Catherine Rémy: Where myth and landscape meet by Erzebet YellowBoy & Catherine Rémy The cover art for the 14th issue of Scheherezade’s Bequest was provided by Catherine Rémy, a visual artist who draws inspiration from landscape and myth. Her work has been exhibited at the Chatham Arts Centre, Covent Garden’s Jubillee Centre, the Medway Arts Centre, the
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Kirsty Greenwood, the artist whose “Fighting Faeries” was featured on the cover of Scheherezade’s Bequest 13, has a talent for expressing the unworldly and transient nature of her subject. Describing herself as “a quixotic painter, illustrator, sculptor and seamstress”, she engages with paint and pencil, with wood and fabric, and with her own dreaming self to
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The Silence of Trees By Valya Dudycz Lupescu, 2010 Reviewed by Donna Quattrone “I eagerly went onto the unknown, looking for magic, for mystery, for adventure. But sometimes magic finds you. Sometimes it comes in the least likely of forms: in a small black river rock, a deck of hand-painted cards, a sprig of purple herb, or an
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Let England Shake By PJ Harvey, 2011 Reviewed by Tanya B. Avakian The minstrel boy to the war is gone In the ranks of death you will find him, His father’s sword he has girded on And his wild harp slung behind him. “Land of song,” said the warrior bard, “Though all the world betray thee,
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By Lyz Reblin During my nine-month journey to my destination I chose to research the planet before encountering its inhabitants. In the spaceship’s library, I found a text titled “The Classic Fairy Tales” edited by a human named Maria Tatar. The tome seemed to be a misnomer, for no fairies were to be found within its pages. Instead, I found a collection of
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By Elizabeth Hopkinson Almost everyone knows the familiar fairy tale ending: the prince marries the princess and they live happily ever after. But does this simple conclusion embody all that fairy tales have to tell us about human sexuality? By no means! “Intentionally or not, (fairy tales) have been used to enforce what has been termed
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By Sophie Masson Aberfoyle, Perthshire, Scotland It is a pretty track from the manse to the hill. Early spring, and the trees are beginning to put out new young leaves. Subtle colour permeates the landscape; the pale purple of growing tips, the russet of lingering winter, the film of green beginning to thicken, the darkness of the
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Kate Crackernuts: The Hen-Wife and her Cauldron of Wisdom by Colleen Szabo This tale is a wisdom tale featuring the old symbol of creativity and wisdom, the nut. We still use the term “nut” to denote the head, one location commonly assigned for wisdom; in fact, nuts are sort of like brains in a skull (shell). I suppose in
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The Lost Machine Written and Illustrated by Richard A. Kirk Radiolaria Studios, 2010 Reviewed by Erzebet YellowBoy Richard A. Kirk’s The Lost Machine is a delightful yet dark tale about a man named Lumsden Moss who first appears in a prison cell, waking from a nightmare. We never learn exactly why the door to his cell is open that
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This past March, I had the pleasure of attending the Myths and Fairy Tales in Film and Literature post-1900 conference at the University of York. As well as being a sort of CdF reunion, with Helen Pilinovksy and I seeing each other in person for the first time in several years, I had the opportunity to meet one of
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“These bewitching poems and stories, always sensuous, sometimes sad, unwind a fevered world of magic and longing and young women who chance the uncanny and gain wisdom beyond their years.”
–Mike Allen, editor of Mythic Delirium
“The Winter Triptych is a gorgeous labyrinth of words, a vivid dream-world of ghosts, ruined towers, mad queens, and revenge biding its time. Its language is as rich as plum-cake, but it presents the reader with a challenge as well, parts that fit together like puzzle-pieces to form a story familiar and yet not, darker and stranger than the fairytale we remember.”
–-Theodora Goss, author of In the Forest of Forgetting
“Stunningly delicious! Cruel, beautiful and irresistible are C.S.E. Cooney’s characters and prose. Just when you thought fantasy had devolved into endless repetition, Jack o’ the Hills blows us all over the next hill and into the kingdom beyond. C.S.E. Cooney is a rare and exciting new talent. Whatever she offers us next, I’ll waiting in line to read.”
– Ellen Kushner, author of Thomas the Rhymer