The Woman with the Swan

Woman with a Swan is the fourth and final volume of a four-part collection. As a brief reminder, what is the idea behind the Lehké fantazijno (Light Fantasy) project? The aim is to publish a fantasy anthology featuring both Czech and Slovak female authors, with the goal of compiling a representative and diverse selection of works from both established and emerging female writers in the fantasy genre. And since every proper anthology needs a theme, ours is based on the motifs of tarot cards. For Woman with a Swan, the specific card was Love, depicted as a lady of the castle with a child in a boat among swans. The swan represents love, harmony, and beauty. The symbol of the swan is associated with the awakening of one's own power, grace and inner beauty, innocence, faithfulness, self-confidence, understanding the symbolism of dreams, seeing into the future, happiness, understanding spiritual development, developing intuition, divination, treating others with kindness, and the determination to fulfil commitments, as well as passion and sensuality (the black swan). Later, especially by artists (poets and composers), the swan came to be associated with death, or more specifically, with something final and dying, which stems from the belief that a swan sings before it dies.

The editors of this volume were once again Františka Vrbenská and Zuzana Hloušková, who have long been active in the Czech fantasy scene. Thanks to their extensive knowledge and publishing experience, they guarantee good taste, so you can look forward to a quality read. The foreword was written by Martin Králik, editor-in-chief of Jupiter magazine and a representative of the Martinus bookshop, and the afterword was compiled by the well-known television presenter and fantasy activist Silvie “draky” Šustrová.

The fourth volume of the anthology again contains 13 short stories representing the genre diversity of literary fantasy (classic/historical/urban/humorous/fantasy, sci-fi, alternative history, post-apocalyptic, etc.) while also portraying the ability of the heroes and heroines to honour love, harmony, and beauty above all. Who can you look forward to? Here is a list of the authors, and you are sure to find your favourite among them:

Short Stories

Eva Hauserová: Wolf Face
Zuzana Hartmanová: Circles on the Water
Sanča Fülle: El Instigator
Emma Surdu: The Swan Stone
Anna Olejárová: Krakeniad
Lenka Hnízdilová: Between Worlds
Veronika Salášková: Fur and Stick
Petra Štarková: Raven Rhapsody
Monika Kandriková: Keep It
Dagmar Lachmanová: Trapped
Kristýna Sněgoňová: Of Humans and Non-Humans
Radmila Tomšů: You Pay for Your Mistakes
Jana Plauchová: No One Walks on Clouds with Shoes On