by Baba Yaga as a Lonely Hearts columnist. The site is written by someone known anonymously as InkGypsy, reputed to be a Russian poet who grew up in the UK.Whoever she is, she’s hilarious and provocative. These poems would not exist without her posts.

While we did post the Ask Baba Yaga columns, weekly as could be managed at the time, Gypsy (aka InkGypsy) did not write them. She only included a personal commentary, added a picture and formatted the posts. The main content, the advice - questions and answers - were, and have always been, the brilliant work of Russian-American writer and poet, aka the "hilarious and provocative"  Taisia Kitaiskaia, and Taisia very kindly gave us permission to reblog these brilliant nuggets of advice at Once Upon A Blog in an ongoing manner.

(Note: We were not even the original publishing 'home' of these letters of advice. That honor - and credit of discovery - belongs to The Hairpin. We have always acknowledged Taisia as the writer and Oracle "speaking on our behalf to Baba Yaga", as well as the original source of The Hairpin, and have linked to her, and The Hairpin, on every Ask Baba Yaga post, but we're also aware that in this age of social media, end matter is easy to skim over and can easily be missed.)

We are so very happy we've helped Taisia's work be seen by more people. Hopefully, even more folks will seek out Taisia's writing and her other wonderfully unique book Literary Witches (created in collaboration with Katy Horan), now her column has been credited in Jane Yolen's newest book. We just want to be very clear that all credit for any creative inspiration lies with our friend Taisia Kitaiskaia and we're very grateful she allowed Once Upon A Blog to be a part of the journey to publication because.. that's right, Taisia's columns have been expanded and made into a book! It's appropriately titled: Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles 

Check it out! >>>>>>>

(Psst! Expect a giveaway of that awesome collection in the near future...)

Here is a sneak peek of one of the nuggets of advice included in Ask Baba Yaga (the lovely illustrations and design motifs are by Brenna Thummler:

 

Returning to Finding Baba Yaga, we will admit, knowing now that Taisia's columns kick-started Jane Yolen's writing of her newest book - written entirely in verse! - that makes it a guaranteed sell for us! While we wish we could own every copy of Jane Yolen's books, she is so wonderfully prolific we have to sadly admit we haven't quite completed our (ongoing) collection of her works. This one, however, is moving not only to our shopping basket but will be put firmly on top of our must-read pile as soon as it appears. Poetry is something that's not always easy to read but Yolen's verse often changes minds about that. It's just a different pace for her wonderful storytelling.

Here's what Ms. Yolen had to say to The Mary Sue about creating the work: 

Artist unknown
(pls comment if you know so
we can correct the credit)

Baba Yaga is my culture hero—the strongest and greatest witch in the world. She makes her own way, is both anarchic and eternal, has transportation that runs on pure energy which has the added value of not destroying the earth, and she always says what she thinks. How could you not admire her? 

I first learned about Baba Yaga as a ballet kid in the 1940s, one of those New York City girls studying at Balanchine’s school of ballet. Maria Tallchief was my ballerina crush and she once hung her practice tutu on my locker! She was the world’s greatest dancer at the time, and her most iconic role was Firebird. 

Being a bookish kid, from a Russian Jewish background, I wanted to find out more about Firebird—and there she was, on the pages of some long-forgotten book in my parents’ library, along with the other two famous Russian folklore characters—Koschei the Deathless, and Baba Yaga. 

So from the time I was about eight years old, I wanted to be Baba Yaga, gnashing my iron teeth. Riding in a mortar steered by a pestle. Living in a little house that walked about on chicken feet. Well, since I couldn’t, I wrote about her when I got older—in a picture book called “The Flying Witch,” in a short story called “Boris Chernevsky’s Hands,” in a graphic novel called “Curses, Foiled Again,” and in a novel written with Midori Snyder, Except the Queen. Except. . . Midori claimed the Baba as her character before I could do so, so I invented three black witch sisters living in Harlem to make up for my loss. 

All the while, I was writing poetry about Baba Yaga and one day I realized I had almost enough for a possible collection, but there was a story beating inside me that pulled all the poems together, and insisted on being told. And so my first ever verse novel was born. It took possibly four years in the writing, and four more in the selling, but when my editor at Tor, Susan Chang said: “I don’t actually like poetry and I couldn’t stop reading this mss.” I thought: maybe this will actually become a book some day! 

And as if I were the Baba herself, my prophecy has come true!

