Fairy Tale Review, The Blue Issue

by Kate Bernheimer (Editor), Kim Addonizio (Contributor), Joshua Beckman (Contributor)

This title presents an annual journal devoted to fairy tales, contemporary and historical.Each issue of "Fairy Tale Review" contains poetry, fiction, and essays that either address the abiding influence of fairy tales on contemporary literature and culture, or are themselves contemporary fairy tales in prose or verse. It is, according to editor Kate Bernheimer, "a venue for all writers working with the aesthetics and motifs of fairy tales.""Fairy Tale Review's" first two issues ("The Blue Issue, 2005", and "The Green Issue, 2006") contain contributions from nationally recognized authors such as Donna Tartt, Francine Prose, Lydia Millet, Marina Warner, Jack Zipes, Aimee Bender, and Rikki Ducornet. Stories from the first two issues have been noted or chosen for republication in "Best New American Writers 2006" and "Best American Short Stories 2005". Seven stories and seven poems in all have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.The third volume, "The Violet Issue", contains work by Kim Addonizio, Don Mee Choi, Lucy Corin, Tracy Daugherty, Espido Freire, Toshiya Kamei, Sarah Hannah, Lily Hoang, Anna Maria Hong, Kim Hyesoon, Jeffrey Levine, Lisa Olstein, David Petruzelli, Natania Rosenfeld, Aurelie Sheehan, Richard Siken, Kieran Suckling, Lee Upton, and Julie Marie Wade.

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories, Retellings, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2006

About the author

Kate Bernheimer is an author, fairy tale scholar, and editor. Her many books include the bestselling collection My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales, and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She is the founding editor of the award-winning literary journal Fairy Tale Review. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Reviews

[Abby]

I adore this publication. The wonderful people at Fairy Tale Review have made this, the Blue Issue, and the Red Issue free. You can download the PDF at fairytalereview.com then go to past issues. The same editor put together My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, which was stellar. Hurrah for tales such as these.

[E.A.]

I was better able to connect to this issue. The stories held my attention. Donna Tartt's essay was powerful, Marina Warner's story for Kiki Smith potent and lingering.

[Ronald Wise]

Four features in this issue of Fairy Tale Review made it well worth reading. These were interspersed among poems and shorter prose pieces which tended to be too abstract and/or fleeting for my enjoyment.

Leading off was Kim Addonizio’s “Ever After”, which is one of my favorite short stories I had already read in other anthologies. With each reading, however, I find more amusing cleverness.

Donna Tartt’s essay “From Barrie to Stevenson” is a heart-warming remembrance of the author’s literary adventures with her Scottish grandmother, and her evolving awareness of people in the larger world through her love of Peter Pan and later with Treasure Island.

Marina Warner’s ‘Rapture: A Girl Story for Kiki Smith” is a double-barreled elucidating tale of budding gender identity and sexuality as represented in the Greek myth of Persephone and exemplified in a modern setting. I can’t remember ever reading anything that so unsettled my concepts of adolescent obsessions and gender role development.

This collection ends with the transcript of a delightful and thought-provoking panel discussion with authors Kate Bernheim, Francine Prose, Wendy Weitman, and Jack Zipes, and artist Kiki Smith, in which they discuss the freedoms and limitations of creating in the fairy tale genre.

[K LeMon]

Favorites:

"Ever After" by Kim Addinizio
"The White Cat" by Marjorie Sandor
"On Barrie and Stevenson" by Donna Tartt
"'Retelling Little Red et al: Fairy Tales in Art & Literature' A Panel Discussion" with Kate Bernheimer, Francine Prose, Kiki Smith, Wendy Weitman, and Jack Zipes

[Julianne]

I really enjoyed this journal, I only wish it was longer and cheaper to get hold of, so that I could get the other issues sooner. I preferred the longer stories to the shorter and didn't really get into the discussion transcript included.

[Amy]

Really enjoyed Aimee Bender, Norman Lock, and Marjorie Sandor's pieces in this..