At the Australian Fairy Tale Society, we LOVE to celebrate the achievements and creations of our members. The following watercolours were created as presenter gifts at the recent AFTS Annual Conference by one of our founding members, Debra Phillips. They have clear links to fairy tale and present a magical perspective in watercolour. We are so grateful to Debra for providing the artwork to be given as gifts to our presenters. Wonderful work, Debra!

Once Upon a Time

Cinderella, Belle of the Balle

Little Red Riding Hood, Defender of the Peace

Hansel and Gretel burn the witch

Princess and the peas

Goldilocks and the three bears

Snow White and the witch queen

Rapunzel

Princess of the peas

Gingerbread man, run as fast as you can.

Little Red Riding Hood brings the wolf to visit Grandma

Hansel and Gretel find the cake stall

Little Red Riding Hood, Wolf Slayer

Hansel and Gretel at the table of delights

Cinderella’s Godmother

Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf

Who hears when apples fall into the woods

What waits as we go into the woods

Stories take us into the woods

Once more, into the woods, dear friends

Good afternoon, fairy tale enthusiasts,

Well, yesterday’s conference was simply… ENCHANTING!!!

The quality of the presentations was truly exceptional and the vibe in the room was one of warmth and inclusivity. I couldn’t have wished for a better day!

A HUGE thank you to all of our presenters:

Keynote speaker Jackie Kerin
Catherine Snell
Jo Henwood (who saved the day by offering a story in place of one of our unwell storytellers!)
Angie Rega
Nicola Burke
Robyn Floyd
Louise Fowler-Tutt
Kirstyn McDermott
Jeremy Shub
Diana Lovett

And many healing fairy wishes for our 2 presenters who couldn’t make it due to illness, Roslyn Quin and Eliza-Jane Henry-Jones.

Also, thank you to Lorena Carrington and Zeinab Yazdanfar for their gorgeous display tables (with help from the beautiful Louisa John-Krol, who also enchanted us all with her chiming fairy-scarf-wand!)

Special thanks also go the Glen Eira Council staff, Robyn Floyd and her friend Phillippa for putting in so much work with the catering, photographer Dave Jacobson, and Michelle De Stefani.

We also had our AGM during lunch and elected the next committee – woo! It is my great honour to introduce your 2016/2017 committee for the Australian Fairy Tale Society:

President: Catherine Snell

Vice President: Louisa John-Krol

Treasurer: Catherine Snell

Secretary: Penelope Clay

Ordinary Member: Jo Henwood

Ordinary Member: Gypsy Thornton (our fabulous overseas committee member in L.A, sadly not pictured above due to the giant ocean between us – we love you, Gypsy!)

Ordinary Member: Thang Luong

What a great group of people! I have all the faith in the world in them and I wish them all the very best for the year ahead.

I also wanted to say a huge thank you to the 2015/2016 committee: Catherine Snell, Sue Clancy, Nike Sulway, Jo Henwood, Gypsy Thornton, Joe Vandermeer, and Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario. It has been a true honour to serve on the committee with you all.

You’ll be hearing from the new committee soon with photos from the day and audio recordings of the presentations. Stay tuned!

This is Dr Belinda Calderone… signing off! 🙂

Everyone please feel free to spread the word with our 2016 conference flyer. Send to whoever you think might be interested!

Good morning fairy tale enthusiasts,

We are delighted to release the program for our third annual conference!

There’s such a wonderful mix of presentations this year – it’s sure to be a great day. So without further ado, feel free to go to our Upcoming AFTS Events page and take a look at the great presentations we’ve got lined up.

Also, remember that registrations are open online: visit our Conference Registration page here.

Getting so excited for the conference now!!

Warmest fairy wishes,
Dr Belinda Calderone
President
Australian Fairy Tale Society

Good morning fairy tale enthusiasts!

I’m so excited to announce that three members of the Australian Fairy Tale Society committee – Dr Nike Sulway, Dr Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario, and myself – are collaborating to produce a special edition of the scholarly journal TEXT. This edition is all about Australasian fairy tales and will compliment our 2016 conference coming up on June 26.

We are now calling for submissions! All details below:

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Into the Bush: Australasian Fairy Tales
A Special Issue of TEXT
http://www.textjournal.com.au/
Editors: Dr Nike Sulway, Dr Rebecca Anne Do Rozario,
Dr Belinda Calderone

The fairy tale has a long tradition in both oral and literary forms. Indeed, recently Sara da Silva and Jamshid Tehrani have argued, using a phylogenetic analysis of tales in the Aarne Thompson Uther (ATU) index, that some of the tales still told today ‘can be securely traced back to … between 2500 and 6000 years ago’ (8). Such an ancient tradition has left its mark across a range of literary traditions, including those of Australasia. While old and gnarled, the fairy tale is also alive and well, informing contemporary literary practice across a range of forms and genres, in works written for both children and adults.

This Special issue of TEXT, developed in association with the Australian Fairy Tale Society, responds to the challenge of honouring the long-lived traditions of the fairy tale in the Australasian context, of exploring and expanding our understanding of fairy tales and their tellers in a postcolonial context.