And we couldn't be more thrilled! 

While the sneak peek gives us the introduction and the first verse, introducing the idea of Baba Yaga to the reader, knowing the Lonely Hearts advice column sparked the idea of a teenage runaway finding her way into the realm of our favorite witch, makes us mightily intrigued. 

Here's the official description of Finding Baba Yaga by legendary writer, and "America's Hans Christian Andersen" Jane Yolen:

Baba Yaga by Rima Staines

A young woman discovers the power to speak upand take control of her fate―a theme that has never been more timely than it is now… 

You think you know this story. 

You do not. 

A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairy tale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, herself.... 

A mythic yet timely novel-in-verse by the beloved and prolific author and poet Jane Yolen, “the Hans Christian Andersen of America.”

You can pre-order Finding Baba Yaga HERE.

"House of Mystery" - Review by Carina Bissett

"House of Mystery"

(A collection of fairy tale poems)

by Courtney Bates-Hardy

Review by Carina Bissett

Jacket description: 

House of Mystery is a beautifully dark and vivid collection of poems that tears down our familiar ideas about fairy tales. These are not poems about privileged princesses who live happily ever after; these are poems about monsters, mothers, witches and mermaids. They explore the pain of change and womanhood, and transform the way we think about fairy tales.

Fairy tales are full of ivory towers, woodland huts, and stately castles. Behind the doors, you’ll find mothers and witches and monsters. Some doors lead to sorrow, others to safety. Poet Courtney Bates-Hardy explores the world through the eyes of mermaids and princesses, witches and wolves in her debut poetry collection House of Mystery.

The collection opens with a trip under the sea... Undines haunt the shallows and sirens beckon, but at the same time, these water women subvert their stories. They slip their bonds, revise expectations. When these mermaids smile, they expose sharp teeth. Modern issues of silenced women are hinted at throughout, but never directly addressed.

In the second section "Hating Cinderella", the poet continues the fairy tale theme yet continues to give her characters even more agency Whereas the sirens and mermaids stay confined to the role of victims, the fairy tale heroines in the second section reshape traditional roles. Defiance and power are no longer hinted at but take physical form. These women literally slip their captors’ knots, wear glass ceilings on their feet, and birth their monsters with savage glee. Bates-Hardy reminds her readers that the only Happily Ever Afters out there are the ones we choose for ourselves.

In the titular final chapter of House of Mystery, Bates-Hardy finally hits her stride by crossing into the modern world. Titles such as “Office Girl” and “Dishes” reveal the mundane amidst the magical. However, when the fairy tale tropes are revisited, they are done so without the familiar sugar coating found in the sanitized tales. In “Donkeyskin” the narrator is trapped in a feminine role despite her tomboy nature. Her dresses smother and her shoes pinch. Only at night is she able to strip down to the raw core of who she really is. In the original fairy tale, the disguised princess has to hide her royalty beneath the donkey skin, only allowing herself to embrace her beauty in isolation. In Bates-Hardy’s version, the narrator struggles against the concepts of conventional femininity, only feeling that she can embrace her wild nature at night.

In the end, "Sirens" sets a tone that isn’t carried throughout the rest of the chapbook.  After moving through the entire collection, it becomes apparent that this selection of nine poems was previously published separately, a stand-alone chapbook titled Sea Foam. While the moody, melancholy tone of this section stands on its own, it doesn’t mesh with the other poems.

Overall, Bates-Hardy is at her best when revealing fairy tale themes in a modern-day setting. The accessible language and contemporary characters make this poetry relatable to everyone struggling for individuality in a cookie cutter world.  

This review was written voluntarily, without any compensation or affiliation with any of the authors or editors for business purposes. A review copy was provided without obligation.

Carina Bissett is the Social Media Manager of Timeless Tales Magazine, an official partner of Once Upon A Blog. Her website is  http://carinabissett.com.

Beautiful Retelling 'The Crane Girl' Interweaves Haiku Through Storytelling To Reveal Characters Thoughts & Feelings

The Crane Girl illustration by Lin Wang

We have to admit, one review and a glimpse of the cover and we were sold on this book. That was quickly followed by an overwhelming number of five star reviews and even more gorgeous illustrations peeks inside, along with phrases like "the perfect folktale retelling", and then we read this:

from the darkness
an animal's sudden cry -
its fear, and mine

Yasuhiro dropped his armload of firewood to follow the sound across the sharp buckwheat stubble of the Landlord's field. He almost stepped on the crane, nearly invisible where it lay in the snow. A trap held one foot, but the crane looked unharmed. As Yasuhiro knelt, the bird closed its eyes and shuddered.

cold hard trap -
he sets me free
with warm hands

(Opening Lines from The Crane Girl by Curtis Manley)

Whoa. We're hooked.

