Chapbook Review: Cup & Dagger

A gorgeous and breathtaking mini-chapbook series centering diverse voices & stories across the landscape of speculative fiction, fantasy, fairy tales, and horror.

Do you ever know that a collection will be special before you even open it? That’s the feeling I got when I first scrolled through the Cup & Dagger mini-chapbook series by Sword & Kettle Press. To see such an extensive collection of stories from diverse writers, accented by unique and beautiful artwork, and put together lovingly by hand - that’s the stuff we at WiS live for.

So who exactly are Sword & Kettle? They’re a small publishing house whose submissions and publications are specifically keyed into the weird and the whimsical, the witchy and the wild, and they put great emphasis on highlighting fantasy & spec-fic that is inclusive and intersectional. They pay their creators (!!!) and are dedicated to making space in the literary world for writers with marginalized identities. Not only is their mission vital - and similar to our own! - but the mini-chapbooks they have published in their Cup & Dagger series are just absolutely stunning, both in the writing itself and in the attention to detail that goes into every aspect of the design.

Each of these mini-chapbooks is 12 pages in total, around 2,000 words - just enough to get you immersed in the world and wanting more, a magical bite that lingers on the tongue. Magic indeed, because this collection is centered around ideas of speculation and fantasy, sharing old fairy tales and new ones, often playing at the blurred edge of reality. There is no singular theme that ties them together, but rather many threads that weave similar patterns between each book: concepts of life and death, transformation, love, resilience, the power of community & solidarity. These writers explore what it means to be human / haunted / cursed / blessed, and echo the press’ feminist mission of bringing to light prose & poetry that has something to say beyond just telling a good story; they are here not just to delight or disturb, but to call something vital into the light.

With so many incredible stories, where’s one to start? If you’re inclined toward the creepy and unsettling, you’ll want to tiptoe through bury me in iron & ivy by Monica Robinson, which is stitched-together fragments of prose poetry rooted in Midwestern Gothic. Or if you like stories that hold difficult emotions closely and compassionately, read Our Ballad in Soil by Bisola Sosan, a soft, bittersweet story of the delicate beauty that can come when death is not the end but a new beginning. There are stories that overlap the familiar world with the unexpected, like My Favorite Sancho by Monique Quintana, whose magical realist prose is vivid and earthy and evokes the feeling of a bedtime story but darker, wilder. And then there are stories that lean fully into fairy-tale comfort, like Kelsie Colclough’s Apple Skin, a sapphic Golden Apple retelling about inheritance and bravery that made my gay little heart soar. Really, each one of these seventeen books is worth exploring in its own way - there’s a story for everyone here, and each writer’s voice brings something curious and urgent into the world.

These mini-chaps came as physical books, and each one has been assembled and bound by hand, meaning you can physically feel the love & attention that’s been poured into them. The covers are beautiful in full color, the interior design is minimalist so as to give the text the full attention it deserves, and - if you’re a nerd like me who cares about such things - each book has a different font that somehow fits the story perfectly. All in all, these are a delight to hold and to read, and I’m so honored to add this collection to my shelves.

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You can look through all the mini-chapbooks in this series on the Sword & Kettle website, and follow them on social media @swordandkettle to check out the other amazing projects they’ve got in store. Thank you Jessie, Kay, Naseem, and Monica for sending us ARCs, and for the incredible work you’ve done putting this together - and of course thank you to all the writers who contributed their voices to this project. We think you’re absolutely amazing. ♥