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She climbs the flights of palace stairs Her gold and silver gown a charm Whispering gone all troubles and cares Worries and woes that cause alarm. Tickled by rushing mountain streams The gentle mountains kiss the sky The sky alive with clouds and dreams Sinking to dusk with one last sigh. The fiddle sings, the heartbeat drums While through the swirling, twirling court The kindly prince of kingdom comes As if a sailing ship to port.  Two turtledoves flush from a tree As prince and maiden hand in hand Begin to dance, this dance to be A realm of peace, a fruitful land. Mary Meriam's poems are published in Literary Imagination, The New York Times, American Arts Quarterly, Poetry Northeast, American Life in Poetry, many other journals, and several anthologies. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, a nd the editor of Lavender Review .   Image from Pixabay

Did you know that in Flanders, the Devil drives a black coach drawn by four fine black horses? Or that magpies, hares, or cats may be witches in disguise and trees may house ghosts? Have you heard of Kludde the shapeshifting trickster? My answer to any of these questions would have been no before I discovered Belgian author Signe Maene sharing the rich folklore of her home on social media. When she announced a Kickstarter for a collection of tales in a beautifully illustrated book, I backed it immediately. Flemish Folktales Retold  is a delightful and atmospheric introduction to the dark and oftentimes quite unsettling world of Flemish folklore. Happy ever after is not usually the rule here. Persecuted witches have their revenge—or seek it at least. Foolish actions are punished harshly (sometimes permanently). The dead are angry and unquiet. And magical creatures do not take kindly to being watched. Here are tales of witches, hares, and cats; ghosts and devils and shapeshifters, as well as dutiful daughters, hateful sons, innocents who stumble on enchantment in the woods, and of course, those foolish enough to bargain with the Devil. I have a soft spot for Devil stories, so it’s no surprise that my favorite in this collection, “The Ship’s Log,” is a terrifying, claustrophobic tale of a completely unexpected visit by the evil one himself. The thirty-six stories are short, and each is beautifully illustrated by Cate Zeederberg. Whether you read a story or two before bed each night, or binge them during daylight hours so you finish before dark creeps in, Flemish Folktales Retold is a delicious, dark, and spooky taste of Flanders and its folklore. You can find it here . Lissa Sloan is the author of Glass and Feathers, a transformational continuation of the traditional Cinderella tale. Her fairy tale poems and short stories have appeared in The Fairy Tale Magazine, Niteblade Magazine, Corvid Queen, Three Ravens Podcast, and anthologies from World Weaver Press. Visit Lissa online at lissasloan.com , or connect on Facebook, Instagram, @lissa_sloan, or Twitter, @LissaSloan.

Editor’s Note: August is a great month for reading. You can feel the tiniest breath of cozy coolness sneaking into the early morning, and the sunlight isn’t as harshly bright. What better way to celebrate than with some great reading? I’ll bet Cinderella used to read by the hearth after a long day of toil. The following first ran in September 2002. Jean Plaidy is one of my all-time favorite writers. Enjoy ! (KW) I’ve always liked Queen Elizabeth II and have found the royal family interesting historically and quite the reality show in the present day. So I was sad when the Queen died, and the events surrounding her death brought me back to reading—as most things do. I love reading actual history but especially love historical novels. I first discovered them in the book Katherine , by Anya Seton, and I’ve never looked back. Jean Plaidy was also responsible for my obsession with historical fiction as a tween. She wrote dozens of historical novels, usually containing tales of royalty (almost always women), written in the first person. To find her books, just check out her Goodreads page . Plaidy wrote series about the Plantagenets, the Tudors, the Stuarts, etc. They are intimate portraits of the thoughts and feelings of women as imagined by Plaidy, and they never fail to drag me into them. They are entertaining comfort food and feel strangely cozy for stories that often end in sadness and/or beheading. My particular favorite is Victoria Victorious , about my favorite interfering queen. (It’s also on Kindle .) Plaidy is only one of the pseudonyms used by Eleanor Burton Hibbert , for whom the word “prolific” feels inadequate. She also wrote as Phillipa Carr. For those of us of a certain age, those names will be familiar. The age issue is something to bring up here. Plaidy was a woman very much of her time. Her attitudes towards gender roles, for example, reflect that. So if you’re interested in reading her books, bear in mind that Eleanor Hibbert was born in 1906. I hope you’ll find this recommendation useful in this time of historical change in the UK.

