Witches in Fairy Tales: Wise Women or Evil Enchanters?
August 15-16, 2026
Arrow on Swanston, Melbourne

For ‘Witches in Fairy Tales: Wise Women or Evil Enchanters?‘, we invite you to submit presentations in a diversity of forms, as this is one of the delights of an AFTS conference. How will you weave a fairy tale witch – male or female, wicked or wonderful – into your presentation?

Submissions close 11pm April 30, 2026.

We are looking for:

• Talk of 25 minutes, including optional 5 minute Q&A
• Performance, 10 minutes max, with optional 5 minute Q&A. For example, storytelling, puppetry, theatre, singing, music, dance.
• Panel discussion, 30 minute maximum, including 5 minute Q&A
• Workshop, 45 minute maximum including set-up time. For example, art, writing, storytelling, sand sculpture, puppetry, gardening, cake decorating
• Case study (or poster display) of a creative process of staging a fairy tale performance
• Games or participative activities, 10 minute maximum
• Launch of your book, video game, performance
• Sales and/or displays of your books, art, puppets, toys, costumes, etc.
• New ideas or formats welcome!

Stuck for ideas? Here are suggestions to pursue or inspire!

• Create your own original fairy tale of witches and wisdom set in Australia – as a story, song, play, poem, artwork, or other creative medium.
• Examine the pagan roots of a fairy tale, before it was re-written by male tellers such as Perrault or the Brothers Grimm. Our keynote speaker Lucy Cavendish has done this in brilliant ways in her book Magickal Faerytales: An Enchanted Collection of Retold Tales.
• Map the parallels between the real-life minimising of women’s power to the way it has happened in a fairy tale, such as Cinderella’s magical helper changing from wise and powerful witch to sweet and bumbling fairy godmother.
• Weave together a mini-workshop to help people connect with their own fairy-tale witch archetype, or to draw a magical character, write their own tale, or perform a group ritual.
• Re-imagine a supposedly powerless princess, who has an animal familiar (very witchy!) and the power to face impossible tasks, with the help and intervention of kindly creatures.
• Consider how a powerful fairy-tale witch is showing up in your own life to help you heal, provide wisdom as you approach cronehood, or strength as you become a protector.
• Explore the origins of Baba Yaga, often a stereotypical wicked witch in modern tales, whose roots can be traced back to old winter goddesses, and who is connected to deities of the dawn and springtime.
• Chart the journey of Jack, of Beanstalk fame, as one who travels to another realm to bring back magical treasure.
• Argue the case of a fairy-tale villain. What changed Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent from one of the good fairies into an evil sorcerer? What motivated the sea witch to agree to the Little Mermaid’s request? Why could the much-maligned ogre not defend against the thief who kept stealing his magical treasures?
• Or something completely different! Witches and other magical folk contain multitudes! The sky is the limit, so reach for your broom, because we want to hear from you!

The Australian Fairy Tale Society was established to investigate, create and communicate fairy tales from an Australian perspective. Local Rings and our Magic Mirror (Zoom) gather several times a year to explore specific stories, like a book club for fairy tales. We have an irregular eZine, a YouTube channel, Redbubble merchandise store and an original anthology, with another in progress.

Chat with us, ask questions, read conference blog posts (like this one!) or engage with us on Facebook and Instagram.