As author, poet, and editor, Jane Yolen has published more than 150 books and has won two Nebula Awards, the Caldecott Medal, the World Fantasy Award, the Rhysling Award, the Daedalus Award, the Kerlan Award, and the Academy of American Poets Prize. She has written one of the 20th century's greatest high-fantasy series, the Chronicles of Great Alta (Sister Light, Sister Dark, White Jenna, and The One-Armed Queen). Her first collection of short fiction for adults is Sister Emily's Lightship and Other Stories. It assembles 28 stories, three of which are original to this volume, many of which take the form of folk or fairy tales, and all of which are excellent. Sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, the stories are always beautifully written, sharp, and wise. "Snow in Summer" portrays a modern, Appalachian Snow White with a fringe-Fundamentalist snake-handling stepmother. "Granny Rumple" reveals the grim origin of Rumplestiltskin. A prequel to the Chronicles of Great Alta, "Blood Sister" explores both love and the nature of narrative. In "The Gift of the Magicians, with Apologies to You Know Who," Beauty and the Beast meet with a horrifically suitable O. Henry twist. The Nebula Award winning "Lost Girls" revisits Peter Pan's Neverland with a feminist slant. "Dick W. and His Pussy; or, Tess and Her Adequate Dick" is an amusingly naughty retold fairy tale. In the Nebula Award winner "Sister Emily's Lightship," the poet Emily Dickinson finds a strange and otherworldly inspiration. --Cynthia Ward
Yolen collects 28 short stories, all but three of which have been previously published in anthologies and magazines. The 28 include sf, fantasy, and variations of traditional fairy tales. In the title piece, the 1998 Nebula Award winner for short fiction, Emily Dickinson meets an alien, and her ride in his space ship inspires her poem about a lost world--"You'll know it by the Row of Stars / Around its forehead bound." Three tales--"The Thirteenth Fey," "Dusty Loves," and "The Uncorking of Uncle Finn" --are part of a planned series revolving around a family of fey, or faerie. "Lost Girls," winner of the 1999 Nebula for best novelette, gives a funny, feminist twist to Barrie's Peter Pan. With nary a loser in the pack, this batch will find a happy home in active collections of short fantasy fiction. Sally Estes
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Review
“Jane Yolen is a gem in the diadem of science fiction and fantasy.” —Analog Science Fiction and Fact
“This is [Yolen’s] first collection of genre stories for adults and it has been well worth the wait.” —Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.
