One of the themes in our Anthology was Obligation, this theme was brought to life through the beautifully written fairytales by, Jin Liang and Alexandra Adelina Nita. Here’s what inspired these talented writers’ tales:
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The Boy Named Gan
Written By: Jin Liang
Artwork by: Cherry Leung
This fairytale is not very subtly based on my own personal journey through childhood. I had started with the intention of writing a story with the express intention of speaking to children like me who have had more than their fair share of expectations throughout their childhood. I found that throughout my reading of fairytales, there were very few that dared to aim their message upwards instead of downwards, and I wanted to write something that dared to ask someone other than the child to change. While I doubt there will be many happy parents that will read this as a bedtime story, I do hope that perhaps young readers will find my story a small bastion of support when asked to sell their childhoods away.
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The Sea Bride
Written By: Alexandra Adelina Nita
Artwork By: Analiz Rios
The heart of this story—my fascination with animal brides and selkies—was shaped by reading “Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon and “Shark Girls” by Caroline Diorio. The rest is me tapping into some of my other interests as a writer: female monsters, mutable bodies, loneliness, complicating gender and sexual scripts, the relationship between workers and work, the blurred (or nonexistent) line between ‘animal/natural’ and ‘human’ worlds and our capacity to simultaneously love and cause harm.