Debra Phillips

One of our wonderful members, Debra Phillips has written a paper entitled ‘Once Upon a Time and Narratives of the Imagined Future.’ In this paper, she explores how the term “Once upon a time” used in an Australian setting is more about a future possibility than a European past.

View her paper here: Once Upon a Time and Narratives of the Imagined Future – Debra Phillips

AFTS committee member and writer Thang D. Luong has written a paper resulting from last year’s conference. It is entitled, “The healing power of Refugee Wolf: a dark and satirical fairy tale.” The paper refers to certain European fairy tales which deal with the issues of healing and transformation. And it explores how his short story, Refugee Wolf – a dark comedy about the asylum seeker debate – can help transform society by understanding the interconnectedness of issues underlying the debate

T.D. (Thang Dac) Luong is a Sydney based writer and lawyer. He was born in 1971, the Year of the Pig, during the Vietnam War (1945-1975). The Year of the Pig is considered to be a lucky year in Vietnamese culture. Such luck steered him and his family to Australia as refugees on 20 June 1975, shortly after the war ended.

Refugee Wolf by T.D. Luong

Not surprisingly, he has been inspired by the role of pigs in fairy tales. His short story Refugee Wolf (Flying Pig Media, 2013) is a re-invention of The Three Little Pigs fairy tale. The story is a dark satire about a society of excess and how it fears asylum seekers. Thang’s interest in how animals are used in fairy tales to represent human values started in the early 1980s when he watched the TV cult classic Monkey on the ABC. He believes that regardless of how short or long a fairy tale or fable is, we can find an aspect of ourselves in them.

Thang has completed a Masters of Arts in Creative Writing (UTS) and is currently working on a novel inspired by his late dad, a persecuted journalist during the war.

 View his paper here: The Healing Power of Refugee Wolf: A Dark and Satirical Fairy
Tale

Good afternoon fairy tale lovers!

While we are still confirming the conference program, we have an exciting announcement to make. We are delighted to reveal that Sophie Masson‘s book launch for Hunter’s Moon will be held as part of the AFTS conference! Thank you so much to Sophie and to Random House for teaming up with us and enriching our 2015 conference.

Hunter’s Moon by Sophie Masson

Sophie is the prolific and award-winning author of more than fifty novels for young adults and children, many of which have been published internationally. Her most recent novels with Random House Australia are the young adult fairytale novels Moonlight And Ashes (2012), Scarlet in the Snow (2013) and The Crystal Heart (2014). She has also written under the pen-names Isabelle Merlin and Jenna Austen.

Here’s a bit about Hunter’s Moon:

“Bianca Dalmatin wants for nothing. As the heir to a department store empire and stepdaughter of the beautiful Lady Belladonna, the only thing Bianca longs for is a friend. It seems that her wish is granted at the duke’s Presentation Ball when she meets the handsome, mysterious Lucian Montresor.

Cinderella by Elenore Abbott

Good morning fairy tale enthusiasts,

It’s Fairy Tale Ring time again!

Our Fairy Tale Rings have been buzzing away with inspiring discussions around the country. Our local branch discussion groups have brought fairy tale lovers together for some wonderful exchanges of ideas.

Our chosen fairy tale for April is “Cinderella.” Even if you can’t manage to get to a Fairy Tale Ring, you are always welcome to send in stories or artwork inspired by the tale.

The wonderful Jo Henwood has compiled a reading list for the tale to get you thinking. View the reading list here: Cinderella Reading List

Not to mention our chosen tale coincides with the release of Disney’s new motion picture version of “Cinderella.” Looking forward to seeing that one!

If you’re not part of a local Fairy Tale Ring, but would like to be, Contact us for more information.

Belinda Calderone
The Australian Fairy Tale Society

Debra Phillips – Summer Twilight in Skriveri

Looking for an amazing artistic experience this weekend?

