Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga (Paperback)
A collection of new and exclusive short stories inspired by the Baba Yaga. Featuring Gwendolyn Kiste, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Mercedes M. Yardley, Monique Snyman, Donna Lynch, Lisa Quigley, and R. J. Joseph, with an introduction by Christina Henry.
Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds’ legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the Baba Yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the Baba Yaga may find help, or hindrance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch— and these are her tales.
Edited by Lindy Ryan, this collection brings together some of today’ s leading voices of women-in-horror as they pay tribute to the Baba Yaga, and go Into the Forest.
"Perfect for horror fans who can't get enough of folklore and fairy-tale retellings that veer in unexpected directions." — Booklist Starred Review "Fans of folklore retellings will find plenty to enjoy." — Publishers Weekly"The stories in Into the Forest collect the guts and bones of some of the world’ s oldest witch tales and refashion them into something new, beautiful, and gruesome." — Foreword Reviews"A powerful literary reflection... Outstanding in its diversity and interpretations, Into the Forest is very highly recommended not just for horror collections, but for libraries strong in women's literature, as well as for reader's book groups who would study the legend and realities of the Baba Yaga folktale as it journeys into the heart and soul of women's experiences and psychology." — Midwest Book Review
Lindy Miller Ryan is a Bram Stoker Award-nominated author-editor, director, and professor at Rutgers University. She is the founder of Black Spot Books, a small press with a mission to amplify the voices of women-in-horror. She previously served on the Board of Directors for the Independent Book Publishers Association and is the co-chair of the Horror Writers Association Publishers Council. Ryan was named one of Publishers Weekly's 2020 Star Watch Honorees. She also writes clean romance under the name Lindy Miller, where her books have been adapted for screen.
"Interpretations vary with delicious wildness.,, But what links the stories is a folkloric power located on the outer edge of our consciousness, yet which seems to burrow right into the centre of our souls." —Daily Mail UK
"This collection is weighty both in mission and volume, and with most stories running at only a few thousand words, it’s a great one to, erm, peck at while you dream of running wild deep in the forest." —Lauren McMenemy, Horror Tree
"A powerful literary reflection... Outstanding in its diversity and interpretations, Into the Forest is very highly recommended not just for horror collections, but for libraries strong in women's literature, as well as for reader's book groups who would study the legend and realities of the Baba Yaga folktale as it journeys into the heart and soul of women's experiences and psychology." —Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review
"Fans of folklore retellings will find plenty to enjoy." —Publishers Weekly
"A lovely, thorned, haunted gathering of tales of what it means to occupy a woman’s body. Baba Yaga serves a reminder of the wildness sleeping within all of us. This collection brings her roaring to life." —Kristi DeMeester, author of Such a Pretty Smile
"These are stories about what it means to be a woman fluent in darkness. Each of these authors speaks Baba Yaga's language. It's the language of starlight, shadow, bone, and blood. They have borrowed the witch's spirit, blended it with their own and created a grimoire from which all of us can draw upon.” —Angela Yuriko Smith, multiple Bram Stoker Award®-winning and Elgin Award-nominated author
"Into the Forest explores the folklore of Baba Yaga through new tales, filled with transformation and retribution, from a masterful group of authors. We travel back and forth in time, from Europe to the American South as violence and madness drive the used, abused, and betrayed into dense stretches of trees. There we find a path to strength and power, to unearthing or becoming the otherworldly Maiden, Mother, Crone.” —Linda D. Addison, award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and SFPA Grand Master
"Perfect for horror fans who can't get enough of folklore and fairy-tale retellings that veer in unexpected directions." —Booklist Starred Review
"The stories in Into the Forest collect the guts and bones of some of the world’s oldest witch tales and refashion them into something new, beautiful, and gruesome." –Foreword Reviews
"Edited by Lindy Ryan, a champion of women's voices in horror, this is a sharply imaginative, diverse anthology of dark fantasy and horror stories.... Readers who love to tread the dark and treacherous paths of the human heart will happily lose themselves here." –Shelf Awareness
Winner of the 2023 Silver Falchion Award for Best Anthology