The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales

by Dominik Parisien (Editor), Navah Wolfe (Editor)

Overview

An all-new anthology of cross-genre fairy tale retellings, featuring an all-star lineup of award-winning and critically acclaimed writers.

Once upon a time. It’s how so many of our most beloved stories start.

Fairy tales have dominated our cultural imagination for centuries. From the Brothers Grimm to the Countess d’Aulnoy, from Charles Perrault to Hans Christian Anderson, storytellers have crafted all sorts of tales that have always found a place in our hearts.

Now a new generation of storytellers have taken up the mantle that the masters created and shaped their stories into something startling and electrifying.

Packed with award-winning authors, this anthology explores an array of fairy tales in startling and innovative ways, in genres and settings both traditional and unusual, including science fiction, western, and post-apocalyptic as well as traditional fantasy and contemporary horror.

From the woods to the stars, The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales takes readers on a journey at once unexpected and familiar, as a diverse group of writers explore some of our most beloved tales in new ways across genres and styles.

Contains stories by: Charlie Jane Anders, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-mohtar, Jeffrey Ford, Max Gladstone, Theodora Goss, Daryl Gregory, Kat Howard, Stephen Graham Jones, Margo Lanagan, Marjorie Liu, Seanan McGuire, Garth Nix, Naomi Novik, Sofia Samatar, Karin Tidbeck, Catherynne M. Valente, and Genevieve Valentine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481456128
Publisher:	S&S/Saga Press
Publication date:	10/18/2016
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	1,022,545
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Dominik Parisien is an editor, poet, and writer. He is the co-editor, with Navah Wolfe, of The Mythic Dream, Robots vs Fairies, and The Starlit Wood. Together their anthologies have won the Shirley Jackson Award and have been finalists for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Ignyte, and Locus Award. He also won the Hugo, British Fantasy, and Aurora Award for co-editing Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction with Elsa Sjunneson. His debut poetry collection Side Effects May Include Strangers was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. Dominik is a disabled, bisexual French Canadian. He lives in Toronto.

Navah Wolfe is a Hugo Award–nominated editor at Saga Press and the coeditor of The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales and Mythic Dream, along with Dominik Parisien. She was previously an editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, where she worked on many bestselling books, including some that have won awards such as the Printz Honor, The Pura Belpré Award, The Pen/Faulkner Award, The Stonewall Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Schneider Family Award.

Read an Excerpt

The Starlit Wood AUTHOR’S NOTE
Seanan McGuire: The story of “Little Red Riding Hood” has always had a special place in my heart—one that was solidified forever when I played her several times as a teenager in productions of Into the Woods. She is young; she is innocent; she is unprepared. Like most people who adore the story and grew up steeped in the modern mythology of horror movies and urban fantasy, I thought, “What if she was the werewolf?” and put together a whole series pitch; sadly, as I was in high school at the time, it never went anywhere, but still. I love Red, and when I was asked to be in this anthology, I leapt at the chance to tell her story again. I also love horror movies, but at this point, a werewolf Red seemed predictable. At the same time, her story is inherently one of betrayal by someone who was trusted, however unwisely, and of attaining adulthood through a single trip through the woods. It seemed natural to turn the story on its ear, to turn trees into endless sand, to turn men into wolves, and to let Red cut her own path for once. I think it’s recognizable, and in the end, that’s what matters about fairy tales: that they use different codes to tell the same story, and still bring you out the other side.