This issue seeks to reflect on Australasia’s unique creative and scholarly contributions to this long-lived genre, and seeks submissions that address the growing interest in fairy tale narratives across a range of platforms, particularly those stories set in and around Australasia.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following:
• Writing about fairy tales and their tellers
• Fairy tales in the Australasian landscape/context
• Fairy tales in the colonial and postcolonial context
• Appropriations and adaptations
• Gender, sexuality and the fairy tale
• Teaching and learning about fairy tales
• Tale types and tropes: critical discussions of the ATU and Propp models, of Dundes’s motifemes or similar schemas
• Other relevant topics and issues

Scholarly papers should be no more than 6000 words in length. Creative works will usually be up to 3,500 words in length, or as agreed by editors.

Creative work must be accompanied by an ERA research statement that clearly explains the submission’s relevance as a research outcome. Peruse any of TEXT journal’s Creative Writing as Research special issues to familiarise yourself with research statements.

Please also contact us with ideas for book reviews.

Please include a brief biography (200 words max, in TEXT style) and ensure that you include your email address for reply. Submissions MUST be in TEXT style and formatting. Please see http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/info.htm for submission guidelines.

Deadline for initial submission: July 29, 2016
Final revised submissions will be due: September 15, 2016
Publication date: April, 2017
Email: nike.sulway@usq.edu.au, rebecca.dorozario@monash.edu, or belinda.calderone85@outlook.com
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Enchanted regards,
Dr Belinda Calderone
President – Australian Fairy Tale Society

The CFP has officially closed for our third annual conference, Into the Bush: Its Beauty and Its Terror. We have received some fantastic submissions and are currently deciding on the successful applicants. We look forward to releasing our conference program soon!

In the meantime, registrations are now open!

REGISTER HERE

Magical regards,
Belinda Calderone
The Australian Fairy Tale Society

Good morning fairy tale lovers!

The videos from our 2015 conference are finally online – woo!

A HUGE thank you to AFTS member Thang Luong, who worked tirelessly to bring these videos to you, almost killing his computer in the process!

To refresh your memory, here is a PDF version of our 2015 conference program: 2015 AFTS Conference Program

View the videos on youtube here. (Note: some will play as a full video, and some will only show an image with audio over it, for copyright reasons.)

Wondrous wishes,
Dr Belinda Calderone
AFTS President

Good afternoon fairy tale lovers!

We know that January is a hectic month for a lot of people, but just a quick post to remind everyone that our CFP will be closing this Friday, 29 Jan, at 5pm.

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The details again:

Conference title: Into the Bush: Its Beauty and Its Terror

When: Sunday, 26 June 2016

Where: Glen Eira Town Hall, Caulfield, VIC, 3162.

Call for presentations: See the call for presentations below, or print off a PDF version here: AFTS 2016 Conference – CFP

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Australian Fairy Tale Society – 2016 Conference

Call for Presentations – Into the Bush: Its Beauty and Its Terror

‘Into the Woods,’ is a phrase that has become closely linked to the fairy tale genre. It conjures up all manner of fairy tale images, such as roguish wolves waiting behind trees and lost children stumbling upon gingerbread houses.

But how does it translate into the Australian fairy tale tradition? For our third annual conference, we will be exploring what happens when we venture… ‘Into the Bush.’ Australian fairy tales reflect many of the realities of the bush, while also reimagining it as a space of magic and mystery. Whether it is depicted as real or otherworldly, the bush always encompasses duality – it is a place of both beauty and terror.

We are now accepting proposals for storytelling performances, musical performances, academic papers, and creative readings. We would also love to hear from artists wishing to display and/or sell their works at the conference.

Presentation topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Into the unknown
• Getting lost, getting found
• Native flora and fauna
• Environmental concerns
• Drought and fire
• Elements of nature: earth, wind, fire, water
• Urban and rural
• The bush as sexual metaphor
• Fear and danger in the bush
• Secrets and hidden treasures
• Havens, homes and holes in the ground
• A place to breathe in: spiritual nourishment
• National identity and our relationship to the bush
• Tales of colonisation
• Culture clash, culture meld
• A fork in the road
• The bush as a liminal space
• Making your own path
• Following tracks
• Blazing trails and dropping breadcrumbs
• Survival kits (including a storyteller’s swag bag)
• Stories like wildfire
• The wildness of stories (and their seeding)
• Changing nature and ‘the changing nature’ of the Australian bush and the stories we tell there
• When European fairies and tales re-root themselves in the bush
• The changing landscape of fairy tales and tellings in Australia

Academic papers will be up to 20 minutes in duration and performances and readings will be up to 15 minutes in duration. All presentations will be offered the option of 10 additional minutes of question time.

Please email your proposal of no more than 200 words to austfairytales@gmail.com by 5pm Friday January 29, 2016.

Fairy wishes,
The AFTS Committee

We are delighted to announce that our very own Tegan Elizabeth Webb has published a short story entitled “Selkie” in Rough Magick, a collection of haunting stories and poems about the darker side of love and sex. Congratulations, Tegan!! This sounds like an amazing collection. As the blurb explains:

Some of the stories are magical; some are more realistic and the “magic” comes through in language and lyricism. Some protagonists are teens and some are adults. There is romanticism and eroticism and even horror. What unites the stories is that the writers have boldly faced love’s shadows in unique and gripping ways.

Tegan Elizabeth Webb

Magical regards,
Dr Belinda Calderone
AFTS President