Publication: ‘Wise Fools’ Volume 1, Issue 2

The new issue of Unsettling Wonder is now available. I’m really proud of this issue–we’ve got some excellent stories, a first-rate poem, and haven’t stinted on illustrations either. There’s a wonderful range of tones and interpretations throughout. It’s available in print and digital through our online store. Our topic is ‘Wise Fools’ and, as the introduction explains:

We don’t mean the fool in its King-James-Bible sense, and we don’t mean fool in the demotic sense of mere idiocy… Fools are aligned with the childlike, and their wisdom is, as in King Lear, often that of “but the emperor has no clothes at all!”

The cover was one again drawn by the remarkable Laura Anderson. The table of contents runs thusly:

UNSETTLING WONDER 1:2

Dear Reader
From the Editors

What White Socks Was
Zoe McAuley

When White Socks was very small, she believed herself to be a cat.

Three Tales from Nasreddin Hoca
Translated from the Turkish by Defne Cizakca

But this particular neighbour is very curious and cannot possibly live unless he learns what the matter is with Hoca.

Illustration: Wise Fool
Peter J. Herron

Varuna
John Grey

There’s thieves in the valley, cutthroats in the woods.
And there’s Varuna above, vast and unknowable.

Wise Fools
Katherine Langrish

Unlike real life, stories about simpletons often end with the lucky fool coming up smelling of roses.

The Proud Princess
Patricia S. Bowne

Next day the aunt set the boy to watch over her goats up the hill, and as he was strolling along who could come up beside him but the Idle Rascal.

Illustration: The Fool’s Journey
Debby Harris

The Tale of Tom Fool
Austin Hackney

Not in my time, not in your time, nor yet in your grandfather’s time–but in someone’s time, surely–there was and there was not, a boy.

Free Country
Ken Altabef

None of us had names there. We were simply Juden, and that was how they wanted it.