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Once upon a time, fairy tales were for children... But no longer.

You hold in your hands a volume of wonders -- magical tales of trolls and ogres, of bewitched princesses and kingdoms accursed, penned by some of the most acclaimed fantasists of our day. But these are not bedtime stories designed to usher an innocent child gently into a realm of dreams. These are stories that bite -- lush and erotic, often dark and disturbing mystical journeys through a phantasmagoric landscape of distinctly adult sensibilities... where there is no such thing as "happily ever after."

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: White as Snow: Fairy Tales and Fantasy - (1993) - essay by Terri Windling
• Introduction: Red as Blood: Fairy Tales and Horror - (1993) - essay by Ellen Datlow
• Like a Red, Red Rose - (1993) - novelette by Susan Wade
• The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep - (1993) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Frog Prince - (1993) - shortstory by Gahan Wilson
• Stalking Beans - (1993) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Snow-Drop - (1993) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Little Red - (1993) - shortstory by Wendy Wheeler
• I Shall Do Thee Mischief in the Wood - (1993) - shortstory by Kathe Koja
• The Root of the Matter - (1993) - novelette by Gregory Frost
• The Princess in the Tower - (1993) - shortstory by Elizabeth A. Lynn
• Persimmon - (1993) - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Little Poucet - (1993) - shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem
• The Changelings - (1993) - novelette by Melanie Tem
• The Springfield Swans - (1993) - shortstory by Caroline Stevermer and Ryan Edmonds
• Troll Bridge - (1993) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman (variant of Troll-Bridge)
• A Sound, Like Angels Singing - (1993) - shortstory by Leonard Rysdyk
• Puss - (1993) - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• The Glass Casket - (1993) - shortstory by Jack Dann
• Knives - (1993) - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Snow Queen - (1993) - novelette by Patricia A. McKillip
• Breadcrumbs and Stones - shortstory by Lisa Goldstein
• Recommended Reading - (1993) - essay by uncredited
• Terri Windling - (1993) - essay by uncredited
• Ellen Datlow - (1993) - essay by uncredited

Eighteen masterful fairy tales for adults from a remarkable gathering of contemporary Grimms and Andersens, the new princesses and princes of fantastical fiction

World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling return with another superb collection of wonders and terrors. In Black Thorn, White Rose, the magical tales we were told at bedtime have been upended, turned inside out, reshaped, and given a keen, distinctly adult edge by eighteen of the most acclaimed storytellers ever to reinvent a fairy tale. Our favorite characters, from Sleeping Beauty to Rumpelstiltskin to the Gingerbread Man, are here but in different guises, brought to new life by such masters as Nancy Kress, Jane Yolen, Storm Constantine, and the late, great Roger Zelazny.

These breathtaking tales of dark enchantments range from the tragic and poignant to the humorous to the horrifying to the simply astonishing. The story of an aging woodcutter persuaded to help a desperate prince make his way through the brambles to save a sleeping beauty twists ingeniously around like the thorny wall that impedes them. The fable of an all-controlling queen mother who faces her most fearsome adversary in a sensitive princess who appears mysteriously during a storm is a dark, disturbing masterpiece. And readers will long remember the exquisite tale of Death, his godson, football, and MTV.

Anyone who has ever loved or even feared the old tales of witches and trolls and remarkable transformations will find much to admire in this extraordinary collection--happily ever after or not.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Words Like Pale Stones - novelette by Nancy Kress
• Stronger than Time - novelette by Patricia C. Wrede
• Somnus's Fair Maid - novelette by Ann Downer
• The Frog King, or Iron Henry - shortstory by Daniel Quinn
• Near-Beauty - shortstory by M. E. Beckett
• Ogre - shortstory by Michael Kandel
• Can't Catch Me - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Journeybread Recipe - shortstory by Lawrence Schimel
• The Brown Bear of Norway - shortstory by Isabel Cole
• The Goose Girl - shortstory by Tim Wynne-Jones
• Tattercoats - novelette by Midori Snyder
• Granny Rumple - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• The Sawing Boys - novelette by Howard Waldrop
• Godson - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• Ashputtle - novelette by Peter Straub
• Silver and Gold - poem by Ellen Steiber
• Sweet Bruising Skin - novelette by Storm Constantine
• The Black Swan - novelette by Susan Wade
• Recommended Reading - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow

Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretel, and other storybook icons are ingeniously reimagined in this stunning collection of updated adult fairy tales from some of today's finest fantasists

For many of us, the fairy tale was our first exposure to the written word and the power of storytelling. These wondrous works of magic and morality enthralled us, enchanted us, sometimes terrified us, and remain in our hearts and memories still. Once again, World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have compiled an extraordinary collection of reimagined tales conceived by some of today's most acclaimed contemporary purveyors of literary fantasy, science fiction, and horror, including Neil Gaiman, Gahan Wilson, Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee, Nancy Kress, Gene Wolfe, and others.

