Our favorite anthologist (and founder of Enchanted Conversation) Kate Wolford's new book was just released!
Skull & Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga is now out from World Weaver Press and available HERE.
In this anthology, Kate Wolford has collected seven unique tales of Baba Yaga, the iconic witch, that will transport you from a Tsardom far away beyond high white mountains and vast icy steppes, to a swamp in Alabama, to impossible paths lit by the supernatural eyes of a skull...and beyond.
In “Vasilisa the Wise,” Kate Forsyth tells the classic Russian fairy tale of a girl with a pure heart that encounters Baba Yaga and performs the impossible. Lissa Sloan’s “A Tale Soon Told,” is a bittersweet reflection on a life seen in three different phases under the subtle guidance of the all-knowing grandmother. “Baba Yaga: Her Story,” is author Jill Marie Ross’ take on Baba Yaga’s origins, of Koschei the Deathless and how lost souls can find one another and become family.
Set in a place where folktales and the horrors of World War II tragically meet,“The Partisan and the Witch,” by Charlotte Honigman, tells the tale of a girl’s bargain with Baba Yaga for weapons to kill three who cannot be killed. Here, the dead can help the living, and a blessing can scare even a powerful witch.
A mysterious old crone in the swamplands of the American South helps a motherless girl find her true calling in Szmeralda Shanel’s “The Swamp Hag’s Apprentice.” In “Boy Meets Witch,” by Rebecca A. Coates, doing impossible chores for a witch is the least of a boy’s problems once the spell he asked her for takes effect.
And the anthology culminates with Jessamy Corob Cook’s, “Teeth,” a tale of sisters, jealousy, guilt, sacrifice, and revenge.
So tell the hut to stop spinning so you can pour yourself a cup of tea from the samovar. Sit by the warm fire to enjoy these stories, and when you’re done, think of the favor or question you would like to ask, because Baba Yaga is waiting...
Baba Yaga knows all.
