Submissions

We ask that you take us to a place where magic happens, where maidens cheat monsters and monsters fall in love. Show us where the trickster lives, tell us his name. Stories may be old tales in new skins or new tales in old skins; whichever they are, they must be fairy tales. Yet, this leaves us with the matter of describing what a fairy tale is.

Stith Thompson offers this definition:
"a tale of some length involving a succession of motifs or episodes, moving in an unreal world without definite locality or characters."

Helen Pilinovsky has written in her essay Spells of Enchantment: The Fairy Tale Cycle:
"Once upon a time... these words are an incantation, signaling the beginning of a spell of enchantment — a magical spell, or a spell in the sense of a timeless period, or often some combination of the two. They describe a then that could have occurred at any time, in any place, a then which hovers in a delicious void of possibility. However, the thing that we — the modern readers, lovers, enchanted connoisseurs of Fairy tales — can sometimes forget is that the prospects of the then can be equally relevant in the now. Fairy tales, folk tales, legends, and myths — fantastic stories of all kinds — are as relevant to the modern world as they ever were."

Cabinet des Fées does not so much seek to define the fairy tale, but only to share and promote the tale type in all of its various manifestations. Though there may not be a princess or a frog in all of our stories, there is that element of magic and mystery and even of fear that makes a fairy tale what it is — a comment on the human condition and how we deal with the approach of the marvelous into our lives. Some of our heroes and heroines survive their encounters with mystery; others do not.

Follow the links below for the formal submission guidelines and let us read or see your best.

Fiction Submission Guidelines
Call for Papers

Chandra Cerchione-Peltier is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists. Graduating with Honors in 2003 from Middle Tennessee State University with a BA in English (double minor in Medieval and Classical Studies), Chandra now draws upon the rich traditions of folk and fairy tales that she studied while pursuing her degree.

Currently, Chandra participates in nationally juried exhibitions, and her work and writing has appeared in Contemporary Doll Collector, DOLLS, Belle Armoire, and Art Doll Quarterly magazines. Chandra recently made her television debut on the HGTV show, "That's Clever". She lives in Nashville, TN. More of her work can be seen here.