Publisher: Interstellar Flight Press
Dated: September 2020
Purchase: Bookshop.org | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound
Purchase a copy signed by the author
Twelve is a retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairytale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Bewitching and beguiling, this short series of linked poems takes the reader to the underrealm and back, following the stories of twelve princesses and their life after the magic shoes.
Cover Art: Yana Germann
Sample Poem
Awards
- Second Place, 2021 Elgin Award, Chapbook Category
- “The Third Sister” was nominated for the 2021 Rhysling Award by the SFPA
Related Links
- Review by Erin Becker (Barrelhouse)
- Review by Joshua Gage (Cemetery Dance)
- Review: Andrea Blythe’s “Twelve” and the retelling of the heroine’s fairytale by Abbie Johnson
Advanced Praise
“Andrea Blythe’s collection of the retold (and often feminist) Brothers Grimm fairytale, “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” is a breath of air at the bottom of the ocean. It’s not only fresh, but it’s so different and unique that it deserves multiple reads. One of my favorite lines in the book is also something we should all ask ourselves, ‘Do you mean it?'”
— Joanna C. Valente, author of Marys of the Sea and editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault
“Hearkening back to when Grimms’ tales were less fairy, more formidable, Andrea Blythe offers a rhythmic, alliterative retelling of traditional stories that reveal a stark imbalance between genders. An engaging and eerie tribute to the young girls and women who read, dance, and keep things clean, Twelve does exactly what her storyteller suggests of her characters: it “see[s] the truth beneath the pretty surface.”
— Christina M. Rau, author of the Elgin Award winning Liberating The Astronauts
“A delightful deviation from the known tale ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses,’ Blythe’s retelling offers an inspiring and poetic account of what can happen when women take back their power. The language is beautifully selected for each sister’s story — and each one has been carefully crafted to have an individual voice, yet we feel the strength of the bond that ties them. Within, we are granted glances into enchantment and passion, to lyrical attractions that will have you spinning breathless from page to page.”
— Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland
“The prose poems of Twelve shimmer like precious stones, each reflecting the original fairy tale in strange, beautiful, and unsettling ways– and when set together, they become a mosaic of womanhood in all its forms.”
— Cassandra Rose Clarke, Rhysling Award-winning author of Sacred Summer