Mirror, Mirror on the Wall - by Kate Bernheimer (Paperback)

About the Book

A brilliant collection of original essays by many of our leading women on the fairy tales that have shaped their lives and work. Contributors include Alice Adams, Margaret Atwood, Ann Beattie, Rosellen Brown, A.S. Byatt, Chitra B. Divakaruni, Lucy Grealy, Joyce Carol Oates, and many others.

Book Synopsis

New edition (revised and expanded) available 8/13/02.

Fairy tales are one of the most enduring forms of literature, their plots retold and characters reimagined for centuries. In this elegant and thought-provoking collection of original essays, Kate Bernheimer brings together twenty-eight leading women writers to discuss how these stories helped shape their imaginations, their craft, and our culture. In poetic narratives, personal histories, and penetrating commentary, the assembled authors bare their soul and challenge received wisdom. Eclectic and wide-ranging, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall is essential reading for anyone who has ever been bewitched by the strange and fanciful realm of fairy tales.

Contributors include: Alice Adams, Julia Alvarez, Margaret Atwood, Ann Beattie, Rosellen Brown, A. S. Byatt, Kathryn Davis, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Deborah Eisenberg, Maria Flook, Patricia Foster, Vivian Gornick, Lucy Grealy, bell hooks, Fanny Howe, Fern Kupfer, Ursula K. Le Guin, Carole Maso, Jane Miller, Lydia Millet, Joyce Carol Oates, Connie Porter, Francine Prose, Linda Gray Sexton, Midori Snyder, Fay Weldon, Joy Williams, Terri Windling.

From the Back Cover

Fairy tales and their exaggerated characters, from the "evil stepmother" to the "virginal bride", have been a resonant chord throughout Western culture, providing provocative challenges to and mirrors of women's complex sense of themselves - and the expectations of the world around them. In Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Kate Bernheimer brings together twenty-four of our foremost contemporary women writers to discuss, in poetic narratives, evocative personal histories, and penetrating essays, how the fairy tales we all grew up with - from "Cinderella" and "Little Red Riding Hood" to "Bluebeard" and "The Princess and the Pea" - have affected their emotional lives, their work, and the culture they live in. For some of the writers, fairy tales were their first formative experience of literature, and several turned to fairy tales in creating their own fiction as adults. Others rebelled utterly at the cultural stereotypes and the roles assigned to women in these tales, and in their essays explore the impact such fairy tales have had on our mores and thinking.

About the Author

Kate Bernheimer was recently the George Bennett Fellow in Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy. She is currently writing a novel, The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold. She grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.