Becoming Baba Yaga Launch Party!

Fountain Friend Kris Spisak is returning with her newest book! We will be hosting Kris for a meet and greet where guests can hang out and chat with her, buy books, and socialize at Sam Miller’s!

FREE REGISTRATION REQUIRED!

About the Book: Explore the folklore of the trickster, villain, and rescuer known as Baba Yaga in a new light.

“With Becoming Baba Yaga, Kris Spisak presents a robust work of scholarship. Baba Yaga is a wily shapeshifter, nearly impossible to pin down—but Spisak miraculously transforms alongside her, ever keeping up.” —from the foreword by GennaRose Nethercott, bestselling author of Thistlefoot

When darkness, fear, and instability inundate our daily lives, folktale figures like Baba Yaga speak to the dichotomy of our existence—the hope and the horror, the magic and the mundane. At once an old hag and an enchantress, a demon and wish granter, a feminist and nothing more than a fairytale, Baba Yaga is an endlessly complex folktale character.

Becoming Baba Yaga provides an in-depth look at the Baba Yaga mythos and history through Slavic folklore. Filled with historical and cultural context, analyses, and the stories themselves that add depth to the conversation. A comprehensive resource for anyone hoping to learn more about this ambiguous character and how her multifaceted presence still ripples through the present day, Becoming Baba Yaga is as thoughtful as it is illuminating.

Spisak explores Baba Yaga’s connection to nature as an Earth goddess and as an herbalist. She also delves into the Shadow Self and Baba Yaga’s aspect as a trickster and places her in a modern context as not merely a witch of the woods but also as an archetype and force for finding your own path. Becoming Baba Yaga shares how she is both a force for good as much as evil and a feminist before her time.

About the Author:

Kris Spisak earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the College of William and Mary, her master of liberal arts from the University of Richmond, and did further graduate work in fiction through the University of Iowa. She wrote her first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Her award-winning debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, was inspired by her family’s experience in the post-WWII Ukrainian diaspora and has been called “A complex, poetic tale” by Kirkus Reviews and “edu-tainment at its best” by the Historical Novel Society. Her latest book, Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist & Witch of the Woods, is new nonfiction that explores how understanding ourselves, our complex world, and our place within history are only a matter of turning to a boney-legged old woman who lives deep in the Eastern European woods. Kris fully believes that well-written words and well-told stories have always changed the world and that they will continue to. She can’t wait to tell you her next tale. Learn more at Kris-Spisak.com