Ten New Fairy Tales
Limited Edition paperback, $16, 72 pages, 5 x 7.5”, 978-1-62054-037-4
This is a special first edition limited to 250 numbered copies signed by both author and artist, of which only 200 copies are available for sale, and may only be purchased from this website or our bookstore partners (see under Resources above, and call ahead).
Between Christmas Day and Childermas of 2016, the fabulist Robert Kelly wrote these ten delightful tales filled with wonder and enchantment, and with suitably beguiling entities as well: spectral foxes, a telepathic ape and antelope, shadows that speak, an odd djinn, a feline conductor, an umbrella-loving serpent, protean elves, and other visions of the ultimate reality just beyond sight. These tales possess such alluring titles as “The Fox and the Other Side,” “The Priest’s Peculiar Wife,” “The Boy in the Camel,” “The Leper’s Touch,” and “The Rainbow.” And each story is accompanied by an original pen-and-ink drawing by the artist-scholar Emma Polyakov.
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” — C.S. Lewis
“A story is the best gift we can give one another. A story can stay in mind or come to life again. When a story is simple enough it becomes a myth. Meanwhile I try to tell all the stories the mind tells me. And keep listening.” — Robert Kelly
In addition to many books in various genres, mostly poetry, Robert Kelly has published five collections of short fiction with McPherson & Company: A Transparent Tree, Doctor of Silence, Cat Scratch Fever, Queen of Terrors, and The Logic of the World. He teaches in the Written Arts Program at Bard College. His two most recent books are long poems, Calls and The Caprices.
Emma O’Donnell Polyakov studied art at Bard College, and currently teaches and writes about religion. She is Assistant Professor of Religious and Theological Studies at Merrimack College, and the author of Remembering the Future: The Experience of Time in Jewish and Christian Liturgy.