Young Ravens Issue 2 Introduction

I'm pleased to announce the Spring 2015 release of Young Ravens Literary Review, Issue 2! Fabulous cover art courtesy of Tommy Ottley.

I'm especially excited about sharing this issue because its theme explores the essential vitality of reimagining fairy tales, folktales, and the ethereal in nature. To quote the introduction:

"A wise folklorist once taught that variation is the key to the survival of stories in human society. When fairy tales and folktales becomes static, with only one dominant or “right way” of telling, that is when they are doomed to lose relevance and remembrance in our collective consciousness. By exploring retellings of the same tale and differing perspectives in narration, stories thrive because they are never done being told anew."
 
The introduction continues with an earlier blog-post turned poem pondering Cinderella as writing muse. No, more as a metaphor for a writer's heart, bright glass courage, brittle fears, and all we are, once were shining, or yet may ink:

After Midnight

In the deepest hour of night
I bury a once starlit thing--
What dreams may teach me:
Glass slippers break easily
Leaving only shards.
And yet . . .
Cinderella's next step
After midnight
When the ball and all
Her gossamer glories
Were completely undone,
That step was the most important.
Barefoot in the dark,
She made her choice
To go on.
“Must I write?”

I must.

- S. E. P.

L1 paraphrased and L16 taken from: Rilke, Maria Rainer. (1903). “Letters to a Young Poet.” TinyLetter. Retrieved from http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/07/letter-to-young-poet.html.