I’m supposed to spin straw into gold. Suggestions are welcome… There was once a young woman whose father, the local miller,erroneously claimed to the king that she could spin straw into gold. When told either to recant this statement or to summon his offspring so that she could perform the purported feat for his majesty upon pain of death, the miller chose instantly to sacrifice his child rather than admit his addiction to tall tales. “I must be optimistic,” the young woman said to herself as she scrutinized the royal environs for escape routes. “Whatever happens now -- whether I get out of here, whether I can barter tomorrow with his royal gullible-ness and save myself, whether some miracle happens and I really do wind up with gold, or whether I die tomorrow -- at least I’ll be rid of Father. He was bound to mix me up in one of his get-poor-and-run-out-of-town-quick schemes eventually. Or, mix me up more than I usually am by having to run behind him and return-fire with the rocks they throw after us.” “What’s this I hear?” said a tiny man who appeared suddenly in the middle of the floor. “How should I know what you heard?” the miller’s daughter answered. “Only you know how long you’ve been eavesdropping.” “I did not,” said the gnome-like gentleman with an air of injured dignity as if to imply that she had grossly misjudged the extent of his misdemeanor, “enter in time to discern from you the exact nature of the task you have been set, although I understand it to be one which you are unsuited to. I also gather that the consequences of the task’s being left undone tomorrow morning may be somewhat injurious to your pleasing person or your still more appreciable mental faculties. If you care to enlighten me as to the precise nature of your predicament, perhaps I may be of assistance in some way so as to improve your chances of escaping this ordeal unscathed?” “I’m supposed to spin straw into gold,” she said. “Suggestions are welcome.” The gnome beamed at her. “Happily, that particular task happens to be one of my own talents, which I will, of course, be delighted to exercise on your behalf. As a sensible woman who clearly comprehends the desirability of people being fairly treated rather than taken advantage of, you will, naturally, wish to repay me in some way.” This little rascal was crafty. The miller’s daughter smiled. You knew where you were with crafty little rascals who liked to hear themselves talk. Such persons liked to be entertained, and they were often past masters at appreciating their own turns of phrase, clever antics, and bad bargains. They still more appreciated being out-witted by one-time opponents who gave guile for guile in defense of their own, but who weren’t interested in competing for the privilege of out-witting others professionally, and thereby stealing potential clientele. These people were so much easier to consort with than the giants who also liked to hear themselves talk but had no inkling that there were occasions upon which silent and self-interested observance of situations and consequences were warranted. This one had reason to think well of himself. His eloquence was as impressive as his ability to appear out of nowhere, which was, in turn, as admirable as his laudable if insufficient skill at rhetorizing his opponent into the wrong. “What’s your price?” “Your first-born child,” he said, evidently aping her brevity either out of a desire to imply respect for it, or, just perhaps, in genuine appreciation of it as an alternative manner to his own expansive one. “Done,” she said. She presented an immense heap of gold to the king that morning and upon the two following days. When he, in response, proposed, she politely declined the honor and retired to a house she bought with surplus magicked metal she’d gleaned from her supply before presenting the remainder to His Royal Gullible-ness. The next evening, the gnome erupted into her kitchen bristling with the righteous outrage of the con man experiencing the indignity of being out-conned without the consolatory knowledge of exactly how the outsmarting had been managed. “You didn’t marry that stupid king!” “He’s much too stupid for me, don’t you think?” the miller’s daughter responded serenely. “I’m going to marry you, instead.” The gnome stared at her in surprise for a moment, then grinned delightedly. “And so, your first-born child will be my first-born child,” he elucidated the means by which this solution would fulfill the letter of their bargain. The miller’s daughter smiled back. She did not advertise the fact that she’d known he was the one for her well before he’d named his price. She’d save that tidbit for some significant anniversary, or some evening of celebration after they’d jointly pulled off an extraordinary bartering job. She would throw a few discreet rocks at people who might otherwise draw undesirable attention to them, he would employ his superb information-gathering and magical talents to good effect, and the baby would clap. “And we’ll all scheme and connive happily ever after,” she said. Lisa Kovac graduated with her Master’s in English from Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. Her short story “Snow White and the Magic Mirror” appeared in Imprints: Ten Write Place Writers, a creative writing journal published by King’s University College in July 2018. In May 2017, her poem “Villanelle for the Writing Centre: A Monologue” was published in Connecting Writing Centers Across Borders, a journal of writing centre scholarship. She is currently at work on a collection of revisionist fairy tales. Illustration by Helen Stratton.

