Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales Paperback

Nowadays fairy tales are assiduously studied, interpreted according to differing philosophies, mined for inner meaning, psychoanalyzed through various filters, and hotly debated. Fairy tales can be seen in many—often antithetical—ways. There are those who consider them morally deficient, others as means to enforce traditional morality.

They are seen as sexist or feminist; timeless or products of a specific time and event; nationalistic or universal; hegemonic or subversive; eternally relevant and totally irrelevant; metaphoric or allegorical; considered as art or dismissed as tawdry entertainment; too scary and violent or a safe way to deal with primal fears; they appeal to us because they give us hope or they validate what is real . . . ad infinitum.

This anthology, however, has no agenda other than to present

new fairy tales written by some talented authors. I gave the writers no definitions or boundaries. I simply stated that traditional stories often started with the phrase used as the title—“once upon a time”— but fairy tales have always resonated with the reader’s own time and place. They have power and meaning for today and tomorrow.

Contributions could be new interpretations of the old or an original story inspired by earlier fairy tales.

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I also invited each author to say something about the writing of their story and/or what fairy tales meant to them. I think you’ll find the comments introducing each story far more illuminating than what I have provided here.

For the last few months, I’ve been keeping this treasury of wonder, if not locked up in a tower, at least all to myself. Now it is time to allow you to experience these wonderful new fairy stories and their marvelously varied ever afters.

Paula Guran

June 2013

Online Sources for Fairy Tales Old and New

Cabinet des Fées (www.cabinetdesfees.com) celebrates fairy tales in all of their manifestations: in print, in film, in academia, and on the web. Also hosts two fiction zines.

Endicott Studio (endicottstudio.typepad.com) is an interdisciplinary organization dedicated to the creation and support of mythic art.

Their Journal of Mythic Arts appeared online from 1997 to 2008. Site includes essays, stories, and musings on folklore, modern magical fiction, and related topics.

SurLaLune Fairy Tales (www.surlalunefairytales.com) features forty-nine annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations..

Fairy Tale Review (digitalcommons.wayne.edu/fairytalereview) is an annual literary journal dedicated to publishing new fairytale fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The journal seeks to expand the conversation about fairy tales among practitioners, scholars, and general readers.

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This story was originally written in exchange for a donation to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina. I was broke then, but I

could write, and I found someone who was interested in having a story written to a prompt of their choosing. At the time I’d never been to Louisiana, so I instead wrote about a watery setting. I grew up with Korean folktales of the Dragon King Under the Sea, which I remember more from the illustrations in the children’s books than the stories themselves, and I have often thought that they are the closest thing that Korean lore has to Faerie.

Incidentally, the treasures in this story owe something in spirit to a certain fantastic table owned by my grandmother, which my

cousins and sister and I would often marvel over: a hollowed out bowl of wood with a glass top, within which were souvenirs gathered from the many places my grandparents traveled to when they were younger.

Yoon Ha Lee

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The Coin of Heart’s Desire

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Yoon Ha Lee