Remarkable things lurk in these dark and magical woods. Here Beauty confronts a serial-killer Beast, Hansel and Gretel's witch resides not in a gingerbread house but in a luxurious resort, and Rumpelstiltskin is truly the devil demanding his due, rightfully or otherwise. The hilarious "Roach in Loafers" ingeniously combines the classic "Elves and the Shoemaker" tale with "Puss in Boots" and adds an insectile twist, while in a modern fable that blends The Wizard of Oz and Hans Christian Andersen, Dorothy is set adrift in Hollywoodland, ruby slippers and all. These are not the fairy stories you remember from childhood.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1995) - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Ruby Slippers - (1995) - shortstory by Susan Wade
• The Beast - (1995) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Masterpiece - (1995) - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• Summer Wind - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• This Century of Sleep or, Briar Rose Beneath the Sea - (1995) - poem by Farida S. T. Shapiro
• The Crossing - (1995) - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• Roach in Loafers - (1995) - shortstory by Roberta Lannes
• Naked Little Men - (1995) - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Brother Bear - (1995) - shortstory by Lisa Goldstein
• The Emperor Who Had Never Seen a Dragon - (1995) - shortstory by John Brunner
• Billy Fearless - (1995) - novelette by Nancy A. Collins
• The Death of Koshchei the Deathless (a tale of old Russia) - (1995) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• The Real Princess - (1995) - shortstory by Susan Palwick
• The Huntsman's Story - (1995) - shortstory by Milbre Burch
• After Push Comes to Shove - (1995) - poem by Milbre Burch
• Hansel and Grettel - (1995) - shortstory by Gahan Wilson
• Match Girl - (1995) - novelette by Anne Bishop
• Waking the Prince - (1995) - shortstory by Kathe Koja
• The Fox Wife - (1995) - novella by Ellen Steiber
• The White Road - (1995) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• The Traveler and the Tale - (1995) - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• The Printer's Daughter - (1995) - novelette by Delia Sherman
• Recommended Reading - (1995) - essay by uncredited

Unforgettable stories of witches and wishes, Sleeping Beauties and Snow Whites, ingeniously twisted into darker, more grown-up shapes by fantasy fiction's most talented practitioners

Once again, World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling prove that fairy tales don't have to be for little children and that happily ever after doesn't necessarily mean forever. Black Swan, White Raven is Datlow and Windling's fourth collection of once-familiar and much-beloved bedtime stories reimagined by some of the finest fantasists currently plying their literary trade--acclaimed writers like Jane Yolen, John Crowley, Michael Cadnum, and Joyce Carol Oates, who give new lives and new meanings to the plights of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel, and more.

Hansel and Gretel make several appearances here, not the least being at their trial for the murder of a supposedly helpless old woman. The shocking real reason for Snow White's desperate flight from her home is revealed in "The True Story," and the steadfast tin soldier, made flesh and blood, pays a terrible price for his love and devotion.

The twenty-one stories and poems in this collection run the gamut from triumphant to troubling to utterly outrageous, like Don Webb's brilliant merging of numerous tales into one wild, hallucinogenic trip in his "Three Dwarves and 2000 Maniacs." All in all, the reimagined fairy tales and fables in Datlow and Windling's literary offering mine the fantastical yarns we loved as children for new and darker gold.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• The Flounder's Kiss - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• The Black Fairy's Curse - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• Snow in Dirt - novelette by Michael Blumlein
• Riding the Red - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• No Bigger Than My Thumb - shortstory by Esther M. Friesner
• In the Insomniac Night - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Little Match Girl - poem by Steve Rasnic Tem
• The Trial of Hansel and Gretel - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• Rapunzel - shortstory by Anne Bishop
• Sparks - novelette by Gregory Frost
• The Dog Rose - shortstory by Sten Westgard
• The Reverend's Wife - novelette by Midori Snyder
• The Orphan the Moth and the Magic - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Three Dwarves and 2000 Maniacs - shortstory by Don Webb
• True Thomas - novelette by Bruce Glassco
• The True Story - shortstory by Pat Murphy
• Lost and Abandoned - shortstory by John Crowley
• The Breadcrumb Trail - poem by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• On Lickerish Hill - novelette by Susanna Clarke
• Steadfast - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Godmother Death - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Recommended Reading - essay by uncredited

Twenty-one darker, deeper, more adult takes on some of our favorite childhood fairy tales, from acclaimed contemporary fantasists

Long ago, when we were children, our dreams were inspired by the fairy tales we heard at our mothers' and grandmothers' knees--stories of princesses and princes and witches and wondrous enchantments, by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, and from the pages of 1001 Arabian Nights. But, as World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling remind us, these stories were often tamed and sanitized versions. The originals were frequently darker--and in Silver Birch, Blood Moon, they turn darker still.