Strange Folk  begins when a woman named Opaline, who left her home in Craw Valley at the age of eighteen, returns to Appalachia after a long absence. Now known as Lee, she has been to college and started a family, but a divorce leaves her and her two children, Merideth and Cliff, with nowhere to go, so she returns to the home of her grandmother Belva, a woman who practices the folk magic of the region. When her grandmother’s magic becomes suspect due to the discovery of a dead body, the family is drawn into a dangerous search for answers. This book is beautifully written. It is filled with Appalachian folklore and magic that comes from a deep connection to the land itself. The novel does not shy away from difficult topics like addiction, abuse, and intergenerational trauma, but it also captures the enduring spirit of small town mountain life. Although Lee has been educated and now sees magic as a way for people with few resources to feel they have control and power over their own lives, she and her children come face to face with the ancient practice of folk witchcraft. Lee’s son Cliff is my favorite character. He sees people in colors, describing them as “marigold” or “green glitter.” Told alternately through the lenses of Lee and her daughter Merideth, the book explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. The healing effects of folk magic are equated to emotional healing and self-discovery. The book has plenty of plot twists and a touch of romance, but I loved it for its exploration of folk magic in Appalachia. The prologue, which relays a description of a magical gathering beneath a dark sky, enchanted me. If you enjoy stories about family trauma and generational secrets wrapped in magical realism, give Strange Folk  a try! You can find it here . Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review. Kelly Jarvis works as the Assistant Editor for The Fairy Tale Magazine where she writes stories, poems, essays, book reviews, and interviews. Her poetry has also been featured or is forthcoming in Blue Heron Review , Mermaids Monthly , Eternal Haunted Summer, Forget Me Not Press, The Magic of Us, A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard , and Corvid Queen.  Her short fiction has appeared in The Chamber Magazine  and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers . You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/

Editor’s note: This week’s CH was originally published in 2022 in a small weekly newspaper in Indiana. I like the recipe, so I figured I’d recycle it. (Kate Wolford) The title of this column has only one answer: No one. Or at least no one I’ve ever met. I’m sure there are rice haters out there, but for those who eat rice, this very easy, bright-tasting side dish that’s versatile and can be easily doubled. Coming from Charleston, Mom was raised on rice. After all, it used to be grown there, and remains a major staple down South. It’s also a bit less heavy than potatoes, the most popular starchy side in the U.S., and given the brutal heat of Lowcountry summers, it’s no wonder rice is so popular. (On the climate side, South Carolina, like many other Southern states, has become so unpleasantly hot in the summer, I can’t believe people live there. It’s way, way hotter than when we were kids.) But no matter where you serve it, the brightness of the lemon, the savoriness of the onion and the crunch of the celery blend beautifully with the blandness of the rice. “Lemon Rice” goes well with chicken, pork or beef, and it doesn’t sit like a rock in your stomach after you eat it. It works well with summery food like chicken, beef or pork grilled outside. If you want to serve another side with it, corn, asparagus, peas and broccoli will all go well with “Lemon Rice.” As for cooking, you can prepare the rice any way you want to, but it should be standard long-grain white rice — not the quick cooking kind. For reasons we can’t explain, it doesn’t turn out very well with the fast rice. But no matter how you make the rice, this is a very easy dish that is definitely nice enough to serve to company. With those caveats and observations, here’s my mother’s wonderful “Lemon Rice.”       Lemon Rice       1 cup dry white rice, cooked according to      instructions (Carolina gold is ideal, but most      will do)      1 cup chopped yellow onion      1 cup chopped celery with leaves included      1 lemon zested (do not use juice)      1/2 stick butter (if you need more, don’t be      shy)      Salt & pepper to taste Cook rice according to instructions, set aside. Sauté onion and celery together in butter until softened, roughly 5-7 minutes. Do not brown. Add rice to onion and celery and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Off heat, stir in zest from lemon. Serves four.       Note: Mom often used chicken broth instead of water to cook the rice to add extra flavor. Enjoy!

