Our 2016 Pushcart Nominations

We’re thrilled to announce our Pushcart Prize nominations, all from The Ochre Issue. Poetry: Christopher Citro, “We’re Actually Fabulous” Laura Grothaus, “Pinocchio Revisited” Rebecca Perea-Kane, “The Kunstkamera, St....

Special Report: Animal Romance

Interspecies romances, or animal brides and bridegrooms, are a staple of fairy tales. Often, the animal object of affection is actually a human who has been transformed, and this animal guise unsurprisingly makes romance difficult. Above: An interspecies courtship in...

Fairy-Tale Files: Babes in the Wood

In the tale of “Babes in the Wood” (first appearing in 1595), a brother and sister whose parents have died are left in the care of their uncle. The uncle devises a plot to steal their inheritance—he hires two criminals to take the children in the woods and murder...

Special Report: The Snow Queen

In Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” there is a mirror that distorts the world into extremes of beauty and ugliness. The wholesome love between childhood friends Gerda and Kay is threatened when Kay receives a splinter of the mirror in his eye and becomes...