This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West is the second entry in the Divide anthology series attempting to capture the newness, vastness, territoriality, and sense of transience alive in the American West. In this collection legends, myths, tales, omens, folk horror, and science fiction explore the fantastical, the apocalyptic, the bizarre, the unknown, and the apocryphal origins and conclusions of life on the occidental side of the Continental Divide. In this collection, after the ‘what is’ comes the ‘what will be’, as acclaimed authors and emerging voices weave tales that push the boundaries of imagination: Ken Liu takes us to the frontiers of America and China in a stark tale of perseverance; Kate Bernheimer immerses us in the fairytale lands of modern celebrity; Benjamin Percy takes us hunting for deer and connection in eastern Oregon; Yuri Herrera grants us insight on our future overlords; Tessa Fontaine places us in-between with a monster and a question; Dominique Dickey chases familiar ghosts; and Willy Vlautin takes us on the wild ride that is a winning streak. Accompanied by a foreword from This Side of the Divide alum, and author of The Forbidden City, Vanessa Hua, these twenty-five pieces of new lore excavate the beauty, the uncertainty, the longing, the bitter interactions and stark truths; the strong people and vivid places that have shaped, and will continue to shape the West until the end of days.

This is a critical examination of the writers of the late 20th-early 21st centuries whose re-inventions of the literary fairy tale mirror the social, political, and cultural climate of the age. Sixteen essays consider fairy tales recreated through contemporary short stories, novels, poetry, and the graphic novel from both best-selling and lesser-known writers. The essays apply a variety of theoretical perspectives, including postmodernism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, structuralism, queer theory and gender studies.

The fairy tale lives again in this book of forty new stories by some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction.
Neil Gaiman, "Orange"
Aimee Bender, "The Color Master"
Joyce Carol Oates, "Blue-bearded Lover"
Michael Cunningham, "The Wild Swans"
These and more than thirty other stories by Francine Prose, Kelly Link, Jim Shepard, Lydia Millet, and many other extraordinary writers make up this thrilling celebration of fairy tales--the ultimate literary costume party.
Spinning houses and talking birds. Whispered secrets and borrowed hope. Here are new stories sewn from old skins, gathered by visionary editor Kate Bernheimer and inspired by everything from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and "The Little Match Girl" to Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" and "Cinderella" to the Brothers Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" and "Rumpelstiltskin" to fairy tales by Goethe and Calvino and from China, Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Norway, and Mexico.
Fairy tales are our oldest literary tradition, and yet they chart the imaginative frontiers of the twenty-first century as powerfully as they evoke our earliest encounters with literature. This exhilarating collection restores their place in the literary canon.

Fifty leading writers retell myths from around the world in this dazzling follow-up to the bestselling "My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me."
Icarus flies once more. Aztec jaguar gods again stalk the earth. An American soldier designs a new kind of Trojan horse--his cremains in a bullet. Here, in beguiling guise, are your favorite mythological figures alongside characters from Indian, Punjabi, Inuit, and other traditions.
Aimee Bender retells the myth of the Titans.
Madeline Miller retells the myth of Galatea.
Kevin Wilson retells the myth of Phaeton, from Ovid's "Metamorphoses."
Emma Straub and Peter Straub retell the myth of Persephone.
Heidi Julavits retells the myth of Orpheus and Euridice.
Ron Currie, Jr. retells the myth of Dedalus.
Maile Meloy retells the myth of Demeter.
Zachary Mason retells the myth of Narcissus.
Joy Williams retells the myth of Argos, Odysseus' dog.
If "xo" signals a goodbye, then "xo Orpheus" is a goodbye to an old way of mythmaking. Featuring talkative goats, a cat lady, a bird woman, a beer-drinking ogre, a squid who falls in love with the sun, and a girl who gives birth to cubs, here are extravagantly imagined, bracingly contemporary stories, heralding a new beginning for one of the world's oldest literary traditions.

