Scheherezade’s Bequest Issue 13

Scheherezade’s Bequest Issue 13 is now online for your reading convenience:

This issue of Scheherezade’s Bequest, with its companion updates from Cabinet des Fées, is being brought to you live from Deux-​​Sevrés, a place saturated in folklore and fairy tales. Situated in the Poitou-​​Charentes region of France, where the landscape alternates between agricultural patchworks and forested hills, Deux-​​Sevrés is home to the the 16th-​​century château d’Oiron (pictured below), where Charles Perrault based his story “Le Chat Botte” (Puss in Boots). Mêlusine, a European spirit of springs and rivers, created the city of Parthenay (located in the center of Deux-​​Sèvres) with a wave of her fairy wand. From the looks of this place, I’d say there are quite a lot of spirits still hard at work around here. The region also hosts the Angoulême Folklore Festival, where performers from all over the world gather to celebrate the traditions of their homelands amidst a bounty of wine and cheese.

It is with a celebratory spirit that we bring you this issue of Scheherezade’s Bequest — it is our 13th issue after all, and thirteen is a number of some import to fairy tales. In the Grimm’s version of Sleeping Beauty, it is the thirteenth fairy who curses the child Beauty after failing to receive an invitation to her christening. In another of the Grimm’s tales, The Twelve Brothers, it is the thirteenth child, the princess, who both seals her brothers’ fates and saves them from it. In the thirteenth issue of Scheherezade’s Bequest, trickster fairies come out in force. Mêlusine herself could be considered a trickster of sorts — you just know that when you tell someone not to do something, that’s the first thing they’re going to do. That’s trickery at its finest. The cover art we’ve chosen for this issue is called “Fighting Fairies II”, and we think it perfectly exemplifies the tricksy-​​ness of number 13, which contains 13 poems and stories we know will delight you.

And here is the Table of Contents:

Song Before a Quest by Megan Arkenberg

The Fear of Apples by Marta Pelrine-Bacon

In the Fey City by S. Brackett Robertson

Matryoshka by Robert E. Stutts

Fairy Tale Cursed by Alexandra Seidel

A Water Sine by Bruce Woods

Instructions for the Successful Maintenance of Foxglove Bakery by Caroline C. Duda

How to Flirt in Faerieland by C.S.E. Cooney

Apple Cake & Princess Charming by Julia August

A Fairy Tale Princess by Shweta Narayan

The Tall House of Mr. Fox By Caitlyn Paxson

The Robber King's Wife by Caspian Gray

Ribbon, bell by Helen Ogden