She was a stunningly beautiful girl dripping in gold and pearls and clothing from the finest collections; her name on everything, like an infection. When she spoke, they gathered around, listening to every word, to every sound, What she says must be true, what she wants we must do. She had everything that they sought-after, so they copied every move, even her laughter. How she talked, how she walked, how she dressed, how she obsessed but they weren't any happier perhaps less. Nothing had changed it was all just a game. So be happy about who 'you' are, it may be tragic but that's the only magic. Deborah L.E. Beauchamp is well past the age of a ‘new’ writer but her experience plays an integral role in her work, shaping her thoughts that she paints on the paper. Deborah writes poetry, children’s books and is a photographer. Image from Pixabay.

The beautiful cover of this book and the promise of a cathedral setting which houses an ancient chained library had me salivating to begin reading, and Paula Brackston’s The Haunting of Hecate Cavendish did not disappoint! The story takes place in England, 1881, where Hecate Cavendish, who is in no rush to marry, accepts a job as the new Assistant Librarian at the Hereford cathedral. The cathedral is known for its collection of obscure books, many of which are kept under lock and key. It also houses the Mappa Mundi,  the oldest and largest medieval map which can be used to navigate people’s beliefs, legends, and histories. Hecate is not only drawn to the map, which is covered in strange animated symbols, but she also learns that she can commune with the dead who reside in the crypt beneath the ground. This book is a fun mystery story with some supernatural twists, and while the ending felt a bit abrupt, Brackston is setting up a series about Hecate which promises to be entertaining. I love Hecate’s spunky character, witty humor, and the way she rails against the feminine conventions of the Victorian period. Her relationship with her father, an archeologist who travels the world excavating gravesites, is particularly endearing since he once received a prophecy that he “would have a daughter with hair the color of a sunrise who would have a gift.” It is Hecate’s father who named her after the goddess who acts as a liminal guide between the crossroads of dark and light, living and dead. He also gifts his daughter a cameo of Hekate with her keys, torch, and snakes, cementing his daughter’s important role in communicating with the dead. Rich in folklore and filled with mystery, The Haunting of Hecate Cavendish  will delight those who enjoy a contemporary spin on the Victorian Era and those looking for an exciting new series that blends the supernatural with the everyday world. I really enjoyed it! You can find it here. Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review. Kelly Jarvis works as the Assistant Editor for The Fairy Tale Magazine where she writes stories, poems, essays, book reviews, and interviews. Her poetry has also been featured or is forthcoming in Blue Heron Review , Mermaids Monthly , Eternal Haunted Summer, Forget Me Not Press, The Magic of Us, A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard , and Corvid Queen.  Her short fiction has appeared in The Chamber Magazine  and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers . You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/

If you want to make hearth and home work, then being in shape helps a lot. Let’s face it, Cinderella was almost certainly a strong and sturdy person, or she’d have perished long before that fateful ball. I’m a born slug. I admire physical bustlers who keep busy doing little physical tasks all day long and who voluntarily exercise. But I don’t want to be one of those people. I want to sit and read and watch movies or TV or write something or meditate. That’s just who I am. But my sluggishness has been hard on me. It’s true that a lot of my chronic health problems aren't behavior based, but my physical laziness is not helping. So I’ve tried a variety of exercise methods: Walking, yoga, standard cardio, etc. I just couldn’t stick with any of them. Enter the fantastically named Justin Agustin , specialist in exercise therapy. How did I find him? I kept seeing these little clips on Pinterest showing exercises that seemed geared toward the out of shape and awkward. The smiling, friendly-looking buff fella who was doing them seemed genuine. I thought, why not check him out? Reader, I am hooked. With Justin, you can work on mobility, strength, flexibility, cardio, and all the things. And you can do a lot of it in a chair or on a bed, in addition to traditional standing. Most importantly, you’ll never feel judged. Justin radiates empathy and understanding for his viewers. Those of you who are super fit and coordinated may not understand that many “beginner” exercise coaches say they don’t want you to push too hard, but their bouncy patter and unnecessarily fast movements suggest otherwise. Some of us need to start “before” brisk beginners level. And that ultra-cheery “push, push, push” vibe will not work with us, even at the basic level. It just makes us feel like we’ve failed at the starting gate. (I’m using the royal “we” because I know I’m not alone.) I didn’t feel overmatched or condescended to when I started with Justin’s easiest moves. Through his videos, I worked on ankle and feet strengthening, increasing blood flow, loosening joints and muscle, basicallyreally easy stuff. I’d never started that basic. I’d always jumped right into cardio and full-on strength training, instead of starting with the gentlest movements. And I’ve always quit. It turns out that starting with basics like gentle stretching, and stability, and not pushing too hard, is the answer for out-of-shape types like me. I’ve now moved on to cardio and light strength training because I got more stable and looser first. I’ve never followed an exercise trainer who breaks it down like Justin Agustin, so I’m able to progress. It’s true that you can get tougher workouts if you join his program, but if you need absolute beginner training first, Justin Agustin  is the guy for you. You can try his first month free, and there are a variety of subscription tiers. I’m on six months for $60 and I’m really enjoying it! He also has an excellent app, which is what I use. So, fellow slugs who want to get in shape, give Justin Agustin a try. Screenshot from JustinAgustin.com .

