Inked in Gray Press has acquired world English rights to Land’s Sake by author Shantell Powell.
Land’s Sake is a collection of short stories encompassing deconstructed fairytales, folktales, and terrors: A world with lupine grannies, cattle-rustling angels, asexual teen mages, Arctic monsters, wannabe metal queens, LandBack vengeance, and queer corvid criminals. Each story casts you into a wild world where nature embraces the unnatural and the uncanny.
Trespass on a land where trees are haunted and an anxious boy stacks wood until his hands bleed. Visit a time and a place where grandmothers are powerful and children learn to wield magic. Where a woman finds a delicious recipe to thwart misogynists, inhabitants of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch dream of ice and snow, and honey is indistinguishable from ectoplasm.
Where salmon appear in thin air backlit by the aurora, a child-stealing monster creeps out from the sea, and a robotic polar bear terrorizes a post-apocalyptic Arctic wasteland. Where a gay raven does crimes, and a witch finds a way for her city to be returned to the people and animals from which it was stolen. Fairytales, folklores, and terrors intertwine in a world of deconstructed fairytales, folktales, and terrors.
We had the opportunity to talk with Shantell about their upcoming release to give readers a behind-the-scenes peek of Land’s Sake!
What inspired you to write Land's Sake? Did any special or unusual circumstances or incidents play a role in the conception and/or writing of this book?
When I wrote these stories, I wasn’t initially considering a collection. As I wrote more and more, I realized I had a collection on the go. Each story has its own unique instigation. Several found their beginnings in the fairytale workshops of Saraswathi Sukumar. A couple were written in direct response to destruction of trees and community gardens in the City of Kitchener. One was inspired by The Books of Enoch from the Apocrypha.
I had an unusual upbringing in that I grew up on the land in rural and remote areas throughout Canada. Being raised in a foraging/hunting/farming/fishing/gardening family gave me an appreciation for land that I don’t think I’d have had if I’d grown up in the suburbs. The importance of living in equilibrium with the rest of nature is a theme woven throughout the book. I survived a Gen X, latchkey, unsupervised, wild childhood, so you’ll also find several stories about kids who are essentially feral. It’s what I know.
Without any spoilers, what was your favorite part of the book to write?
I had an absolute blast writing my Arctic dystopian story. I wrote it as a direct response to a publisher which claims to welcome authors from all cultures yet refuses to look at anything in which animals are hunted or used for food/clothing/etc. I find this rule to be a continuation of settler-colonialism. It does not welcome Inuit or people from other Indigenous cultures who rely on our animal relations for survival. And so I wrote a story about a post-apocalyptic story in which Inuit hunters are forced to go vegan in a world with no ice caps left. Every moment spent writing that story was full of sheer contrarian glee.
Were there any major influences for you as a writer?
My inspirations are all over the place. I’m inspired by a wide assortment of fairytales and nursery rhymes, Knud Rasmussen’s collected oral folktales of the Inuit, Bible stories and other world mythologies, and folklore of the Maritimes. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer helped me remember all the things that were important when I was a kid in the forest. I was a hyperlexic child reading way outside what is considered age-appropriate. I was drawn to survival stories like Julie of the Wolves, the Tarzan books, Robinson Crusoe, My Side of the Mountain, etc. Some of these (especially Robinson Crusoe and the Tarzan books) are extremely racist and misogynistic, but as a kid, I didn’t notice those things. I strive to take what is good and leave the bad behind. I recently reread one of my favourite books from when I was a kid (Flight of the White Wolf by Mel Ellis) and realized how much of an effect that book has had on my writing. I am drawn to ecofiction which treats nonhuman characters as people and not lesser beings.
I also want to give a shout-out to the granting agencies who helped make this book possible: the Waterloo Arts Fund, Ontario Arts Council, Pat the Dog Theatre Creation, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity gave me money, time, and space to dive deep into these stories, and I’m grateful for their support.
Without any spoilers, is there a character who holds a special place in your heart?
I have a soft spot in my heart for Hartley in “Hartley and the Wood Stove.” He is grappling with so many of the same issues I went through as a child: growing up dirt-poor, being raised with rules and gender roles that don’t make a lot of sense, running wild in a bucolic environment, drunk drivers, military veterans with untreated trauma, being taken advantage of by adults, trying to make sense of fear-based religion, and having an anxiety-riddled sense of wonder about the world around you.
If your book had a soundtrack or theme song, what would it be?
The Tear Garden’s “The Tear Garden” and IAMX’s “Tear Garden.” I swear I also listen to music that isn’t about tears and/or gardens. And now I feel like I should put together a mix tape to accompany this collection!
What is your favorite trope?
I’m a big sucker for metamorphosis, whether it’s mermaids becoming human, pumpkins becoming coaches, someone getting bitten and turning into a vampire/werewolf/zombie, Pinocchio turning into a donkey/real boy, or an angakkuq turning into a polar bear. There are plenty of metamorphoses to be found in this collection.
What was a memorable moment when you learned that language had power?
When I was a little kid, I was having fun saying as many words/sounds that rhymed as quickly as I could. I was on a big list of things that rhyme with “duck” when the adults around me suddenly came alive and told me that one of those rhyming sounds was a thing I must never say. That a monosyllabic sound could rouse such a reaction from the grownups showed me that words wield great power. That was a thrilling realization.
So what are you reading now? What’s on your TBR List?
No joke, but my TBR list is decades old, and if it ever falls on me, it will be my death. I’m an unabashed book hoarder. I’ve lugged around one unfinished brick of a book from move to move since 1991.
Someday, I may finally get around to reading it and the hundreds of other books languishing on my shelves, tables, and countertops. These days, I mostly read unpublished work. I’m part of a weekly horror-writers group and read/workshop stories that are being prepped for publication. I’m so blessed to get early views of works by talented emerging authors like Anna Orridge, Jennifer Cornick, and Bob Fear.
As for things that are in print, I’m currently reading Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell, Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer, White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link, Strange Houses by Uketsu, and The Books of Blood by Clive Barker.
What other works have you published? Where can we find you?
This is my first book! That being said, I have speculative fiction, poetry, and essays in The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, Nightmare, The Deadlands, Augur, Strange Horizons, Brave New Weird, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and dozens more anthologies and magazines.
An up-to-date list of my publications is available at http://shanmonster.dreamwidth.org .
You can also find me on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/shanmonster.bsky.social and Mastodon https://c.im/@Shanmonster . I’m currently working on two novellas and a new short story collection.
About Dave Wash
Raised on the land and off the grid in rural and remote areas across Canada, Shantell Powell is a swamp hag and elder goth who grew up in an apocalyptic cult but got better.
She’s an Aurora finalist, a Best of the Net, Pushcart, Rhysling, and Journey prize nominee, and a winner of Brave New Weird. Her writing appears in Augur, The Deadlands, The Malahat Review, Nightmare, and dozens more magazines and anthologies.
She has a reverent approach to nature and an irreverent approach to religion. When she’s not writing, she wrangles chinchillas and gets filthy in the woods.
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