Editorial Reviews

08/08/2016
Reviewed by Veronica Schanoes Drawing on the mythical Old West, familiar European stories, and recently translated Middle Eastern tales, these stories provide a rich sample of what awaits us in the world of fairy tales. Like many anthologies, it is something of a mixed bag, but the standout stories are well worth making time to read. These include a couple of highly literary and unusual stories based on tales from two volumes that became available in English only in the past few years: Genevieve Valentine’s “Familiaris” is based on “The Wolves,” collected by Franz Xaver von Schonworth and published in The Turnip Princess, and Sofia Samatar’s “Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle” reflects on a story from the Arabic Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange. Valentine’s and Samatar’s stories distinguish themselves in their multilayered reflections on the dynamics of telling tales. “Why are you people so hungry for marvels?” Samatar’s narrator asks, while drawing our attention to the marvels and horrors we take for granted around us. Valentine dramatizes as part of her story the interaction between Schonworth and his unnamed female storyteller in a world where women’s choices are sharply abridged. Also excellent are Amal El-Mohtar’s “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” which explores the power of women’s friendships to rewrite—or at least expose—misogynist ideologies, and Catherynne M. Valente’s “Bad Girl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune,” which rewrites one of the most disturbing of the traditional European fairy tales, “The Armless Maiden.” Valente’s protagonist is a canny but terrified child, reminding us that “happily ever after” comes only after experiences we would never wish on someone so young. The anthology ends with Naomi Novik’s “Spinning Silver,” in which Novik confronts the anti-Semitism that Jane Yolen and others have found latent in the Grimms’ version of “Rumplestiltzkin,” rewriting it into a tale of Jewish heroism in the face of hostility from gentile neighbors as well as magical threats from fairy folk. Novik’s ability to weave together sympathy for the story’s traditional antagonist, the little man who can produce gold on a whim, and traditional heroine, the daughter who is forced to produce in order to save herself and her father, by combining them in the person of her protagonist, Miryem, makes this story a virtuoso turn. Of course, no anthology is perfect, and some stories do not meet the high standards set by the ones I mention above. Similarly, Parisien and Wolfe’s introduction falls flat; though short, it rambles, and it fails to discuss the book’s relationship to the many volumes of fairy tale stories that have gone before. Nonetheless, the wide range of tales, settings, and perspectives sampled here demonstrate that fairy tales remain a rich source for writers, one that we have only begun to tap. Veronica Schanoes is a writer and an associate professor in the department of English at Queens College, CUNY, where she specializes in fairy tales and children’s literature.

Publishers Weekly

"Like those oft-told tales of old, The Starlit Wood is a volume readers will want to return to often, and it deserves a place on every bookshelf left wanting a touch of the magical...For fairy tale aficionados, this volume is a must-read; for those interested in sampling the work of some of the best short fiction writers in sci-fi and fantasy today, it is no less essential."

Tor.com

"Clever, touching, frightening, funny and frequently surprising, “The Starlit Wood” shines with magical possibility."

The Press Herald

"Lots of strange and wonderful goings-on in The Starlit Wood. Fairy tales you thought you’d left behind in childhood are back in some very poignant, sly and original versions that will touch the Wow in most readers."

Jonathan Carroll

08/01/2016
In this anthology of 18 unconventional fairy-tale retellings, Little Red Riding Hood journeys on horseback across a desert (Seanan McGuire's "In the Desert Like a Bone"), and Hansel and Gretel are modern teens tripping on hallucinogenic wallpaper (Daryl Gregory's "Even the Crumbs Were Delicious"). The editors challenged contributors to look at classic stories from the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, A Thousand and One Nights, and other traditional sources, and strip and rework them into something new and different. Hence, established sf/fantasy authors such as Garth Nix, Catherynne M. Valente, and Marjorie M. Liu weave feminist ideas into their tales and explore psychological and political frameworks to ignite meaningful texts. An author's note at the end of each entry offers insights into the writer's process. VERDICT A great pick for readers looking for a fresh, diverse spin on standard fairy tales. Students of creative writing will be also be pleased.—Briana Moore, School Library Journal

Library Journal

"The best original fantasy anthology of the year."

Jonathan Strahan

"An incredible, genre-blurring collection of retold fairy tales, featuring well-published luminaries and up-and-coming voices...Like those oft-told tales of old, The Starlit Wood is a volume readers will want to return to often, and it deserves a place on every bookshelf left wanting a touch of the magical."

B&N SciFi & Fantasy Blog

"A first rate anthology of reimagined fairy tales...quite lovely."

Locus Magazine

"If you were ever fascinated by fairy tales as a child, if you have ever read a fairy tale to a child and watched their face light up, this is an anthology for you."

The Little Red Reviewer

"This anthology is consistent throughout, with well-crafted writing and a tantalizing taste of each author’s unique journey into reimagining classic fairy tales for a new audience."

Booklist

"The modern revival of fairy tale fiction for adults began in the 20th century (with the stories of Angela Carter and Tanith Lee), and The Starlit Wood is proof that the revival is still going strong. Editors Parisien and Wolfe have brought a wide range of writers together to blaze new trails through the dark of the woods. Whether you're passionate about fairy tales, like I am, or haven't read them since childhood, I recommend this excellent anthology. I simply loved it."

Terri Windling

"The table of contents alone reads like a who's who of fantasy authors...Highly recommended."

F&SF

A classy, smart, and entertaining volume of stories put together with consummate care—and featuring the best and most exciting fantasy writers working in the field today.

Jeff VanderMeer

"This anthology is consistent throughout, with well-crafted writing and a tantalizing taste of each author’s unique journey into reimagining classic fairy tales for a new audience."

Booklist