Best Self Magazine

24 min read

April 3, 2017, New York, NY Photographs by Bill Miles ______________________________________ My mission is to awaken women, to turn women on, to have women truly live rather than play small. I must model that. ~ Regena Thomashauer, ‘Mama Gena’ Kriste

NPR

3 min read

Elizabeth Lim's new young adult novel follows a girl who disguises herself as a boy and sets off for the emperor's court in place of her ailing father, who's been summoned as an imperial tailor.

Fortean Times

2 min read

Forteana and folklore are strongly connected to sleep. Ghosts walk down corridors while residents hide under duvets; aggressive polts pull sheets from over and even under sleepers. Aliens have, of course, perfected early morning visits, with abductio

All About History

1 min read

A common trope in fairy and folk tales is magical protection. This can take the form of an enchanted object, such as a hero’s shield, or it can take the form of a space or place, like the mythical Isle of Avalon in Arthurian myth, sheltered from the

ImagineFX

1 min read

LOCATION: Finland MEDIA: PaintTool SAI, Photoshop WEB: www.artstation.com/midorisa “I enjoy painting artworks inspired by mythology, fairy tales and nature,” says Riikka, a fantasy artist and illustrator who enhances her work with vibrant colours and

The Atlantic

3 min read

No wonder, then, that the news of a new live-action Cinderella in the works was greeted by Slate's Alyssa Rosenberg with a certain amount of ambivalence. The "fairy tale" is "ripe for revision," Rosenberg argues, and hopes that we might see a Cindere

The Paris Review

1 min read

We’re away until January 6, but we’re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2019. Enjoy your holiday! Franz Juttner, Illustration from Snow White, c.1905 The stepmother swings like a light bulb back and forth, causing the mother who is not there

Chat It's Fate

4 min read

Witches love an altar – but it’s always important that our altars represent the season we’re in and are decorated appropriately. Roses are the flower of June, so they’re a popular choice for summer altars – however, red, pink or yellow only as we nev

Literary Hub

6 min read

In the happy country of fairies, one leaves it only to find one’s way back. One suffers only to become happy, whereas pain is for us an enigma and life a struggle without end where the better people are the first to fall. There, in the country of fai

Chat It's Fate

4 min read

In the UK, we’ve got the Beast of Bodmin, Black Shucks and the Loch Ness monster – just a few of the weird and wonderful entities that are the stuff of British folklore and fairy tales. Other countries have their own crazy creatures – and they’re eve

Guernica Magazine

9 min read

The novelist discusses his latest book, The Changeling, and imagining the deaths of your children. The post Victor LaValle: Fairy Tales Redux appeared first on Guernica.

The Paris Review

7 min read

Sabrina Orah Mark’s monthly column, Happily, focuses on fairy tales and motherhood. “I know you’re the tooth fairy.” Noah, my eight-year-old, looks me dead in the eye. We are out to dinner. A large television hangs from the wall. Without blinking, h

DIVA

1 min read

BOOK OF THE MONTH FICTION Kalynn Bayron Queering a fairytale isn’t new, but when it’s good it’s really good… For many LGBTQI women who were coming of age in the late 2000s, Ash by Malinda Lo may have been the first lesbian retelling of Cinderella the

The Paris Review

6 min read

Sabrina Orah Mark’s monthly column, Happily, focuses on fairy tales and motherhood.  Franz Juttner, Illustration from Snow White, c.1905 The stepmother swings like a light bulb back and forth, causing the mother who is not there to glow. That is her

WHO

1 min read

With concerts and live theatre productions – as well as interstate travel – now possible, fans of fairytales and musicals should head to Sydney later this year. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella will premiere at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre in Novembe

Country Homes & Interiors

1 min read

I’ve always loved fairy tales. I was given a copy of Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales when I was around nine years old and I remember reading it from cover to cover, over and over again – Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, The Three Spinners… I loved them all.

The Atlantic

8 min read

Brit Marling discusses the folklore and real-life research that went into her trippy Netflix series.

Literary Hub

8 min read

At the Musée de l’Homme, the Magdalenian III-era engraving in stone representing a woman (obese, we think) whose fringed garment seems to have been reproduced with great accuracy. In Crete—where I have never been—the fresco, so contemporary despite i

History Scotland

7 min read

Scotland experienced intense witch hunts during the 16th and 17th centuries. Out of a population of about one million, roughly 4,000 witches were formally accused and perhaps around 2,500 were executed. Scotland’s witch-hunts were severe, with about

Chat It's Fate

3 min read

In witch lore, November brings fog. Though many people fear it, witches use it to cast clarity spells, and hedge witches can use this eerie phenomenon for travelling to the other realms. Fog forms when cold air passes over warm land or a body of wa

Inked

4 min read

Las Vegas is the home of many beautiful women; however, none are quite as magical as those created by Kurtis Rykovich who pulls his inspiration from fairy tales, horror, comics and the furthest depths of his imagination. However, while his Damsels ar

The Millions

7 min read

1. The logic of novice programming goes something like this: Run function (x, y) If x is greater than y: Do this Else if y is greater than x: Do that Else: Something else happens. I quickly learned that computers don’t like choice, and they don’t lik

The Atlantic

5 min read

A machine mapped the most frequently used emotional trajectories in fiction, and compared them with the ones readers like best.

Woman & Home

3 min read

The distinction between good and evil in fairy stories is always very clear, and though good doesn’t always win, evil is, if not vanquished, then at least exposed for what it is. However, the fairy stories I grew up with were very different to the ‘s

Chat It's Fate

3 min read

Elves come in all shapes and sizes, from the wizened cuteness of Harry Potter’s house elf Dobby, to Santa’s little helpers, to the elegant otherworldly beings that grace Tolkien’s fiction – like gorgeous Galadriel herself. Whichever ‘look’ you prefer

PC Gamer

2 min read

Taking away some of the complexities seen in other JRPGS, Fae Tactics is a stripped down and faster experience than classics like Final Fantasy Tactics. From the outset, the game lays out building blocks that most strategy players are familiar with:

Chat It's Fate

3 min read

Do you hang a wreath on your front door at Christmas? Maybe you’ve got a door knocker in the shape of a lion’s head, or perhaps a horseshoe nailed to the door – but have you ever wondered why? For centuries, ancient talismans such as these have been

Literary Hub

10 min read

What do you call a villain when she finally gets to tell her own story? Not a hero, certainly. A villain doesn’t automatically become a hero just because the point of view on her story shifts. No, what a villain becomes when she tells her own story i

Chat It's Fate

3 min read

The witch’s cauldron is iconic in fairy tales and folklore, and synonymous with Hallowe’en – think of the witches in Macbeth muttering ‘double, double, toil and trouble’ over theirs! It’s a magical vessel, and a powerful symbol in mythology. In its s

Chat It's Fate

1 min read

In Celtic mythology, the Daonine Sidhe are the fae folk who were defeated by the Milesians or Gaels in an epic battle. The Gaels wanted all of Ireland for themselves, and drove the fairies underground. The many mounds dotted around Ireland are though