Snow White Learns Witchcraft

Bonus content 2024! Read an excerpt from Theodora Goss's new book, The Collected Enchantments! 2020 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Winner for Adult Literature! 2020 Locus Award finalist for Best Collection Contains "A Country Called Winter," 2020 Locus Award finalist for Best Novelette “I was expecting this to be good, but it’s wonderful. Seeing these pieces together makes me realize what a vivid, authentic and important voice Goss is. These are real fairytales, magical, unsettling, touching, and brilliant. I loved every word.” —Jo Walton, World Fantasy, Nebula, and Hugo award–winning author of Among Others “Fairy tales are clothing, and to retell them is fashion. The fashion of these particular stories and poems is an abundance of lace, roses and porcelain contrasting with fur, snow and blood.” —Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times “As a Hungarian-American raised on Hans Christen Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, Goss takes obvious delight in reweaving classic European folk tales to reveal new, often deeply feminist, perspectives . . . This toothsome collection is best read in one go.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review A young woman hunts for her wayward shadow at the school where she first learned magic—while another faces a test she never studied for as ice envelopes the world. The tasks assigned a bookish boy lead him to fateful encounters with lizards, owls, trolls and a feisty, sarcastic cat. A bear wedding is cause for celebration, the spinning wheel and the tower in the briar hedge get to tell their own stories, and a kitchenmaid finds out that a lost princess is more than she seems. The sea witch reveals what she hoped to gain when she took the mermaid’s voice. A wiser Snow White sets out to craft herself a new tale. In these eight stories and twenty-three poems, World Fantasy Award winner Theodora Goss retells and recasts fairy tales by Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Oscar Wilde. Sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious, always lyrical, the works gathered in Snow White Learns Witchcraft re-center and empower the women at the heart of these timeless narratives. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Jane Yolen, in her introduction, proclaims that Goss “transposes, transforms, and transcends times, eras, and old tales with ease. But also there is a core of tough magic that runs through all her pieces like a river through Faerie . . . I am ready to reread some of my new favorites.” More praise for Snow White Learns Witchcraft “Theodora Goss re-fleshes and re-clothes old tales in multifarious ways. Sometimes the stories’ new garments are classic and mythic, sometimes they’re up-to-the-minute, twenty-first-century creations, fresh cuts and colors that bring new truths from the underlying structures. Through prose and poetry, Goss shines her unique light into the fairytale forest—and many bright eyes gleam back.” —Margo Lanagan, New York Times–bestselling and World Fantasy Award–winning author of Tender Morsels “Theodora Goss’s Snow White Learns Witchcraft is a gorgeous, lyric collection of fairy tale retellings. Goss has the ability—the witchcraft—to be able to see the heart of the tale, and show it, polished and reflected and new, to the reader. I loved these stories and poems, their wildness, their beauty, their truth.” —Kat Howard, Alex Award–winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians “With each story, Theodora Goss weaves new myths from the threads of childhood and legend. This collection does what the best songs and poems and spells do: slips gently into your consciousness, then slowly changes the way you see the world. A wonderful addition to Goss’s works.” —Fran Wilde, World Fantasy, Nebula, and Hugo finalist and author of the award-winning Bone Universe trilogy “The elegance of Goss’s work has never ceased to amaze me. It feels effortless, but endlessly evocative and suggestive, flowing with the rhythms of both the natural world and the intimate socio-familial cosmos. Goss’s language fits together like gems in a complex crown, a diadem of images and motifs, resting gently on the head, but with a deceptive weight.” —Catherynne M. Valente, New York Times-bestselling author of Space Opera “In Snow White Learns Witchcraft, Theodora Goss weaves words that look disturbingly like snow and feathers into new stories that are familiar but uniquely remade. A Goss heroine breathes life into silent castles, imprints her own image in darkling mirrors, and plucks enchanted apples from the hands of peddlers; she is a bear’s bride, a newly minted queen, a thunderstorm of a woman and so much more. Dr. Goss cements her position as one of our foremost re-interpreters of fairy tales.” —Angela Slatter, World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Bitterwood Bible “What will you find in these pages, dear reader? Why, the encyclopedia of everything (as written by an owl), what the mirror really knows, rubies red with wolf’s blood-and, surprise!—the secret of who actually spun that straw into gold. Ice, iron, apples, birds, bones, subversion: Theodora Goss’s new collection of stories and poems Snow White Learns Witchcraft is woven of the finest spider silk, a funnel-web of faerie tales that will catch you fast and not let you go.” —C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Bone Swans Cover art by Ruth Sanderson