The watercolor illustrations by artist Lin Wang, are lyrical, magical and well, stunning! Everything you want in a picture book, as far as the art goes, but there are even more wonderful layers woven into this updated retelling of the Japanese fairy tale, The Crane Wife, to bring different dimensions to the storytelling as well.

Not only is the prose the perfect storytelling tone for a classic fairy tale (and wonderful for reading aloud), but as you might have guessed from the opening excerpt above, throughout the story, haikus appear, illuminating various characters thoughts and feelings of the scene described or illustrated, as well as helping to reflect the cultural setting of the tale. It's wonderfully unique, sensitively done, and perfect for introducing children to magical retellings that incorporate beautiful and captivating storytelling, lush images and, harder to impart, snatches of poetry that express simply and succinctly the inner lives of those involved along the way.

“from the darkness / an animal’s sudden cry— / its fear, and mine …”
(Click to see full size)

We already want more stories told this way!

Writer, Curtis Manley, actually used a few variations of The Crane Wife to adapt his story and added his own variation as well.

In a closing note, the author writes: "In the West, only two versions [of this story] are known well. In The Crane Wife (Tsuru Nyobo), a young man rescues a crane and then gives shelter to a mysterious young woman. They fall in love and get married, but when she begins weaving wonderful cloth, his greed and curiosity drive her away. In the version known as The Grateful Crane (Tsuru no Ongaeshi, literally “the crane’s return of a favor”), an old, childless couple gives shelter to a young woman, but again the crane leaves when her identity is discovered." He goes on to say that, in other versions, various animals take the place of the crane. The closing author’s note also includes more information on Japanese poetic forms. (SevenImpossibleThings)

“When the bird stood up, it was as tall as Yasuhiro.
He stroked the soft feathers on its long neck with his fingertips, and the bird
gently pressed the red top of its head against Yasuhiro’s face. …”
(Click to see full size)

We found an interview at DeborahKalbBooks with the author in which he talks about what drew him to this tale in the first place, and why he adapted it the way he did:

Q: Why did you decide to adapt this Japanese folk tale, and how did you change it from the original?
A: Over the years I’ve enjoyed reading many different folktales and legends from around the world, but have been especially drawn to those from the Pacific Northwest and from Japan.
When I heard The Decemberists’ album The Crane Wife in 2006, I was reminded of how much I liked that specific Japanese folktale. It involves a man who rescues and sets free an injured crane; soon after that, a beautiful woman knocks on the door asking to stay. Eventually they marry.
When his new wife mysteriously weaves fabric that he sells for a good price in the market, the man’s greed for more causes the woman to leave forever.
My change was to have not an adult but a young boy rescue the crane, and it is a young girl who appears at the door seeking shelter. The boy’s father is the one who becomes greedy, not the boy, and so in the end the boy and girl are able to remain together.
My adaptation retains all the traditional elements of the plot, but involves main characters close to the reader’s age—and it ends on a more positive note.

We admit we were skeptical at first of this 'new happier ending', since in our mind, although the Crane Wife eventually leaves, and it is sad, it's also a good example of a woman's self-emancipation, that is, freedom from being dictated to and controlled by her partner and by greed, eventually causing her harm. The shift in character ages - and responsibilities - in Manley's retelling, however, make for a version children are more likely to relate to, and from what we can tell, the boy has some choices - different choices - of his own to make, giving a different spin to the usual 'animal bride' fairy tales - one that feels appropriate for a modern audience but also fits with the traditional, pre-industrial feel of the tale. The best part? Even with the 'twist' it stays true to the story of The Crane Wife!

Another excerpt from the same interview continues below:

...When I was just beginning work on The Crane Girl, I knew I wanted to include haiku along with references to certain foods, crops, and customs. Using the haiku to reveal the thoughts of the characters then came naturally—at least, that’s how I remember it now.

