In magical realism, otherworldly elements often highlight political tensions, injustice, and oppression. Protagonists (and authors, for that matter) lean on magic as a coping mechanism to escape or re-contextualize the brutalities and all-too-familiar discrimination of the past, doing away with romanticized notions of bygone eras. When authors dive into magical historical fiction, the real or […]

When In the Dream House was published by Carmen Maria Machado in 2019, it rocketed into the limelight. Lauded for its literary experimentation and brave exploration of the taboos and complexities of queer identity, the book won the 2019 Bisexual Book Award, 2020 Judy Grahn Award, 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction, and 2021 Rathbones […]

Does the forest comfort or scare you? In literature, the woods are often portrayed as oases of freedom and clarity, where humans can shake off conformity and follow their natural instincts. But the woods can also be cautionary, a place to be wary of and avoid. Darker stories show the forest as a place of […]

If you're a writer, you know that speculative or fabulist fiction can sometimes get a bad rap. The assumption is that a magic-centered story is all plot and no substance, or all strange and no literary merit. It's true that escapism and craft is a difficult balance to strike. At Inglenook Lit, we celebrate writers […]

In the mood for some stories that are short, sweet (OK, maybe not sweet), and leave you wondering about the very nature of reality? While magical realism can pull us into deeply dark, kaleidoscope-like versions of day-to-day life that change our perspective forever, the truth is that a mini dose of surrealism is sometimes all […]

Let's face it: parenting basically is magical realism. There are lovely moments that glisten like an iridescent bubble rising to the sky, yucky moments that slime like an otherworldly mold, and terrible moments that snarl like a creature in a cave. Novels and short stories that place parenthood under a distorted, almost familiar lens show […]

Need to leave the real world for a bit? Ever dreamt of getting lost in a magical library? (Were you one of those kids who watched the lesser-known Macaulay Culkin movie from 1994, The Pagemaster?) In addition to being the ultimate fantasy of all bibliophiles, the magical library trope is essentially its own genre. One […]

Nothing tops a warm cup of tea and a little dystopia before bed (and no, we don't mean the nightly news). It can be weirdly soothing to read about another world's hot mess to either help contextualize or see loopholes in our own. Dystopian novels remind us of what's at stake. There are many dystopian […]

Have you ever felt a connection to something very deep, very old, and just beyond the grasp of the world you know? It's like you can sense, feel, and taste an opportunity for adventure (or is it danger?) a mile away. There's no doubt there's folklore in your blood. The best way to ignite that […]

It's a powerful thing when a book opens your mind to questions about the human condition, the self, and the nature of existence. Novels that are philosophical in nature take us to fictional worlds that somehow reflect and comment on the human condition better than reality, making you question where you stand and what you […]