A monumental career retrospective "This vibrant collection brings together World Fantasy Award winner Goss's exquisite interpretations of and variations on familiar folk and fairy tales. The [poems and stories] span the length of Goss's career ... All approach well-known stories from unexpected angles and with deep empathy for the characters ... The abundance of pieces sometimes has the effect of a musical fugue: common motifs, places, and characters echo through the works, with each reappearance adding something fresh." —Publishers Weekly A wicked stepsister frets over all the ways in which she failed to receive her mother's love. A lost woman travels through an enchanted forest looking for someone who can remind her of her name. A girl must wear down seven pairs of shoes to gain help from a witch. A fox makes a life with a human, but neither can deny their true natures. A young woman returns to her childhood home and the fantastic stories she left there. A man lets himself be taken prisoner by the Snow Queen to prove that the woman who loves him would walk barefoot through the ice to save him. Medusa cuts her hair for love. The Collected Enchantments gathers retellings of folk and fairy tales in prose and verse from World Fantasy and Locus award-winning author Theodora Goss, creator of The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series. Drawing from her Mythopoeic Award-nominated collections In the Forest of Forgetting and Songs for Ophelia and her Mythopoeic Award-winning tome Snow White Learns Witchcraft, and adding new and uncollected stories and poems, The Collected Enchantments provides a resounding demonstration of how, as Hugo and Nebula award winner Jo Walton writes, Goss provides "a vivid, authentic and important voice" that, in the words of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association Grand Master Jane Yolen, "transposes, transforms, and transcends times, eras, and old tales with ease." PRAISE FOR THEODORA GOSS "In the tradition of great modern fantasists like Angela Carter and Marina Warner, Theodora Goss's sublime tales are modern classics-beautiful, sly, sensual and deeply moving . . . I envy any reader encountering Goss's work for the first time." —Elizabeth Hand, winner of the Mythopoeic, Nebula, Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy awards "The elegance of Goss's work has never ceased to amaze me. It feels effortless, but endlessly evocative and suggestive, flowing with the rhythms of both the natural world and the intimate socio-familial cosmos. Goss's language fits together like gems in a complex crown, a diadem of images and motifs, resting gently on the head, but with a deceptive weight." —Catherynne M. Valente, winner of the Mythopoeic, Locus, Hugo, Otherwise and Theodore Sturgeon awards "Theodora Goss re-fleshes and re-clothes old tales in multifarious ways. Through prose and poetry, Goss shines her unique light into the fairytale forest-and many bright eyes gleam back." —Margo Lanagan, Aurealis, Ditmar and World Fantasy award winner With cover art by Catrin Welz-Stein and interior black and white illustrations by Paula Arwen Owen.

“The collection you hold in your hands is otherworldly, it is elegant, it is delicate. It is graceful, it is exquisite and ethereal. It is full of flowers and fairies and a piercing, thorny longing.” —from the introduction by Catherynne M. Valente A Mythopoeic Award finalist Songs for Ophelia gathers together eighty of Theodora Goss's otherworldly poems which lead the reader, as though under a spell, through the unfolding of the seasons and into the realm of pure magic. "Willows, dancing maidens, gypsies, mothers, lovers, daughters, magic animals, living waters, and transformations of all kinds abound in these gorgeous poems. With her formal prosody, her fairytale subjects, and her insights on love and loss and longing, Goss manages, Janus-like, to look back to the Victorians and inward at the heart of a modern woman with intelligence and grace." —Delia Sherman Cover art by Virginia Lee

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 WORLD FANTASY AWARD Gods meddle in the fates of men, men play with the fates of gods, and a pretender must be cast down from the throne in this masterful first fantasy novel from Ann Leckie, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards. "Absolutely wonderful. . .utterly brilliant." -- The New York Times Book Review For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. He watches over his territory from atop a tower in the powerful port of Vastai. His will is enacted through the Raven's Lease, a human ruler chosen by the god himself. His magic is sustained by the blood sacrifice that every Lease must offer. And under the Raven's watch, the city flourishes. But the Raven's tower holds a secret. Its foundations conceal a dark history that has been waiting to reveal itself. . .and to set in motion a chain of events that could destroy Iraden forever. "It's a delight to read something so different, so wonderful and strange." -- Patrick Rothfuss For more Ann Leckie, check out:Ancillary JusticeAncillary SwordAncillary Mercy Provenance

One enchanting romance. Two lovers keeping secrets. And a uniquely crafted book that binds their stories forever. When Evelyn Morgan walked into the village bookstore, she didn’t know she would meet the love of her life. When Brendan Thorne handed her a medieval romance, he didn’t know it would change the course of his future. It was almost as if they were the cursed lovers in the old book itself . . . The Thorn and the Blossom is a remarkable literary artifact: You can open the book in either direction to decide whether you’ll first read Brendan’s, or Evelyn’s account of the mysterious love affair. Choose a side, read it like a regular novel—and when you get to the end, you’ll find yourself at a whole new beginning.

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change. When the twins' grandmother gives them a treasured fairy-tale book, they have no idea they're about to enter a land beyond all imagining: the Land of Stories, where fairy tales are real. But as Alex and Conner soon discover, the stories they know so well haven't ended in this magical land - Goldilocks is now a wanted fugitive, Red Riding Hood has her own kingdom, and Queen Cinderella is about to become a mother! The twins know they must get back home somehow. But with the legendary Evil Queen hot on their trail, will they ever find the way? The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell brings readers on a thrilling quest filled with magic spells, laugh-out-loud humour and page-turning adventure.

Once upon a time fairy tales weren't meant just for children, and neither is Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales. This stunning collection contains lyrical tales, bloody tales and hilariously funny and ripely bawdy stories from countries all around the world- from the Arctic to Asia - and no dippy princesses or soppy fairies. Instead, we have pretty maids and old crones; crafty women and bad girls; enchantresses and midwives; rascal aunts and odd sisters. This fabulous celebration of strong minds, low cunning, black arts and dirty tricks could only have been collected by the unique and much-missed Angela Carter. Illustrated throughout with original woodcuts.