Artist Spotlight: Dariusz Zawadzki
My inspiration is always feelings, elusive emotions. They usually come from my dreams, my longing for other, unreal worlds. I create such a world with my paintings; they all make a whole.
Nonfiction
The Unicorn Tapestries and Other Depictions: Beyond the Obvious Symbolism of the Unicorn’s Horn
At present, when one hears the word “unicorn,” the associations are obvious: a horned white horse, representing purity; a similarly chaste and pristine young woman; a series of single entendres.
Author Spotlight: Carrie Vaughn
You have to constantly ask, what’s being betrayed: the unicorns themselves, or the medieval cultural ideal of them? If the latter, is that a bad thing? Is it betrayal or subversion?
“A silver swan, which had a living grace”: A Brief, Bizarre Collection of Historical Automatons
In recent years, automatons have seen a surge in popularity, from steampunk contraptions to mecha. But this interest is hardly new.
Author Spotlight: Jonathan L. Howard
Cabal certainly has a moral set, although it’s unlikely to win him any plaudits. He would argue that his moral scale is simply greater than most people’s and that he does not concern himself with the minutiae.
Feature Interview: Sky’s (Not) the Limit: The Ascension of N.K. Jemisin
So why has Jemisin’s ascension to the fantasy fiction stratosphere been so meteoric? It’s simple—she is a master storyteller.
Author Spotlight: Peter S. Beagle
Connor Cochran asked me to do a book for Conlan Press that would be a set of Schmendrick stories set before The Last Unicorn. I’d never gone back there, so I thought it would be interesting.
Choosing Our Own Adventures
For kids who love to read, there’s something deeply exciting about opening up a book and being absorbed into someone else’s adventures. But sometimes there’s an alternative to simply reading about the protagonist’s derring-do.
Author Spotlight: Kat Howard
I think one of the parts of a story that writers ought to think about is how the story gets told. We have more options than simply third person past. The way we choose to tell a story matters.
Editorial, April 2011
Welcome to issue forty-nine of Fantasy! On tap this month… Fiction: “Choose Your Own Adventure” by Kat Howard, “The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon” by Peter S. Beagle, “House of Gears” by Jonathan L. Howard, “The Hunter’s Ode to His Bait” by Carrie Vaughn. Nonfiction: “Choosing Our Own Adventures” by Molly Tanzer, “Feature Interview: N. K. Jemisin” by Paul Goat Allen, “A Silver Swan” by Genevieve Valentine, “The Unicorn Tapestries and Other Depictions” by Helen Pilinovsky.
