A Rheumatoid Descent into Villainy
From 19th-century fairy tale illustrations to Disney’s global empire, rheumatoid arthritis has evolved into a visual shorthand for evil—a medical condition transmuted into moral metaphor that resonates today.
fairy tales
Fairy Tales for the Children of the Laborers
With anthology Workers' Tales, children's literature professor Michael Rosen curates fairy tales from the 19th and 20th centuries that resonate with workers' rights activists and their children today.
Jennifer Caloyeras Gets Unruly In Her New Short Story Collection
Intimacy with animals, babysitting plastic dolls, and running into your dad at a furry cuddle party are just a few of the details in this off-the-chain collection of stories, Unruly Creatures.
“Hope and Rebellion Are Inextricably Linked”: An Interview With Author Anjali Sachdeva
"Some people would argue that writing stories about rebellious people is not actually an act of rebellion," says Sachdeva, "but I believe those people underestimate the extent to which we internalize a story that really moves us."
The Deconstructive Irony of Ortberg’s ‘The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror’
This collection gives us Ortberg's trademark gender-swapping, flipping of accepted norms of good vs evil even while blurring the line between them, and startling backstories that do not always reveal underlying motivations but definitely add dark, ironic humor.
Domestic Confinement and Traditional Gender Norms Are a Source of Terror in ‘The Juniper Tree’
Barbara Comyns' The Juniper Tree, recently reissued by the New York Review of Books, diminishes the space between fairy tale and real life.
Hans Christian Andersen Would Be Delighted With Sanna Annukka’s Illustrations
Annukka enhances the reading experience of The Snow Queen and The Fir Tree with her distinctive artistic approach.
‘A Wild Swan and Other Tales’: A Twist on Fairy Tales for a More Sober Time
Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham gives a compelling demonstration of how to reimagine magic while retaining a literary legacy.
Of Art and Magic: An Interview with Novelist Porochista Khakpour
What happens when magical thinking really consumes a person or even a society?