[Table of Contents and Cover Reveal]: Skull and Pestle, New Tales of Baba Yaga

She can be the enemy of your nightmares or the spirit guide to your dreams. Her hair is wild and gray. Her teeth are made of iron, and she travels using a giant mortar and pestle and lives in a shack on chicken feet surrounded by a fence of skulls and bones. She is Baba Yaga, a crone who ruthlessly uses the needy and greedy for her own devices. And in this anthology of new stories starring Baba Yaga, she lands in some spectacular scenarios.
 
A Jewish resistance fighter in World War II Poland must gain the help of Baba Yaga to vanquish three supernatural men and avenge the loss of her comrades. A young mother leaves her family to serve the witch in penance for committing a terrible wrong. One story delves into Baba Yaga’s tragic origins, while another re-examines the classic tale of Vasilisa, following the young girl who comes to Baba Yaga for fire on her own journey from maiden to mother to crone. One tale transports the witch from the forests of Russia to the swamplands of the American South, expertly weaving together Slavic and African-American folklore, and another brings her right into the modern day, as a young boy goes looking for a witch to put a spell on a school bully and gets more than he bargained for.

SKULL AND PESTLE: NEW TALES OF BABA YAGA, an anthology edited by Kate Wolford, will be available in ebook and paperback on January 22, 2019. Pre-orders will be available soon. Many thanks to artist Russell Thornton for his wonderful original cover art!

Skull and Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga
an anthology compiled by Kate Wolford
Coming January 2019

Table of Contents
Introduction by Amanda Bergloff
“Vasilisa the Wise” by Kate Forsyth
“A Tale Soon Told” by Lissa Sloan
“Baba Yaga: Her Story” by Jill Marie Ross
“The Partisan and the Witch” by Charlotte Honigman
“The Swamp Hag’s Apprentice” by Szmeralda Shanel
“Boy Meets Witch” by Rebecca A. Coates
“Teeth” by Jessamy Corob Cook

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About the Authors

Amanda Bergloff is an editor and author who writes modern fairy tales and speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in various anthologies, including Stories from the World of Tomorrow, Frozen Fairy Tales, After the Happily Ever After, and Uncommon Pet Tales.  She is also editor-in-chief of Enchanted Conversation: Fairy Tales, Folktales, and Myths at fairytalemagazine.com.

Kate Forsyth has written forty books, ranging from picture books to poetry, children’s fantasy to historical novels for adults, and collections of essays and short stories. She has sold more than a million copies worldwide, been published in 17 languages, and won many awards including the 2015 American Library Association Award for Best Historical Fiction, the 2017 Aurealis Award for Best Collection, and the 2017 William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism. She is also an acclaimed speaker, performance storyteller and creative writing teacher, with a BA (Literature), a MA (Writing) and a Doctorate of Creative Arts.
 
Lissa Sloan’s poems and short stories are published in Enchanted Conversation, Krampusnacht: Twelve Nights of Krampus, and Frozen Fairy Tales. “Death in Winter,” Lissa’s contribution to Frozen Fairy Tales, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Visit her at her website, lissasloan.com, or on Twitter: @LissaSloan.
 
Jill Marie Ross lives in rural Pennsylvania beside a lovely pond with her husband, four children, three cats, and a sweet little dog. She is surrounded by books as a librarian, and she most enjoys reading and writing fantasy, paranormal, and historical fiction. She loves camping, hiking, and avoiding housework by curling up with a good book.
 
Charlotte Honigman was raised on Russian fairy tales and World War II legends; the inevitable result of growing up surrounded by veterans of the Soviet Army with stories of the Great Patriotic War to tell. She is a history teacher, wife, mom, and rabbinic school dropout, as well as a writer who weaves Jewish myth and history into fantasy and science fiction. As C.G. Griffin, she is the author of Last Mass, a mystery novel set in Renaissance Florence.
 
Szmeralda Shanel is an expressive arts therapist and educator from Chicago, IL. She loves folklore and especially enjoys writing fairy tales that reflect the rich cultural traditions, practices and folk beliefs of African Americans.
 
Rebecca A. Coates is a writer and editor whose work has been published in skirt quarterly and emerge 15. She blogs about grammar and writing (and UFOs and werewolves and mermaids) at Grammarlandia.com. A graduate of the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, she lives in Vancouver because she loves trees and hates sun. Baba Yaga has long been her favorite witch.
 
Jessamy Corob Cook is an actress, writer and Londoner. She recently won first place in Writing Magazine’s adult fairy tale competition and second place in Caterpillar Magazine’s children’s story competition.

about the Anthologist

Kate Wolford is a writer, editor, and blogger living in the Midwest. Fairy tales are her specialty. Previous books include Beyond the Glass Slipper: Ten Neglected Fairy Tales to Fall in Love With, Krampusnacht: Twelve Nights of Krampus, and Frozen Fairy Tales, all published by World Weaver Press. She was the founder of Enchanted Conversation: A Fairy Tale Magazine, at fairytalemagazine.com.