“The next night someone knocked on the door. Yasuhiro opened it and
found a girl standing there, pale and shivering, tears frozen on her cheeks. …”
(Click to see full size)

Q: What do you think the illustrations, by Lin Wang, add to the book?
A: Folktales, like epic poems and Shakespeare’s plays, retain their relevance and power even if retold in new settings. Nonetheless, setting The Crane Girl in pre-industrial Japan kept it closer to the roots of the original folktales—and the itinerant storytellers who performed them.
Lin’s images bring that setting to life in the specificity of detail in the house, village, and clothing—and the in the crane’s plumage and features.
But at the same time the beauty and luminosity of the illustrations also give the reader hints at the magic that underlies the story—magic that the boy and his father are mostly unaware of until the end.
The cover and interior illustrations are so gorgeous that I hope no one is let down by the words and poems of my text!

To give you a better idea of how the book is laid out and the story told, we're including some reviews below:

“The polished, full-color illustrations … complement the lyrical text. Interspersed, color-coded haiku reveal the characters’ unspoken thoughts… More from this team would be a welcome addition to folk-tale collections.” Kirkus (starred review) 

“Snatches of haiku add depth to this story based on traditional Japanese folktales. … Exquisite watercolor illustrations accompany the text. … This well-crafted tale offers [readers] an introduction to traditional Japanese culture and folklore…” School Library Journal

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

You can read an interview with the author, Curtis Manley HERE, about how he loves, writes and gives advice about poetry, as well as his process for writing The Crane Girl.

You can also read an interview with artist Lin Wang HERE and see a lot more of her amazing and beautiful watercolor illustrations.

Lots of Treasures in Enchanted Conversation's Diamonds & Toads Issue

Toads & Diamonds Ex Libris Etching
by Ukraine artist Konstantin Kalinovich

Enchanted Conversation, Fairy Tale Magazine, has just released their Diamonds and Toads Issue - and it's wonderful!

New contributing editor, Amanda Bergloff, has created some unique digital art for each of the stories and poems in this issue, making the chosen entries even more fun to read.

Although Kate Wolford, always curates wonderful writing, we've particularly enjoyed this issue's creative short stories and evocative poems. While we acknowledge that we might be influenced due to this fairy tale being one of our favorites, and that we got uninterrupted time to read the whole issue in one lovely sitting with some fabulous tea to go with it, we maintain it's a great issue with lots of lovely writing, well worth your time to peruse.

You can find the 'entry' and Table Of Contents to this current issue HERE.

And, if you're interested, Gypsy wrote a personal entry, reflecting on retellings of this fairy tale, at Fairy Tale Footnotes HERE.

Article: Seanan McGuire on Fairy Tales and Poetry: Pamela Dean's Tam Lin

On tor.com this week, writer of fairy tales and and folklore based novels (among other fun books), got wonderfully nostalgic about Pamela Dean's treatment of another favorite fairy tale of ours, Tam Lin. There's quite a group of people who were greatly impacted by this book, both for the fairy tale themes and the style of writing, not to mention the poetry.

Here's an excerpt:

I liked fairy tales. I liked folk music. When I found a book in a line of books about fairy tales, with a title taken from a ballad, I figured it would be good for a few hours. 

I didn’t expect it to change my life. 

Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean, is one of those books that defies description in the best way, because it both is and is not a fantasy. For most of the book, it’s the story of a girl named Janet starting her college life, with all the changes and chaos that entails. She sees weird things on campus. Okay. Everyone sees weird things on campus. I was already taking classes at the community college across the street from my high school, and I’d seen a man with six squirrels on a leash, a woman attending all her classes in a ball gown, and a person we all called “Troll” whose wardrobe consisted mostly of chain mail and rabbit skins. College campuses are alive with weird things. 

Only her weird things are very real, and eventually they make it clear that the book is a fantasy, and more, that Janet is in some pretty deep sh*t. 

...Tam Lin is a book about choices and consequences, friendships and relationships, and the way our adult selves are built on the bones of the children we once were. It’s also about poetry. If Pamela Dean had never written another word, she would still deserve to be remembered as one of the greats, for this book alone. 

Read it.

You can read the whole article HERE.

Cabinet des Fées Releases A Wonderfully Gorgeous Issue in "Something Rich & Strange" (Review of Vol 1, Issue 2, Aug 2015)

A preview of what's to come TOMORROW!

Thanks to the kind folk at Papaveria Press for generously giving me a wonderful preview of Cabinet des Fées' latest sea-themed anthology of short works and poetry, and allowing me to gift myself with a lovely post on my birthday, in announcing the release slightly early, complete with permission to give you sneak peeks - of my choice! - at some of the wonderful writing!