One of our valued members, Debra Phillips, is presenting an exhibition entitled Forget-Me-Not at the North Sydney Community Centre this Saturday, 14^th March 2015.

This exhibition is based on eight separate trips into the Baltic States, and is a non-Latvian’s observations and interpretation of Latvian life since 2009.

The exhibition includes paintings, water-colours, photographs, collage and a display of travel journals (sketches, water colours, ephemera, notes) completed during the travels.

Plus, The Artist Talk at 10:00 am is a 20-minute performance-presentation to highlight works of art in this exhibition.

For full details, see the flier here: Forget Me Not Exhibition

Have an enchanted weekend,

Belinda Calderone
The Australian Fairy Tale Society

The CFP has officially closed for our second annual conference, Transformations: Spinning Straw into Green and Gold. 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 open now!

REGISTER HERE

Conference details:

When:  Just to make things even more enchanted, the conference will be held on a magical day – the Winter Solstice on Sunday 21st June, 2015.

Where:  For our venue, we have chosen the Judith Wright Room at the NSW Writers’ Centre – Garry Owen House, Callan Park, Balmain Road, Rozelle (enter from the Balmain Road gate opposite Cecily Street and follow the green signs to the Writers’ Centre).

Magical regards,

Belinda Calderone
The Australian Fairy Tale Society

The Grimms’ “Das Mädchen ohne Hände” (The Maiden Without Hands) is certainly one of the most disturbing and fascinating fairy tales.There are over a hundred variants, often known as “The Handless Maiden,” “Silver Hands” or “The Armless Maiden.”

A whole weekend workshop focussing on this tale? Yes, please!

This beautiful workshop is run by Heather Keens, an experienced individual and family therapist, and Joan Harcourt, an experienced body psychotherapist and group leader. Together they will help attendees explore this rich fairy tale from a Jungian psychological perspective.

As Keens and Harcourt remind us, “The Handless Maiden is a story about individuation, about developing one’s inner strength, resilience and creativity. It is a story about losing your hands, living with silver hands and finding your hands.”

The part I love the most is that these inspiring women take this tale of loss and healing, and make it personal to the attendees: “there will be an opportunity to explore your own journey to the conscious feminine and the inner positive masculine in a safe and contained setting. We work through discussion, metaphor and symbol, movement, dream work and art in this process.”

Sounds incredible!

This workshop will be of interest to health professionals, counsellors, expressive therapists, storytellers, writers or anyone engaged in their own psychological journey.

To download and print a PDF with all the details, click here: Handless Maiden flier

Belinda Calderone
The Australian Fairy Tale Society

Jennie Harbour, 1932 – Hans Anderson’s Stories

Good morning fairy tale enthusiasts,

It’s Fairy Tale Ring time again!

Well, our Fairy Tale Rings have been buzzing away with inspiring discussions around the country. Our local branch discussion groups have brought fairy tale lovers together for some wonderful exchanges of ideas.

Our chosen fairy tale for February is “The Little Mermaid.” Even if you can’t manage to get to a Fairy Tale Ring, you are always welcome to send in stories or artwork inspired by the tale.

We’ve compiled a reading list to get the mental juices flowing! View it here: Little Mermaid Bibliography

For details of individual Fairy Tale Rings in your state, see our Events page.

No Fairy Tale Ring in your state? Why not start your own? Contact us for more information.

I hope you are all having a magical 2015 so far … and be on the lookout for mermaids…

Belinda Calderone
The Australian Fairy Tale Society

Hello fairytalers!

Well, I don’t know about you, but those videos from last year’s conference got me excited for our next one in June this year.

I’d like to announce that our Call for Papers has actually been extended until Friday 27th February. We already have some wonderful submissions – exciting! We’ll announce the 2015 program in March.

For all the details, see our updated call for papers below:

Updated Call for Papers 2015

Keep spinning those submissions!

Magical regards,

Belinda Calderone
The Australian Fairy Tale Society