March 31, 2025

The Shoemaker of Siberia will appear in Gramarye: The Journal of Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction, Summer 2025, Issue 27.

The Shoemaker of Siberia is a retelling of The Elves and the Shoemaker by the Brothers Grimm. This version is set during WWII at the time of the Russian invasion of Poland. Poles under Russian occupation endured horrific atrocities. Land was seized, and 1.5 million Polish people were sent to labor camps in Siberia—another facet of Stalin’s multi-part ethnic cleansing plan. 

Only one third of those deported survived.
The Polish national anthem opens with these lines: Poland has not yet perished, as long as we still live. Those lines, history, and bits of family lore, have shaped this retelling.

Please visit https://www.sussexfolktalecentre.org/journal/ for information on ordering copies. The issue is set to be released in late May, 2025.