New Fairy Tales Unearthed

The Guardian reports that 500 new fairy tales have been unearthed in Bavaria, including a new one that they have published online called The Turnip Princess.   A new collection of these tales, to be translated into english, is in process.

Fairy tales seem just about everywhere right now, which is a very good thing for us.  We're getting set to launch our own collection of new fairy tales in late April, from the rather magical pen of Mike Barnes.  The Reasonable Ogre: Tales for the Sick and Well, is going to be a stunning publication: not only does it include twelve fantastic new fables by Mike Barnes which stand up to anything being unearthed in Bavaria (or anywhere else), it's a fully illustrated collection, with 70 drawing from the equally magical pen of Segbingway (two of which are above).  We'll be launching it in Windsor April 24th, and at Type Books in Toronto April 26th, with more events to follow.  For those of you who wish an early peak please visit the book's website.

One of the leading names in the current fairy tale renaissance concurs that Mike's collection is remarkable.  Kate Bernheimer offered this endorsement earlier this week:

If you are looking for that once-upon-a-time feeling, to be captured inside an adventurous book, The Reasonable Ogre will satisfy you over and over. It is a marvel, and a tribute to the power of story. The illustrations and language are so entwined as to be inseparable, and they cast a beautiful spell. Mike Barnes is a real fairy-tale creature: that reasonable ogre you hope to meet, whose intentions are good. 

Books should be in shops everywhere in late April.  A chapbook of the title fable will be making its way to CNQ subscribers next week.

Introducing Mike Barnes's The Reasonable Ogre

One of the titles I'm most excited about this Spring is Mike Barnes's new collection The Reasonable Ogre: Tales for the Sick and Well.  Officially this is his third collection of short stories, following Aquarium and Contrary Angel.  But this is different for a range of reasons.  First, Mike has turned his pen to fables with this one, and has collected together  thirteen fables about the hard bargains, small plenties, luscious dregs and strange detours which make life worth living.  In many ways these fables serve as a fictional follow-up to his memoir The Lily Pond as much as anything else he has written.  It is also fabulously illustrated with more than sixty full page and vignette illustrations by Segbingway.  We're in the proofing stage now, and the book will not launch until late April, but it is such a wonderfully unique book I thought it would be worth giving Thirsty readers a bit of an advanced notice.

If you would like a sneak peak of some of what you'll get when we launch The Reasonable Ogre in a few months' time you can check out the new website we've launched to promote the book at www.reasonable ogre.com  There you can see a selection of Segbingway's illustrations, read a sample from the title fable, or listen to Mike read the entirety of the same fable, and samples from a few others.

We'll keep you posted about Toronto and Southern-Ontario launches forthcoming in April/May.