Issue three: Editorial

Updates to our publishing schedule! Coming soon: quarterly literary salons

Dear readers,

Welcome to the third issue of The Orange & Bee. We are thrilled to be bringing you this issue, which is full of magical delights.

We had an overwhelming response to our call for submissions for this issue, receiving well over a thousand submissions. It’s a real honour to read the work you submit, which reflects a diverse and flexible approach to the question of what constitutes a contemporary fairy-tale work. Our next submission window will open on 1 November at 9:00am (AEST/Australian Eastern Standard Time). We’ll be moving from email submissions to a submissions manager: Duosoma. We’ll update the details on our Submission guidelines page as soon as possible.

When we began The Orange & Bee, we put together a modest publishing schedule based on our limited budget. We planned to publish one short story, one poem, and one piece of flash fiction each issue, alongside material we generated ourselves (one traditional tale, one essay per issue). We anticipated having to self-fund the project for the first year (four issues). Instead, we’ve been absolutely delighted that our (paid) subscription base has grown to the point where The Orange & Bee is now a wholly reader-supported project.

We’ve grown so much that, in this issue, we’ve expanded our per-issue publications significantly, more than doubling the number of works we’re publishing.

We’re still committed to making the stories, poems, traditional tales, and essays available to all readers: including paid and unpaid subscribers. However, in order to honour and reward our paid subscribers for their support, we’ve added some content just for you. In this issue, all readers will have access to:

• Two short stories (‘The road of malediction’ by Rebecca Anne do Rozario, and ‘Coyote visits’ by Abigail F Taylor)

• Five poems (‘Dark bread recipe suitable for regular use’ by Tristan Beiter, ‘In the belly of the wolf’ by Fija Callaghan, ‘Needles and pins’ by Sara Cleto, and ‘Fairy tale of eternal economic growth’ by Eileen P Kennedy)

• Two flash fiction pieces (‘The letter K’ by Angeline Larrivee and ‘Miracle’ by Katie Gray)

• A traditional tale with commentary and questions (‘The Wilful child’)

• An author interview (with Kristyn McDermott)

• A fairy-tale essay

And (for paid subscribers only):

• A reading roundtable (we’ll be reading Carmen Maria Machado’s ‘The husband stitch’)

• A writing roundtable

But wait, there’s more!

We’re thrilled to announce yet another addition to our regular offerings, available to paid subscribers only. In October, we’ll be hosting the first of our quarterly literary salons.

Francois Hippolyte, Salon at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, 1863.

Literary salons originated in seventeenth-century Paris, and were central to the boom in fairy-tale storytelling at that time. The Marquise de Rambouillet hosted a salon, called the Chamber bleue, in her home in Paris, where educated women from aristocratic families gathered to share stories, poems, and riddles, and engage in witty, politically-informed conversation. While not all salons of the time focused on fairy tales, many of the women who played significant roles in the (re)creation and celebration of a literary fairy-tale tradition either hosted salons, or learned their storytelling craft within them, including Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, the woman credited with coining the term Contes des fées (fairy tales).

Our salon series will take some of its cues from this deep and rich tradition in which salons are safe but subversive spaces, focused on storytelling and writing. While our salons will be more inclusive—not just for privileged white women—they will also draw on the tradition of being spaces to share and discuss a range of ideas and works, to explore various artistic practices, and to support each other as we work together towards a more égalitariste future.

Each salon will feature a special guest, and each will take a slightly different form, depending on that guest’s skills, focus, and preferences. They will be hosted online, in Zoom, and recorded for posterity.

Our first salon will take place in early October, with special guest CSE Cooney. Subscribe for updates, including when the session will take place, and how to attend! (And to receive lots of delicious fairy-tale smackerels in your inbox).

Thank you, each and every one of you, for reading, following, sharing, commenting on, and subscribing to The Orange & Bee. Your support of our project, and of the writers whose work we are so proud to share with you, is a true gift.

bee-loved blessings!
Nike & Carina