'Presents' (aka excerpts) are below...

But first a look at the 'greeting' to readers and a list of tales and tellers:

 
The whole issue is beautiful to behold and the words are captivating too. The editors and team at Papaveria Press have put a lovely combination of art together - of words, images, fantastical tales and personal reflections. It's a very beautiful feather in an already very lovely hat!

Scheherezade's Bequest Volume 1, Issue 2. SOMETHING RICH AND STRANGE: TALES FROM THE SEA called authors to draw from folktales, personal experience, and the vast ocean of the imagination to reveal selkies, mermaids, sea nymphs, the great flood, and more in this wonderful collection of short stories and poems, each one a siren song luring us into the waves. This issue continues our tradition of offering original fairy tales and retellings of the old stories that leave us with a sense of wonder, a sense that something rich and strange is always just around the corner. 

There's a wonderful variety in the volume and yet there is a consistent feel of ebb and flow as you read through the various offerings. 

Some are amusing (for instance, a trickster Shower Muse), some have a distinctly different premise to the usual mer stories (like the mysterious, fathomless Lake of San Ezequiel, appearing alongside a desert town). 


There are turns of satisfyingly happy endings and tragically true endings. 

Mixed in is a wonderfully satisfactory amount of selkie stories with an unusual perspective (like Salt, which follow the motif of salt water in all it's forms through a selkie story and the subject of consent) and riffs on The Little Mermaid too, (like Sisters that looks at the issue of mermaids and souls in the best way I've read to date) without either dominating the issue.

As I mentioned above, I was gifted with choosing some excerpts to share with you and I have to tell you this was more difficult than I at first imagined it would be!  

I've finally chosen, in the end to share just a few excerpts to show you the variety of language, since I found it so difficult to choose favorites, as well as a few of the author notes on how they came to be inspired. The author's notes are just as fascinating as the stories themselves!

Please click on the excerpts and selected author's notes to read them full size. 

I think you'll be drawn in as quickly as I was and want to keep reading.

And as for a peek at the tales... take a look below:

This is only the beginning of a truly different version of The Little Mermaid, and one you'll love, especially if you love Andersen's tale or any variant of it.

"...people were a bit like fish..." and suddenly I couldn't help but begin to make comparisons myself! This story is the story of a girl and the story of a soul... and fish.

I dearly wanted to show you more, to show you how salt weaves through the life of this seal-woman, her husband and her children but I will leave that for you to discover on your own.

I hope you've enjoyed a special preview of the issue. Thank you again to the folks at Cabinet des Fées for this lovely gift today.

The paperback issue of Something Rich and Strange - Tales From the Sea is already available to order via Amazon HERE.

BalletLorent Teams Up Again with Carol Ann Duffy & Doctor Who Composer to Create a New "Snow White"

Details are a little sketchy but here's the overview, care of TheLowry:

balletLORENT's dark and mystical adaptation of Snow White is created from an original retelling by Carol Ann Duffy, and reimagines the story of a mother’s poisonous jealousy in a dance theatre production for family audiences. Thwarted desire, deception, compassion and redemption with magical mirrors, and a young woman with beauty as pure as feathered snow. 

Snow White is the second chapter of a planned trilogy of Brothers Grimm fairytales created by balletLORENT, which began with the highly acclaimed Rapunzel (Performance of the Year, The Journal Culture Awards 2012).

There's also a great Kickstarter happening in conjunction with the project, called the Snow White Young Cast project.

Giving children with little to no access to the arts the opportunity to be part of a professional dance production. 

Snow White, the second in dance theatre company balletLORENT’s planned trilogy of fairytales, will see the company’s professional dancers joined by a young cast of children aged between 6 – 8 years old and unique to each middle-large scale theatre that Snow White tours to. We are raising money through Kickstarter to be able to widen our reach to children with natural talent but little access to dance and the arts. 

Our young casts will rehearse and perform with our professional dancers, giving them the valuable experience of working with a professional dance company. We ran a similar model alongside our last fairytale, Rapunzel – but this time, our main aim is to engage with more children who have had little to no access to the arts, or previous dance experience.

You can read more about the 'young cast' project HERE.

And you can see another Snow White workshop video with different groups of children HERE as well.

Sounds intriguing, no? From what I can gather, it appears this production is set to premiere in October this year (2015), in Newcastle, UK.

