The Cover of This Fairytale Anthology Tells a Whole Story of Its Own

Here’s the first look at the cover art of a brand new fairytale anthology from Saga Press, The Starlit Wood. What do you think is even happening in this picture? There’s a tree with glowy light inside it, and weird contraptions and scaffolding outside, and what the heck is this?

The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales is edited by Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, and it comes out in October 2016. It’s “an all-new anthology of seventeen original fairy tale retellings, which came together out of a desire to explore old stories in new and innovative ways.” Some of the fairytales being retold are from the classic Brothers Grimm canon, while others are newly rediscovered old stories.

Contributors include Naomi Novik, Garth Nix, io9 contributor Genevieve Valentine, Karin Tidbeck, Daryl Gregory, Theodora Goss, Max Gladstone, Seanan McGuire, Aliette de Bodard, Catherynne M. Valente, and Jeffrey Ford. [Full disclosure: I’m also lucky enough to be included there.] And the cover art is by the supertalented Benjamin Carré, while the book will also include interior art by Stella Björg.

Here are all the details, including the table of contents!

Once upon a time in the desert, in a tower, on a spaceship, in the Other Country...

For centuries, storytellers have crafted timeless tales that have always found a place in our hearts. Here, a new generation of critically acclaimed, award-winning writers have taken up their mantle and shaped traditional and extraordinary fairy tales into something startling and electrifying.

From castles to canyons, a post-human landscape to a pixelated dungeon, from the far future to fantastical realms, The Starlit Wood transforms seventeen stories you thought you knew and takes you on a journey at once unexpected and familiar across time, space, and amazing new worlds.

Cover art is by Benjamin Carré, and the book will include interior art by Stella Björg.

The table of contents is below.

· The Super Ultra Duchess of Fedora Forest by Charlie Jane Anders

· Pearl by Aliette de Bodard

· The Thousand Eyes by Jeffrey Ford

· Giants in the Sky by Max Gladstone

· The Other Thea by Theodora Goss

· Even the Crumbs Were Delicious by Daryl Gregory

· Reflected by Kat Howard

· Some Wait by Stephen Graham Jones

· When I Lay Frozen by Margo Lanagan

· The Briar and the Rose by Marjorie M. Liu

· In the Desert Like a Bone by Seanan McGuire

· Penny For a Match, Mister? by Garth Nix

· Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

· The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle by Sofia Samatar

· Underground by Karin Tidbeck

· Badgirl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune by Catherynne M. Valente

· Familiaris by Genevieve Valentine

And here’s the full cover art:

And here it is without a frame or any words on it:

Now you only have to wait a year until you can buy it!

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All The Birds in the Sky, coming in January from Tor Books.Follow her on Twitter, and email her.