Status Updates From Fantasy Magazine, Issue 58,...

The Scrimshaw and the Scream by Kate Hall 2,5⭐
Good idea, but too didactic for my taste.

Miss Carstairs and the Merman by Delia Sherman 2⭐
I would have liked this one, but it had SO MUCH unquestioned colonial and power dynamics that it made me kind of sick. It is a story from 1989, which I didn't know when I picked it up, but... you know, doesn't change my experience.

The Dryad's Shoe by T. Kingfisher 4⭐
Cinderella retelling where the MC cares way more about the garden than about marrying a prince. I really liked this, you can see traces of Bryony in this (published a year later).

There had been an incident with the priest and the parable of the fig tree. Hannah had opinions about people who did not understand when figs were ripe, even if those people were divine.

The Princess and the Witch by Kat Howard 4⭐
Good essay about origins of Fairy Tales in the French salon culture of 17th century and more. I enjoyed this. Will need to look into some of the stuff more closely.

The Comtesse de Murat was denounced by her family for unruly behavior and lesbianism, and was exiled by King Louis YIV for satirizing his relationship with his mistress, Madame de Maintenon.

Language and Imaginative Resistance in Epic Fantasy by Kameron Hurley 4⭐ (Essay)
Over ten years old and I would say that the situation has improved somewhat, but this still reads relevant to me.

I don't just write stories. I don't just sell book widgets. I create new narratives of the way we can be, of the way world can be.

The Glass Bottle Trick by Nalo Hopkinson 4⭐
My first Nalo Hopkinson and this was quite good. Bluebeard vibes in Carribean setting, will be reading more by Hopkinson.

"The Glass Bottle Trick" by Nalo Hopkinson is a American southern gothic version of a fairy tale, but figuring out which one was part of the fun.