Today, we’re preempting Throwback Thursday to remind you that the fundraiser/writing contest is ending soon. The original post runs below, but there are some important things to know here: We normally do not require submission fees, but we are a nonprofit on a minuscule budget. Every dollar we earn goes to the magazine, and this contest will literally determine how many works we can buy going forward. As of now, that will not be a lot, but there are seven days to go! If you’d like to submit or know someone who might, please checkout the post below. We want to offer as many opportunities as we can to talented writers! Keep reading if you are interested, and we hope you are! This year’s poetry and prose contest and fundraiser window will be open from July 1 at 12 AM, EST, through July 31, at 11:59 PM, EST. It is our last submission opportunity of the year. This is the only fee-to-submit opportunity for 2024.   All rules for length, theme, rights and content in place overall for this year are also in place for the contest.  That means you must follow the regular submission guidelines, which you can find here . You can submit as many times as you want for $5 per submission . So, for example, if you submit three poems, you’d need to send $15 to katewolford1@gmail.com   to PayPal. This is our official business and nonprofit email address. We only accept PayPal. Please do not send money any other way. Again, our PayPal address is katewolford1@gmail.com . There will be a $50 top prize in each category (poetry and story), plus $25 each for honorable mentions. So, in the poetry category, there will be a $50 top prize winner, plus two $25 honorable mentions chosen. Ditto for stories. Entries should only be sent to thefairytalemagazine@gmail.com . Please put “Poetry Contest 2024” or “Short Story Contest 2024” in the subject line of your email. We will notify you of receipt of submissions only , if your submission is not chosen. Those chosen  will be contacted by email no later than September 1. So if we haven’t reached out to you by then, your work has not been chosen. The winning entries will be published in the fall, specific date to be announced. It’s a huge mistake to not read our guidelines  and to not read our latest issue  before submitting. So to help your chances, please do both. All writers and poets who submit will be entered into a drawing to win a FREE copy of Lissa Sloan's fabulous Cinderella retelling Glass and Feathers . We look forward to reading your submissions.

