Folklore & Fiction

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in September 2019. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing the fable genre with help from scholars Patrick Olivelle, Christos A. Zafiropoulos, Harriet Spiegel, and others, helping you analyze a fable, and discussing ways to bring fables to your story craft. (Companion Dispatch: https://csmaccath.com/blog/what-fable)

An honest old man and an evil old man dream of fortune in the coming year, but only one of them receives it. Join me for a discussion of structural symmetry in folktales, and come away with a few ways to subvert it for the sake of better storytelling. (Companion Dispatch: http://csmaccath.com/blog/luck-heaven-earth)

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in August 2019. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing the märchen genre with help from scholars Christine A. Jones, Jennifer Schacker, Jack Zipes, and others, helping you analyze a märchen, and discussing ways to bring märchen to your story craft. (Companion Dispatch: https://csmaccath.com/blog/what-is-a-marchen)

God grants Adam a longer lifespan by giving him the years abandoned by suffering animals. Join me for a discussion of problematic themes in fables, and learn about the ways folkloristic and literary analysis can help you adapt and subvert these themes. (Companion Dispatch: http://csmaccath.com/blog/spanmanslife)

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in July 2019. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing the ballad genre with help from scholars Gordon Hall Gerould, David Buchan, Roger deV. Renwick and others, helping you analyse a ballad, and discussing ways to bring ballads to your story craft. (Companion Dispatch: https://csmaccath.com/blog/what-is-a-ballad)

The last and greatest of the Fianna goes to the otherworld for a twelvemonth and returns an old man. Join me for a discussion of fairy time, and come away with suggestions for characterizing internal conflict in your storytelling. (Companion Dispatch: http://csmaccath.com/blog/usheen)

A far-future psychopath is forced to take an empathy drug and spends the journey to his execution reflecting upon reparations he can never make to his victims. Join me for a discussion of forgiveness and atonement in my novelette titled "He Who Steals the Sun Shall Bear Its Gravity." (Companion Dispatch: http://csmaccath.com/blog/summer-solstice-dispatch-2022)

Join me for a discussion of Icelandic folklore in my short story entitled "B is for Burned/Every Broken Creature," which was published in the F is for Fairy anthology of short fiction. (Companion Dispatch: https://csmaccath.com/blog/summer-solstice-newsletter-2019)

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in May 2019. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm writing about the personal experience narrative genre with help from scholars William Labov and Joshua Waletzky, Sandra K.D. Stahl, Gillian Bennett, and others, helping you analyse a personal experience narrative, and discussing ways to bring personal experience narratives to your story craft. (Companion Dispatch: https://csmaccath.com/blog/what-personal-experience-narrative)

A nobleman's daughter makes love to a knight and risks everything to rescue him from the Queen of Fairies. Join me for a ballad about the heroine of Carterhaugh, her bravery, and her beloved, and come away with recommendations for creating your own fictional magic system. (Companion Dispatch: http://csmaccath.com/blog/tam-lin)