The Poe Museum's Illumination Series is one of the coolest lecture series around and Kris Spisak is the perfect guest! We're thrilled to work with them for their September event. You can preorder a book to pick up at the event or get signed and shipped, or attend and buy a copy there.
About the Book:
“With Becoming Baba Yaga, Kris Spisak presents a robust work of scholarship. Baba Yaga is a wily shapeshifter, nearly impossible to pin down—but Spisak miraculously transforms alongside her, ever keeping up.”
—from the foreword by GennaRose Nethercott, bestselling author of Thistlefoot
Whether you know Baba Yaga as a Slavic witch, an earth goddess, or a monster in modern media, she is a force with secrets to divulge. The roots of her stories stretch back over a thousand years, and her chicken-legged hut is only the beginning of her intrigue.
Darkness, fear, and instability sometimes inundate our daily lives, but folktale figures like Baba Yaga speak to the dichotomy of our existence—the hope and the horror, the magic and the mundane. She is at once an old hag and an enchantress, a demon and wish granter, a feminist and nothing more than a fairytale. Becoming Baba Yaga provides an in-depth look at the Baba Yaga mythos and history through Slavic folklore. Filled with historical and cultural context, analyses, and the stories themselves that add depth to the conversation, this is a comprehensive resource for anyone hoping to learn more about this ambiguous character and how her multifaceted presence still ripples through the present day. Stories that linger have something to teach us, and Baba Yaga’s tales don’t disappoint.
About the Author:
Kris Spisak earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the College of William and Mary, her master of liberal arts from the University of Richmond, and did further graduate work in fiction through the University of Iowa. She wrote her first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Her award-winning debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, was inspired by her family’s experience in the post-WWII Ukrainian diaspora and has been called “A complex, poetic tale” by Kirkus Reviews and "edu-tainment at its best" by the Historical Novel Society. Her latest book, Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist & Witch of the Woods, is new nonfiction that explores how understanding ourselves, our complex world, and our place within history are only a matter of turning to a boney-legged old woman who lives deep in the Eastern European woods. Kris fully believes that well-written words and well-told stories have always changed the world and that they will continue to. She can’t wait to tell you her next tale. Learn more at Kris-Spisak.com