When I was about seven years old, my cousin tricked me into reading a book for him.
He was visiting us in Alabama during the holidays, and I had snuck a peek at the paperback he’d brought with him– The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Noting my interest, he generously allowed me to read it during his stay, asking only for a daily summary of what I’d read. It wasn’t until he got ready to leave that I realized he’d conned me into reading his book report assignment for him.
Ask me when I first knew I wanted to be a writer, and this is the moment that springs to mind: a benevolent trickster sending me through the doors of a magic wardrobe.
I’ve since left the American South (though the South’s never left me) and settled in Germany, a country littered with castles and fairy tales and old, mossy forests. Little wonder, then, that my writing is preoccupied with magic and mythmaking. I like to retell old stories, write new fairy tales, and daydream about what happens when people encounter those slippery spaces where magic seeps into our reality.
In 2024, I’d like to some of the magical tales I have been writing. In the meantime, you can read some of my older, less magical work here and here.
Tatiana R. Hanebutte 