Twenty-one modern Grimms and Andersens--masterful storytellers including Neil Gaiman, Nancy Kress, and Tanith Lee--now reinvent beloved bedtime stories for our time. The Sea Witch gets her say, relating the story of "The Little Mermaid" from her own point of view. "Thumbelina" becomes a tale of creeping horror, while a delightfully naughty spin is put on "The Emperor's New Clothes." Author Caitlin R. Kiernan transports Snow White to a dark, gritty, industrial urban setting, and Patricia Briggs details "The Price" of dealing with a royal and unrepentantly evil Rumpelstiltskin.

Rich, provocative, and unabashedly adult, each of these tales is a modern treasure, reminding us that wishes have consequences and not all genies have our best interests at heart.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1999) - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Kiss Kiss - (1999) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Carabosse - (1999) - poem by Delia Sherman
• The Price - (1999) - shortstory by Patricia Briggs
• Glass Coffin - (1999) - shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Vanishing Virgin - (1999) - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Clad in Gossamer - (1999) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Precious - (1999) - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Sea Hag - (1999) - novelette by Melissa Lee Shaw
• The Frog Chauffeur - (1999) - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• The Dybbuk in the Bottle - (1999) - novelette by Russell William Asplund
• The Shell Box - (1999) - novelette by Karawynn Long
• Ivory Bones - (1999) - shortstory by Susan Wade
• The Wild Heart - (1999) - shortstory by Anne Bishop
• You Wandered Off Like a Foolish Child to Break Your Heart and Mine - (1999) - shortstory by Pat York
• Arabian Phoenix - (1999) - shortstory by India Edghill
• Toad-Rich - (1999) - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Skin So Green and Fine - (1999) - novelette by Wendy Wheeler
• The Willful Child, the Black Dog, and the Beanstalk - (1999) - novelette by Melanie Tem
• Locks - (1999) - poem by Neil Gaiman
• Marsh-Magic - (1999) - novelette by Robin McKinley
• Toad - (1999) - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• Recommended Reading - essay by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Favorite fairy tales are updated and hauntingly reimagined by twenty of today's finest writers of fiction and fantasy

Once upon a time, all our cherished dreams began with the words once upon a time. This is the phrase that opened our favorite tales of princes and spells and magical adventures. World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling understand the power of beloved stories--and in Black Heart, Ivory Bones, their sixth anthology of reimagined fairy tales, they have gathered together stories and poetry from some of the most acclaimed writers of our time, including Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, Charles de Lint, and Joyce Carol Oates. But be forewarned: These fairy tales are not for children.

A prideful Texas dancer is cursed by a pair of lustrous red boots... Goldilocks tells all about her brutal and wildly dysfunctional foster family, the Bears... An archaeologist in Victorian England is enchanted by a newly exhumed Sleeping Beauty... A prince of tabloid journalism is smitten by a trailer-park Rapunzel... A clockwork amusement park troll becomes sentient and sets out to foment an automaton revolution. These are but a few examples of the marvels that await within these pages--tales that range from the humorous to the sensuous to the haunting and horrifying, each one a treasure with a distinctly adult edge.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• Rapunzel - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• The Crone - poem by Delia Sherman
• Big Hair - shortstory by Esther M. Friesner
• The King with Three Daughters - novelette by Russell Blackford
• Boys and Girls Together - poem by Neil Gaiman
• And Still She Sleeps - novelette by Greg Costikyan
• Snow in Summer - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Briar Rose - poem by Debra Cash
• Witch - poem by Debra Cash
• Chanterelle - novelette by Brian Stableford
• Bear It Away - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• Goldilocks Tells All - shortstory by Scott Bradfield
• My Life as a Bird - (1996) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Red Boots - shortstory by Leah Cutter
• Rosie's Dance - shortstory by Emma Hardesty
• You, Little Match-Girl - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• Dreaming Among Men - shortstory by Bryn Kanar
• The Cats of San Martino - novelette by Ellen Steiber
• The Golem - shortstory by Severna Park
• Our Mortal Span - shortstory by Howard Waldrop
• Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower - novella by Susanna Clarke
• Recommended Reading - essay by uncredited