An evening of dark and daring stories with Amal El-Mohtar, Susanna Clarke, Gregory Maguire and Terri Windling.
Online event
About Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups
Fairy Tales have an older and darker past as stories for adults as well as the young. They were often sensual, bawdy, unflinchingly violent, sophisticated and morally complex. In recent decades, spearheaded by Angela Carter’s wild, witty and wonderful collection, The Bloody Chamber, there has been a revival of new versions of the fairy tale tradition by some extraordinary writers dark and bright; feminist; horrific and funny; sensual, stark and startling.
This exclusive online event gathers four of the world’s most acclaimed storytellers for an evening of conversation and readings: Gregory Maguire appears at his first UK event since Wicked was published here twenty years ago, and is joined by Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell), Amal El-Mohtar (This Is How You Lose the Time War) and Terri Windling (The Wood Wife).
The event also marks the publication of a new British Library anthology, Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups, edited by Terri, and featuring stories by Amal and Susanna, as well as by A S Byatt, Emma Donoghue, Nalo Hopkinson, Ursula K. Le Guin and many more.
Part of the programme for the British Library’s summer exhibition Fairy Tales.
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Amal El-Mohtar
Amal El-Mohtar writes fiction, poetry, and criticism.
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She won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for her short story 'Seasons of Glass and Iron' and again for her novella This Is How You Lose the Time War, written with Max Gladstone, which also won the BSFA and Aurora awards, became a New York Times bestseller, and has been translated into over ten languages. Her reviews and articles have appeared in the NYT and on NPR Books. The River Has Roots is her solo debut, and Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is her debut collection. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.
Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Years, a series that includes Wicked.
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Wicked is the beloved classic that is the basis for the blockbuster Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name and the major films Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz. His series Another Day continues the story of Oz with The Brides of Maracoor, The Oracle of Maracoor, and The Witch of Maracoor, and his other novels include A Wild Winter Swan, Hiddensee, After Alice, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, and Mirror Mirror. Some of his novels for children include Cress Watercress, Leaping Beauty, and Egg & Spoon winner of a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor. He lives in New England and France.
Susanna Clarke
Susanna Clarke's debut novel was Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was first published in more than 34 countries and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and The Guardian First Book Award. It won British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year, the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award in 2005. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, a collection of short stories, some set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, was published by Bloomsbury in 2006. Clarke's second novel Piranesi was an international bestseller and won the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021 and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award. She lives in Derbyshire.
Terri Windling
Terri Windling is a writer, editor, and folklorist who has published over 40 books.
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Terri's works have received ten World Fantasy Awards (including the Life Achievement Award in 2022), the Mythopoeic Award (for her novel The Wood Wife), the Bram Stoker Award, the SFWA Solstice Award, and other honours. She has edited fantasy fiction since the 1980s, working with many top writers in the field, and has published numerous short story anthologies, including the six-volume Snow White, Blood Red series of adult fairy tales (co-edited with Ellen Datlow), and a new collection of Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups for the British Library. She also writes fiction for children and adults, and nonfiction on mythic arts, folklore, and fairy tale history. She served on the Advisory Board for the British Library’s Fantasy exhibition in 2022–2023.
Attending your event
This is an online-only event streamed on the British Library platform. Bookers will be sent a viewing link shortly before the event and will be able to watch at any time for 7 days after the start time.