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Once Upon a Time
Humans are hardwired to tell stories. Fairy tales reach back to the oral tradition, with fairy tales being the language that cultures used to communicate with each other, serving as teaching tools to illustrate the morals, fears and expectations of their society. A primitive version of “urban legends,” if you will—where the real and the fantastic collided in cautionary tales that reinforced patriarchal social norms of the time. In curating this collection of modern takes on fairytales, we were looking for works that took on the core values and conceits of the storytelling model—if fairytales are at their core “morality lessons” for girls (and boys) to emulate and learn from, there seems no better or more effective means of subverting the dominant paradigm than from within, by using the tropes of a morality lesson about social norms to start a discussion about what those concepts look like in the modern world.
In this issue, we meet Dortchen Wild, the woman it is estimated was the originator of no less than a third of the Grimm’s fairytales. We visit a dystopian future, where wolves and little girls are equally endangered. We travel to the Appalachias, and gather together to hear a family legend, passed down as truth, about a skilled huntsman in the woods, who runs afoul of a bootlegger. We meet princesses, fair maidens and queens, telling us their side of the story. We see what follows “happily ever after,” and what that looks like in the modern world. But most importantly, we hear the voices of many of the “wicked” women of the Grimm’s catalogue, who exercise active agency in the world to “do evil deeds.” The question the authors of NonBinary Review #1 ask our audience through their work is, “Or do they?—what is ‘wickedness,’ after all—who determines that, who defines it?”
We hope that you enjoy the scope, breadth and diversity of the pieces in this collection as much as we do. With each poem and story, it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish the heroes from the villains of the Grimm’s world—which is, we believe, as it should be—the world is not a binary place to exist, and neither should be the stories and characters who populate our world, be it real or fantastic. We invite you to take a peek inside, to feel empathy for the wolf, and pity for the queen who defines her value solely in terms of her beauty. We want you to try on the glass slipper, and then shatter it to pieces.
And we live happily, and unhappily, ever after.
Allie Marini
Allerleirauh Thousandfurs (cover)
MANDEM is the art name for Maize Arendsee, an art instructor and Studio Art MFA student at Florida State University, and her life-partner, Moco Steinman-Arendsee. MANDEM’s artwork is described as an exercise in categorical violations, simulation, and narrative. With an academic background in classical mythology, gender studies, and critical theory, MANDEM works across media and materials (painting, assemblage/collage, film, sculpture, and book-making), intentionally destabilizing genre in terms of content and media. MANDEM’s artwork has been widely exhibited in art galleries and museums, and it has been featured in over 100 publications.
The Marchen
Tantra teaches fiction writing through UCLA X Writing Program, Writers College, and her academy. She has books out, and 200 flashes, short stories, and novelettes and a novella in journals and in anthologies. She has an MA from FSU and MFA from Iowa. She lives in Berkeley.
Wild Girl
Carina wrote travel articles and books about the Southwest. These days, she spends her time crafting twisted fairy tales and cross-pollinated mythic fiction. She is currently at work on the first novel in her five-book Elements series.
The Woodcutter’s Wife
Ben recently completed his MFA at San Francisco State University. His work has appeared in Smokelong Quarterly, New American Writing, Harpur Palate, and The Los Angeles Review. This piece originally appeared in Smokelong Quarterly.
The Kama Sutra of Cinderella
J. is the author of the graphic poetry collection The Bones of Us (YesYes Books, 2014), with art by Adam Scott Mazer. He lives at iheartfailure.net.
Grumpy Attempts The Expresser-Inquirer Method Learned in Couples Counseling
Lisa’s fiction and essays have appeared in Brevity (blog), Fourth Genre, The Missouri Review, Narrative, New Letters, and The Rumpus. She lives and teaches in San Francisco.
Hunted and Huntsman: A True Tale of the Smokey Mountains
Casey is the author of The Warrior’s Path: Reflections Along an Ancient Route, SCHOOLED: Life Lessons of a College Professor, and Confederado. He is editor of the literature section of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ Encyclopedia Virginia and as general editor of the James Dickey Review.
Telling Ghost Stories
Chloe is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing & Environment. Her work has appeared in Rosebud, Sleet, Booth, Menacing Hedge, and more.
The Girl without Hands
Marissa was nominated for both the Best of the Net Award and the Pushcart Prize. Her writing has appeared in countless publications, including The Cancer Poetry Project 2, Gather Kindling, and Wilde Magazine.
Beauty Standards
Christina’s fiction can be found in various literary periodicals such as Jabberwock Review, Weave Magazine, and Rose Red Review, as well as in anthologies from Tenebris Books and Fey Publishing.
Märchen
James’ work has appeared in Word Riot, Cutbank, The Inflectionist Review, The Citron Review, Mojave River Review, Specter Magazine, Convergence, and others. He teaches writing at Mt San Jacinto College in Southern California.
