From Modern Mythcraft to Magical Surrealism

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Aug. 2011 (Issue 53)

Welcome to issue fifty-three of Fantasy Magazine! Here’s what we’ve got on tap this month … Fiction: “The World Is Cruel, My Daughter” by Cory Skerry, “The Pragmatical Princess” by Nisi Shawl, “Crossroads” by Laura Anne Gilman, “The Edge of the World” by Michael Swanwick. Nonfiction: Feature Interview: Seanan McGuire by Paul Goat Allen, in “The Messengers, Monsters, and Moral Instructors of Islamic Literature” by Saladin Ahmed, “How To Stock Your Magic-Fighting Toolkit” by Abby Goldsmith, “The Weirdest Fairy-Tale Wishes Ever Made” by Genevieve Valentine.

Cover art by Laura Diehl

In This Issue: Aug. 2011 (Issue 53)

Nonfiction

Editorial, August 2011

by John Joseph Adams

Welcome to issue fifty-three of Fantasy Magazine! Here’s what we’ve got on tap this month … Fiction: “The World Is Cruel, My Daughter” by Cory Skerry, “The Pragmatical Princess” by Nisi Shawl, “Crossroads” by Laura Anne Gilman, “The Edge of the World” by Michael Swanwick. Nonfiction: Feature Interview: Seanan McGuire by Paul Goat Allen, in “The Messengers, Monsters, and Moral Instructors of Islamic Literature” by Saladin Ahmed, “How To Stock Your Magic-Fighting Toolkit” by Abby Goldsmith, “The Weirdest Fairy-Tale Wishes Ever Made” by Genevieve Valentine.

Nonfiction

Editorial, August 2011

by John Joseph Adams

Welcome to issue fifty-three of Fantasy Magazine! Here’s what we’ve got on tap this month … Fiction: “The World Is Cruel, My Daughter” by Cory Skerry, “The Pragmatical Princess” by Nisi Shawl, “Crossroads” by Laura Anne Gilman, “The Edge of the World” by Michael Swanwick. Nonfiction: Feature Interview: Seanan McGuire by Paul Goat Allen, in “The Messengers, Monsters, and Moral Instructors of Islamic Literature” by Saladin Ahmed, “How To Stock Your Magic-Fighting Toolkit” by Abby Goldsmith, “The Weirdest Fairy-Tale Wishes Ever Made” by Genevieve Valentine.

Nonfiction

Artist Spotlight: Laura Diehl

by J.T. Glover

Seasons, in my mind, are particularly charged with their own color feelings. In brainstorming things to do as personal pieces, they were a fun way to give myself a theme.

Fiction

The World Is Cruel, My Daughter

by Cory Skerry

One day it was, “Why haven’t you any hair, Mother?” She stroked her own golden locks, which now swept her ankles, as she waited for an answer.

Nonfiction

Author Spotlight: Cory Skerry

by T.J. McIntyre

People who try and protect their children from the world by enforced ignorance strike me as blinding themselves in the most tragic of ways.

Nonfiction

Feature Interview: Seanan McGuire

by Paul Goat Allen

I can say with complete sincerity that I am not a group of human individuals working to produce my annual output. I cannot comment on the possibility of my actually being an alien hive-intelligence here to conquer your world.

Fiction

The Pragmatical Princess

by Nisi Shawl

Princess Ousmani had fallen asleep in her chains, from boredom. She woke to the weight of a dragon’s head resting uncomfortably on her stomach. One rough, scaly paw kneaded her left shoulder, pricking at her skin.

Nonfiction

Author Spotlight: Nisi Shawl

by Wendy N. Wagner

I felt rather presumptuous using the word “pragmatism” in the story the title. I know it has a bunch of baggage. My research has been in other areas of the discipline.

Nonfiction

The Messengers, Monsters, and Moral Instructors of Islamic Literature

by Saladin Ahmed

Angel, Djinn, and Ghoul: each of these creatures appears in numerous Islamic scriptures or stories, from the Qur’an to the Thousand and One Nights to epic poetry.

Fiction

Crossroads

by Laura Anne Gilman

John came to the crossroads at just shy of noon, where a man dressed all in black stared up at another man hanging from a gallows-tree. No, not hanging; he was being hung.

Nonfiction

Author Spotlight: Laura Anne Gilman

by Jennifer Konieczny

In this week’s Author Spotlight, we ask author Laura Anne Gilman to tell us a bit about her story for Fantasy, “Crossroads.” What inspired your story “Crossroads”? Could you tell us about the process of writing it? The story, or at least the opening lines, came out of a writing assignment that I gave my class during […]

Nonfiction

How to Stock Your Magic-Fighting Toolkit

by Abby Goldsmith

Supernatural evil is perhaps the oldest fear among humankind. Every culture throughout history recognizes some form of the evil eye, and acknowledges some form of a curse.

Fiction

The Edge of the World

by Michael Swanwick

The Edge of the World lay beyond the railroad tracks. The streets were narrow here, the sideyards crammed with broken trucks, rusted out buses, even yachts up in cradles with stoven-in sides.

Nonfiction

Michael Swanwick: Author Spotlight

by T.J. McIntyre

The problem Donna, Russ, and Piggy have is that they live in a world which is, so far as they can tell, entirely devoid of magic. Also, they’re adolescents, which amounts to the same thing.

Nonfiction

The Weirdest Fairy-Tale Wishes Ever Made

by Genevieve Valentine

Thanks to a tireless awareness campaign on behalf of folklorists everywhere, the dangers of your standard wishes are well-known these days. In the wrong hands, we all know, a wish can go terribly wrong.