Whispers from the Moon, by Mari Ness

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

A skeletal wolf slinking through the forest. A deceitful mirror. A mermaid in water drenched rags, dancing in agony, her green stained arms holding a prince. Secrets hidden in tattered fur cloaks. The painful weaving of nettle shirts. A young girl waiting for a midnight kiss. A burning witch in a sugared cabin. The splendors of fairy tales, brought to brilliant, painful, glittering life in a series of intricate terzanelles – or, as poet Mari Ness likes to call them, fairynelles.

Whispers from the Moon presents twenty-two of these fairynelles, collected here for the first time. Taking sharp looks at critical moments in fairy tales – or their aftermath – these poems raise questions about some familiar tales – and answer questions about others. For anyone who loves the wonders of fairy tales, or the delights of structured poetry.

Fiction and poetry by Mari Ness has been featured in Reactor.com, Clarkesworld, Uncanny, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Diabolical Plots, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Baffling and Strange Horizons; nominated for the Elgin and Rhysling Awards; and shortlisted for the Canopus Award. Ness is also the 2021 Outwrite Fiction award winner for Dancing in Silver Lands, a tiny collection of tiny fairy tales. She lives in central Florida, and likes to talk to live oak trees now and again, just to see if they will talk back.