Fairy-Tale Files: The Technologists Grimm

Polymer is the New MorphBody transformation figures prominently in such fairy tales as “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Juniper Tree.” New medical technologies may not change boys into birds or the monster-laden into attractive spouses, but they can radically transform...

Pins & Needles No. 24: Carrie Messenger

No. 24: Carrie MessengerQ. “I couldn’t remember before the Dust, but my sister could. She had two years on me. She was four when the Dust came.” Do you see anything in our lives functioning like Dust in this story, changing the world so deeply that it’s...

Pins & Needles No. 23: Grace Bauer

No. 23: Grace BauerQ. The craft aficionado in me adores your poem’s stanza construction, particularly the transition between stanzas two and three. What, in your opinion, makes the perfect stanza?Thanks for the kind words about “The Rhetoric of Oz” and its structure....

Fairy-Tale Files: Angered Ogres

Hop o’ My ThumbA Hansel and Gretelesque tale, the witch is replaced by an ogre who possesses a strong body, great height and cannibalistic streak. Published by Charles Perrault in 1697, these characteristics laid the template for ogres to come. Of note, Hop’s...