Mary McMyne’s phenomenal new release, A Rose By Any Other Name , tells the story of Rose Rushe, the mysterious “Dark Lady” of William Shakespeare’s sonnets. In the prologue to Rose’s narrative, she describes herself as the “daughter of an ill-starred astrologer and a witch who refused to hide her Catholicism,” and casts the bard’s famous sonnets as “the bitter spew of a jealous lover.” By the end of the first page, I was prepared for a tumultuous journey through the dazzling world of Elizabethan England, and A Rose By Any Other Name  did not disappoint! McMyne’s book begins with Rose dreaming of a life beyond the confines of her country home. She has learned much from the crafts of her parents, but she also sings and plays music, and her deepest desire is to travel to London with her childhood friend Cecely and secure a position as a musician in Queen Elizabeth’s court. When her father passes away, Rose’s unconventional plans are thwarted by her need to protect her mother and her little brother. Chased out of town by accusations of witchcraft, Cecely, Rose, and her family flee to the London home of her father’s good friend, an alchemist seeking to turn base metals into gold. Although Rose is trapped into marrying to secure her family’s welfare, she never stops reaching for her independence, using both ingenuity and duplicity to locate her mother’s estranged relatives and to earn money by singing in brothels, composing music for the theatre, and dabbling in astrology for powerful and wealthy clients who pay handsomely for her discretion. Rose’s complex relationship with her mother, Katarina, is on full display throughout the narrative. Katarina has spells and potions at her disposal, using them indiscriminately to further the security of her family, sometimes at the cost of her own daughter’s freedom. Rose has inherited much of her mother’s shrewdness, and although she has spent her youth dallying with boys’ affections and enjoys a physical relationship with Will Shakespeare, she is a woman who knows what she wants out of life, and she will stop at nothing to get it. Like Rose and her mother, Shakespeare himself is presented as a complex character, both brilliant and insecure, both intimate and distant. Will’s wit draws Rose into his world of ink and paper, but when he brings her into contact with Henry, the Earl of Southampton, whose mother has hired the poet to write sonnets convincing him to marry, Rose is able to peer beneath the surfaces of the men’s desires because she is so clear in knowing her own. McMyne’s greatest strength as a writer comes from her ability to create engaging narrators who are not as fully in control of their stories as they seem. Like Haelewise, the narrator of McMyne’s “Rapunzel” retelling The Book of Gothel , Rose is a multidimensional character whose writing reveals more than the story she reports. Rose writes, in part, to vilify Will Shakespeare, claiming that after their ordeal, she took little interest in his work though he filled his plays and poems with references to her and their romance. Careful readers of Rose’s narrative, however, will spot nods to the bard’s work in her chosen language, revealing that while her relationship with Shakespeare may have been a small part of her life, it had a lasting impact on her and the way that she understands the world. McMyne skillfully gives the dark lady a powerful new voice while simultaneously binding her to the poet who first immortalized her in verse, and the effect is breathtaking. “Sometimes the music just comes,” Rose says to Will upon reading his beautiful sonnet which compares the Earl of Southampton to a summer’s day, and in A Rose By Any Other Name , the music has come to Mary McMyne. Passionate, mysterious, and achingly beautiful, this book offers readers a new take one of the world’s greatest literary mysteries. It is a must read for all those interested in complex family dynamics, sapphic romances, and the pull between societal duty and individual desire. McMyne’s stunning combination of scholarly research and engaging fiction will transform the way audiences understand women, witches, and William Shakespeare. I loved it! You can find it here . To read my upcoming exclusive interview with Mary McMyne , and for a chance to win a FREE  copy of A Rose By Any Other Name , sign up for my reader list at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/ . Kelly Jarvis works as the Assistant Editor for The Fairy Tale Magazine where she writes stories, poems, essays, book reviews, and interviews. Her poetry has also been featured or is forthcoming in Blue Heron Review , Mermaids Monthly , Eternal Haunted Summer, Forget Me Not Press, The Magic of Us, A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard , and Corvid Queen.  Her short fiction has appeared in The Chamber Magazine  and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers . You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/

This year’s poetry and prose contest and fundraiser window will be open from July 1 at 12 AM, EST, through July 31, at 11:59 PM, EST. It is our last submission opportunity of the year. This is the only fee-to-submit opportunity for 2024. All rules for length, theme, rights and content in place overall for this year are also in place for the contest. That means you must follow the regular submission guidelines, which you can find here . You can submit as many times as you want for $5 per submission . So, for example, if you submit three poems, you’d need to send $15 to katewolford1@gmail.com to PayPal. This is our official business and nonprofit address. We only accept PayPal. Please do not send money any other way. Again, our PayPal address is katewolford1@gmail.com . There will be a $50 top prize in each category (poetry and story), plus $25 each for honorable mentions. So, in the poetry category, there will be a $50 top prize winner, plus two $25 honorable mentions chosen. Ditto for stories. Entries should only be sent to thefairytalemagazine@gmail.com . Please put “Poetry Contest 2024” or “Short Story Contest 2024” in the subject line of your email. We will notify you of receipt of submissions only , if your submission is not chosen. Those chosen will be contacted by email no later than September 1. So if we haven’t reached out to you by then, your work has not been chosen. The winning entries will be published in the fall, specific date to be announced. It’s a huge mistake to not read our guidelines and to not read our latest issue before submitting. So to help your chances, please do both. We look forward to reading your submissions. Image from Pixabay .