Demeter’s Spicebox has been on quite a journey since it first opened, but we are still going strong! In the interest of finding the right/best story for Issue Three of Demeter’s Spicebox, I am re-opening the call for submissions for Issue Three. We have already accepted Alicia Cole’s beautiful Flower of Flowers, Bird of Birds
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It’s official, salt is sexy! In more than one tradition around the world, salt is used to purify enclosures, or home dwellings. Along with herbs, or turmeric, sea salt is said to remove negative charges from the atmosphere. Salt is an agent of purification, a very housewifely thing to keep on hand. But like love,
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Salt by Joshua Gage My friend, do not be tempted by the billowing fragrances of cumin, the crimson piles of pepper, the syrupy perfume of fenugreek that my neighbors offer. Come here, stranger, and look at this. Were a woman powdered in crushed cloves and cinnamon, were her temper blazened with the finest fruits of
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The Salt of Aksum By Mae Empson From Aksum, city on the hill, the Negus of Neguses ruled over all of Abyssinia, from northeastern Africa to the coast of southern Arabia. His ports sang with the mingled voices of merchants from all across the known world bartering for his elephant ivory, his rhinoceros horns and
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Table of Contents Love Like Salt: Editorial Salt by Joshua Gage The Salt of Aksum by Mae Empson The cover features a remixed aerial picture of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan by NASA (public domain). Cover design by Nin Harris.
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Table of Contents Inaugural Issue Editorial Lavanya and Deepika by Shveta Thakrar Sister and Bones by Mari Ness The 1812 map of Asia featured on the cover is by Aaron Arrowsmith and Samuel Lewis. The map is in the public domain. Cover design by Nin Harris.
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Lavanya and Deepika by Shveta Thakrar Once upon a time, in a land radiant with stars and redolent of sandalwood, where peacocks breakfasted on dreams salty with the residue of slumber, a rani mourned. On the surface, the rani had everything: a kingdom to care for, fine jewels to wear in her long black hair,
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Sister and Bones by Mari Ness They say that before we were born, our mother gathered four cups and pounded plum blossoms and cherry bark and leaves from nine trees caught before they reached the ground into her powdered green tea, fresh as a spring after the departure of the winter snows. The tea hissed
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For the inaugural issue of Demeter’s Spicebox, we wanted to revisit a tale that stands poised in between the active or passive heroine. Tatterhood, or the Aarne-Thompson folktale type 711, is a tale about both motherhood and what it means to be either the beautiful or ugly twin. The original folktale, as collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, was a favourite of mine as a teenager. How could it not be? It was a tale that was refreshing in that the active and not attractive heroine prevails, but it also captures that insecurity that lies at the heart of every person who has felt marginalised, Othered or has been considered unattractive.
[read more...]I am very pleased to announce that we have accepted Mari Ness’s Sister and Bones as well as Shveta Thakrar’s Lavanya and Deepika for the inaugural issue of Demeter’s Spicebox. I found both stories had managed to capture different hidden truths at the kernel of the AT type 711, a folktale type that is very
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What does Demeter have in her box of spices? Is it the cardamom that fills our mouths with a tiny explosion of fragrance? Could it be star anise, or saffron, or thyme? We think she’ll have a little of everything in that box, but at the moment, it is empty! Every author is a “repository of abundance” and it is from that abundance that Demeter’s Spicebox hopes to draw. Think of these as fusion fairy tales, tales written in the spirit of collaboration, familiar tales given a new taste by a new chef.
Cabinet des Fées is pleased to announce the opening of Demeter’s Spicebox, with its own guidelines and a call for submissions for our inaugural issue.
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We associate Demeter with the symbol of cornucopia, with food, harvests and abundance. She is also, in Greek mythology, a mother and a Divine nursemaid. As a grieving mother, she was healed by laughter through Baubo’s cheekiness. She was thus implicated in one of the oldest stories about solidarity through humour and storytelling. I’d like
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