Snow White’s Cabin
Meg’s work has been in B O D Y, Drunken Boat, Mudfish, and Rock & Sling. Her collections include Your Son (The Florence Kahn Memorial Award), Rotary Phones and Facebook, and The Girl Who Came Back.
Roy was born in Honduras, and currently teaches English composition in Miami, FL. His work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in The Acentos Review, BorderSenses, Compose, Drunken Boat, and Red Savina Review.
Ilsibill in the Night, Alone
Kelsie holds an MFA in fiction from New Mexico State University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Barrelhouse, 1/25, NANO Fiction, SpringGun, and others.
Music
Nels’ writing has appeared in Antioch Review, Black Warrior Review, Southeast Review, Word Riot, Oklahoma Review, Pavilion, Pacific Review, Carnival, Sharkpack Review Annual, Gravel, and The Mad Hatter’s Review.
Ella
Sue is published in children’s anthologies published by A & C Black, Macmillan, Bloomsbury, Schofield and Sims and Oxford University Press.
Ever, After
Mab is a “fantastic” (BBC Radio) performance poet who has won many awards and accolades for her work. She has performed at almost 700 events in the past 7 years, and she is also resident poet in the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Her first collection emerges later this year.
All Wolves Hunger
Margaret is online in Expanded Horizons and in the print anthology Battle Runes: Writings on War. Follow her @MargaretKWrites.
Snow Blight
Melissa is a writer living in Germany, where she teaches American Literature and culture. Melissa’s work has appeared in The Kitchen Poet and in Aberration-Labyrinth.
To The Fairest
Liv is an English major at Columbia University and Poetry Review Editor for poetsatwork.com. She likes dogs, but likes better a sentence from the 18th century by Mary Wollestonecraft that refers to men as “bugbears.”
Flounder
Marie is the editor of poeticdiversity. She is a writer-in-residence at her apartment, published in various journals, author of The Virtual Tablet of Irma Tre, and editor of Near Kin: Words and Art inspired by Octavia E. Butler.
Snow White Attends the Funeral of a Friend
Lennart is a short-fiction writer, poet, historian, and photographer. His work has appeared internationally since 1965. Len and his wife, Lin, live in northern Illinois.
Rapunzel Retold
Jennifer is the author of the chapbook EveryHerDies (ELJ Publications, 2014.) She has work forthcoming at The Blue Hour Magazine, The Blotter, and Red Hill Paint Quarterly.
The Woodcutter’s Wife (Mary’s Child)
Mary is the author of Wolf Skin. Her work hass appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, Pedestal Magazine, Los Angeles Review, New Delta Review, Word Riot, Poetry International, and Apex Magazine.
Not a Cinderella Story
Jenn is the author of Something More Like Love, and her poems have appeared in a number of literary magazines. She was executive producer for Extract(s): Daily Dose of Lit and executive editor for Eastern Point Press.
What I Learned from Little Red Riding Hood’s Mother
is the author of Rivers I Don’t Live By. Her poems are in Another Chicago Magazine, Watershed Review, I-70 Review and Bluestem.
The Mother
Adina’s poems have appeared in Enchanted Conversation, Decades Review, Yes, Poetry, Indigo Rising Magazine, Poetica Magazine, and other print and electronic publications.
Silver Hands
Sarah is a 2013 recipient of Dialogue’s New Voices award for poetry. Her poems have been published in journals including Connecticut River Review, Fresh Ink, Inscape, Noctua Review, and included in the anthology Fire in the Pasture.
Thumbelina
Tania is the Managing Poetry Editor of The Fertile Source and author of November Butterfly. Her poetry is at Chaparral, Poetry Flash and Soundings East. This piece was originally published in November Butterfly.
Little Red at the St. Petersburg Zoological Museum
Erin is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the author of The Fear of Being Found and The Naming of Strays.
The White Witch of Ojo
Meg is author of Bound By Blue and Domestic Apparition, and Her Skin is a Costume. She wrote Bare Bulbs Swinging with Heather Fowler and Michelle Reale.
The Animals Snow White Banished After Becoming a Princess
Donna is the author of A House of Many Windows and We Build Houses of Our Bodies. Her work has appeared in Rhino, Linebreak, Cider Press Review, Stirring, Sweet, wicked alice, and Weave. This piece was originally published in wicked alice.
What Wicked Tricks Are These?
Edward’s fiction has appeared in the webjournal Gone Lawn, while his recent collection, CO, is available through The Pedestrian Press.
Threes and Keys
Julie has been published in Port Yonder Press, Puff Puff Prose Poetry and a Play, and she has won two awards from Virginia Commonwealth University for short stories.
Appetite
Sarah poems have appeared in Apeiron Review, Flycatcher, Great Weather for Media, Lunch Ticket, Rappahannock Review, and Vector Press, among others.