Category Archives: Heroines

Heroines

An Anthology of Short Fiction and Poetry (Volume 2)

Blurb: With a focus on reclaiming the stories of women in history and reimagining the heroines of legend, fairytale, and mythology, in ways that are both resonant and startlingly new The Heroines Anthology Volume 2 presents a challenging and soulful collection that interrogates the traditional power dynamics of classic literature, while touching on the deeper questions of women’s true nature.

Edited by Sarah Nicholson and Caitlin White, with poetry and short fiction by award winning and emerging writers including Julie Watts, Anna Jacobson, Therese Doherty, Jan Napier, Alicia Gilmore, Anne Walsh, Barbara Taylor, Jena Woodhouse, Louise Pieper, Hannah Wheeler, Clio Davidson-Lynch , Rita Togini, Pamela Hart, Kim Waters, Julie Bozza, Toni Brisland, Deanne Leber, Louise Hopewell, Jayne Fenton Keane, Linda Godfrey, Toni Brisland, Wes Lee, Margaret Bradstock, Kate O’Neill, Freddy Iryss and Jane Frank.

Genre: general fiction; women; historical; contemporary; myths; anthology

Page count: 121

Available in paperback format from:

Reader sites:

Published on 15 September 2019.

Banner image by Luke Braswell on Unsplash.

reviews: Heroines

Review by Sarah Rose McKenzie on her blog

Summary: Overall, I found Heroines to be an evocative, compelling collection of feminist writing and fairy tales reborn. Not only is the writing itself rich and varied, but the characterisation too; with pieces composed from the perspectives of famous characters, goddesses, historical figures, and of course, modern-day heroines of their own stories.

While many of the stories and poems have unhappy endings, I finished the last page of Heroines feeling invigorated and inspired. The anthology fills in spaces where women’s voices have been swallowed and reclaims the autonomy that is rightfully theirs. Girls and women are ever hungry for representation – and in Heroines, we can see ourselves reflected, in all our formidable glory.

stories: Chooser of the Slain

I was very impressed by the quality of the stories to be found in the first Heroines anthology, and (while feeling somewhat daunted) I was determined to try writing something to submit to the second anthology.

The focus of the anthologies is on “reclaiming the stories of women in history and reimagining the heroines of legend, fairytale, and mythology”. I’m a fan of John Keats, and I love his ballad “La Belle Dame sans Merci”, so I felt that was a good place to start.

La Belle Dame of the ballad – the beautiful woman without mercy – is only seen from the knight’s point of view. She seduces men away from life and hope, and condemns them to lingering in a shadowy nowhere, caught between life and death.

Many of us will be familiar with the imagery, even if we’ve never read the poem, as the femme fatale trope has long been popular. The Pre-Raphaelite painters in particular were inspired by Keats’ ballad, producing a number of works including the one above, painted by Henry Meynell Rheam in 1901 (source: Wikipedia).

“But what is the woman’s point of view?” I wondered. None (few?) of us see ourselves as the villain of the story. Maybe she is performing a useful service, saving them from the experience of a painful death, gathering more knights for King Arthur in his long slumber, or something along those lines. When I mused about this to my sister and fellow author, Bryn Hammond, she immediately pointed me at the Valkyries, who collected slain heroes from battlefields and took them to their reward of an afterlife in Valhalla.

And so was born Lily, my gentle, English pastoral version of a Valkyrie, who we meet in the no man’s land between the trenches of the Great War…

The story itself is rather short, but it captures what I wanted to say and in its way covers rather a lot of ground. I hope you will be intrigued enough to give it a try! I can guarantee you that Chooser of the Slain is at least in very good company.