Elegant and brutal, the stories in Kate Bernheimer's latest collection occupy a heightened landscape, where the familiar cedes to the grotesque and nonsense just as often devolves into terror. These are fairy tales out of time, renewing classic stories we think we know, like one of Bernheimer's girls, whose hands of steel turn to flowers, leaving her beautiful but alone.

Kate Bernheimer is the author of the short story collection "Horse, Flower, Bird" and the editor of "My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales" and the journal "Fairy Tale Review."

Despite the availability of several eloquent gender studies of fairy tales, a popular reference on men and fairy tales has so far been nonexistent. ""Brothers and Beasts"" offers a new perspective by allowing twenty-three male writers the chance to explore their artistic and emotional relationship to their favorite fairy-tale stories. In their personal essays, the contributors - who include genre, literary, mainstream, and visual media writers - offer new insight into men's reception of fairy tales. ""Brothers and Beasts"", the follow-up to Kate Bernheimer's influential ""Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales"", offers new avenues for research in fairy-tale studies.Bernheimer has invited many well-known writers to contribute to this volume, from Gregory Maguire, whose acclaimed titles include ""Wicked"", ""Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister"", and ""Son of a Witch"", to Robert Coover, one of the premier authors of postmodern fiction, to Neil Gaiman, a well-known fantasy fiction writer and author of graphic novels. With a foreword by Maria Tatar and an afterword by Jack Zipes, the intimate and contemplative essays are framed by insight from two leading fairy-tale studies scholars.""Brothers and Beasts"" proves that men are deeply influenced by the childhood reading of fairy tales, despite the fact that these fantastic and memorable tales are often mistakenly considered to be the domain of women readers and writers. Students and teachers of fairy-tale and gender studies along with readers of contemporary literature will enjoy this accessible and intriguing volume.

New edition (revised and expanded) available 8/13/02.

Fairy tales are one of the most enduring forms of literature, their plots retold and characters reimagined for centuries. In this elegant and thought-provoking collection of original essays, Kate Bernheimer brings together twenty-eight leading women writers to discuss how these stories helped shape their imaginations, their craft, and our culture. In poetic narratives, personal histories, and penetrating commentary, the assembled authors bare their soul and challenge received wisdom. Eclectic and wide-ranging, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall is essential reading for anyone who has ever been bewitched by the strange and fanciful realm of fairy tales.

Contributors include: Alice Adams, Julia Alvarez, Margaret Atwood, Ann Beattie, Rosellen Brown, A. S. Byatt, Kathryn Davis, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Deborah Eisenberg, Maria Flook, Patricia Foster, Vivian Gornick, Lucy Grealy, bell hooks, Fanny Howe, Fern Kupfer, Ursula K. Le Guin, Carole Maso, Jane Miller, Lydia Millet, Joyce Carol Oates, Connie Porter, Francine Prose, Linda Gray Sexton, Midori Snyder, Fay Weldon, Joy Williams, Terri Windling.

Fairy Tale Architecture is a ground-breaking book, the first study to bring architects in conversation with fairy tales in breathtaking designs. Little Red Riding Hood, Baba Yaga, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Snow Queen: these and more than 15 other stories designed by Bernheimer Architecture, Snohetta, Rural Studio, LEVENBETTS, and LTL Architects and many other international vanguards have created stunning works for this ground breaking collection of architectural fairy tales. Story by story, Andrew Bernheimer and Kate Bernheimer - a brother and sister team as in an old fairy tale - have built the ultimate home for lovers of fiction and design. Snow girls and spinning houses. Paper capes and engineered hair braids. Resin beehives and infinite libraries. Here are futuristic structures made from traditional stories, inspired by everything from Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen and The Little Match Girl, to the Brothers Grimm's Rapunzel and The Juniper Tree, to fairy tales by Jorge Luis Borges and Joy Williams and those from China, Japan, Russia, Nigeria, and Mexico. A desire for story and shelter counts as among our most ancient instincts, and this dual desire continues to inspire our most imaginative architects and authors today. Fairy Tale Architecture invites the reader into a space of wonder, into a new form that will endure ever after.