I have to look up Duffy's poetry again, but especially her newer release for children in late 2014, to get more of an idea of where they're headed with this. The one promotional photo available from the production (in two variations) is quite intriguing...

I think there's a good chance the story will be based off her work in this book, however, published late last year, with illustrations by the amazing Tomislav Tomic. I have included the cover of Duffy's gorgeous looking book, and Tomic's two Snow White illustrations below:

"Disappear to faraway lands of wicked witches, evil monsters and brave heroines in Carol Ann Duffy’s stunning collection of Faery Tales, beautiful illustrated by Tomislav Tomic. This gift set collection of stories is a published just in time for Christmas, by Faber and Faber. Tomislav has created ethereal images of the Poet Laureate’s interpretations of classic stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and the Pied Piper of Hamelin. He also designed and hand rendered the illuminated letters throughout the book as well as the title for the cover."

Now if I could just get a hold of the actual book..!

National Poetry Month: "Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty" by Christine Heppermann

April is National Poetry Month and fairy tales seem to encourage a lot of poetry in response. While I cannot begin to keep up with the offerings out there, here's something that caught my eye a while back that I thought would be good to share.

Please note: I have NOT seen this book in person, nor read much more than what I could scour online, so this is really more of an announcement rather than a review. 

"Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty" (released in September 2014) says exactly what's it's about in the title. Author Christine Heppermann expresses the world of young adults trying to deal with body image, self love, media messages, who they really are as opposed to whom they believe they should be and relationships of all kinds. In other words, it has something for everyone. 

The book contains fifty poems (very easy to read if you're not a poetry person too), along with photography that is sometimes modern, sometimes symbolic, created for the volume, providing another window into these ideas, or a reflection on the same. While girls will clearly identify with many of the issues and sentiments explored here, most of those apply to boys too. It's just that we forget that when the image is a girl with a red hood...

Description:

Christine Heppermann's collection of fifty poems puts the ideals of fairy tales right beside the life of the modern teenage girl. With piercing truths reminiscent of Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Hopkins, this is a powerful and provocative book for every young woman. E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars, calls it "a bloody poetic attack on the beauty myth that's caustic, funny, and heartbreaking." 

Cruelties come not just from wicked stepmothers, but also from ourselves. There are expectations, pressures, judgment, and criticism. Self-doubt and self-confidence. But there are also friends, and sisters, and a whole hell of a lot of power there for the taking. In fifty poems, Christine Heppermann confronts society head on. Using fairy tale characters and tropes, Poisoned Apples explores how girls are taught to think about themselves, their bodies, and their friends. The poems range from contemporary retellings to first-person accounts set within the original tales, and from deadly funny to deadly serious. Complemented throughout with black-and-white photographs from up-and-coming artists, this is a stunning and sophisticated book to be treasured, shared, and paged through again and again.

The book has been labeled 'feminist', as well as 'caustic' and emotive'. From a review by cecildaily:

One poem reflects on the modern day version of a love charm: “Such spells call for ingredients / missing from my cupboard” it laments. Modern love charms, it explains, do not require “eye of newt” or “tongue of toad,” but instead “plump lips” and “smooth skin.”Another poem shows that once Sleeping Beauty realizes all the things that go into being a girl, “showering, shaving, shampooing, conditioning,” she thinks how much easier it was to be asleep. The poems all illustrate how humans are often told to strive for perfection and how damaging that can be for our self-esteem.

I'm also adding some reviews that reflect my impressions on reading the little I did, and am including screenshots of the Author's Note. I think the latter will be of special interest to fairy tale folk here who've done more than average reading of fairy tales and texts, and know whom she's referring to when she mentions Marina Warner:

“It’s a bit of a mystery how a slender, subversive book of flayed fairy tale poetry can chronicle how the world tries to rob young women of power, while at the same time handing them back that power. Teen girls should read this—so should their mothers, their aunts, their grandmothers…” (Gayle Forman, author of the New York Times-bestselling Just One Day/Just One Year duet) 

“A bloody poetic attack on the beauty myth that’s caustic, funny, and heartbreaking.” (-- E. Lockhart, author of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and We Were Liars) 

“Many of the poems read like something you might find on a smart, funny contemporary women’s website, probably going viral. . . . They each pack their own literary punch; she is, after all, a poet riffing on fairy tales.” (Elle.com)

Have you read "Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty"?

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