We craft and tell stories because we’ve stood on the uncertain edge between the waking world and our imagination, between enchantment and fear. And we remember other stories that help us build our own stories, scraps of lumber and fragments of narrative we gather together to make stories for ourselves.
We are delighted to announce the release of a new issue of Unsettling Wonder, on the theme of Tales of Kismet. This issue examines the age-old question of whether the life we’ve been living is…Continue Reading
Call for Submissions Unsettling Wonder: a Journal of Folk and Fairy Tales Issue 6: Tales of Kismet The word Kismet has been gifted to the English language from the Turkish and Arabic. It has its…Continue Reading
Thanks to popular demand and critical acclaim, we’re delighted to announce the release of a new paperback edition of Claire Dean’s debut short story collection, The Museum of Shadows and Reflections. If you had the bad…Continue Reading
Professor Ailsa Cox just finished reading Claire Dean’s new mythic arts short story collection. Here’s what she had to say about it.
Image from the Hungry Ghost festival celebrated in china in early autumn
In honour of All Hallows’ Eve, here are three ghost stories from the Monguor, in northwestern China. Notice how strikingly different—and yet how eerily similar!—these are to European tales on similar motifs.
Our imaginations are easily caught up in new interpretations of these familiar stories, and it’s likely we’ll never stop reusing those tropes while we still retain them in our cultural memories. Join us in an interview with author Arielle K. Harris.
Almost everyone has heard The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen. In this tale, the duckling looks so ugly that he’s excluded by other animals and even his family. He leaves home and suffers a lot all the way, but finally he becomes a beautiful swan.
