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Book Description by the Judges for the Eric Hoffer Award:

In this bold recasting of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, a traumatic adventure unfolds, and the expectations one has for reality are shattered. An air of mystery pervades each poem, but beneath that mystery, worlds of forced silences exist. Some poems shock. Some poems awe. Some remind readers that the wolves one should fear most are not those roaming the forests. These poems also explore the myths and legends, symbolisms and mysticisms, which comprise the folk tales with which so many are familiar, and breathe new life into these well-worn tales. This retelling forms a narrative for a modern age.

Excerpt from Our Wolves

How to Make a Hand Shadow Wolf

Start in your own room. Shut the door.
If you can, lock it or else barricade
with the hope chest and all your dolls.
Prop a flashlight on the bedding,
pointed at the gray fan-pattern plaster,
and make a light-circle on the wall.
Find your shadow. Try to keep track.
Close four fingers with the thumb up.
Curl in your index finger. There,
your own shadow is a basic wolf.
Add a thumb and wiggle the ears.
Watch now. Your pinky finger
is the mouth, open and close it.
See, no teeth. Can you make an open
eye by tweaking that one finger?
Close it now. You’re in charge.
Tip your hand, open the mouth,
and howl at the moon, all aquiver.

originally published in Sheila-Na-Gig

© Luanne Castle

Praise for «Our Wolves»

In Our Wolves, poet Luanne Castle navigates the timeless story of “Little Red Riding Hood” in a compelling collection of sharp, memorable poetry. Familiar tales are ageless for a reason. Their magic is that they can easily be transformed to explore subjects of abuse, danger, sexuality, self-sufficiency, and interpersonal relationships in a way that makes these challenging topics palatable to readers. Trying to find the reasoning behind Red’s traumatic adventure, as well as using it to comment on contemporary events, Castle creates taut narratives and sympathetic monologues to show how the story shapeshifts with the teller. Here, we hear from the wolf, the huntsman/woodcutter, Grandmother, townspeople, and Red herself. Not just a victimized or innocent child, Castle’s Red also appears in wiser (and sometimes older) incarnations that are knowing, rebellious, resilient, and clever. This technique subverts stereotypical conventions and shows that Red’s story “is not so very different from yours / and yours and yours and yours and yours.” Filled with atmospheric power, dynamic portrayals, and bright imagery, Our Wolves will haunt you long after you’ve returned from its woods.–Christine Butterworth-McDermott, author of The Spellbook of Fruit & Flowers

In this recasting of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, Luanne Castle’s wolves are not the wolves skulking in our imaginations. Her poems challenge our senses, bounce from view to view, shifting their focal points. Grandmothers and red-coat-wearing girls may or may not bear guilt. Indeed, Granny may be the Wolf. Or the Wolf may be a father, pulling down panties to slap bare skin. The story is told «to search / for who, not why. It’s all about blame.» Which is, of course, only one truth lurking within this fable. The poems in Our Wolves burrow under your skin and into your flesh. They don’t let go, no matter how you scratch; they’re unsettling, magical. Relentless. Unforgettable. —Robert Okaji, author of Buddha’s Not Talking

“Perhaps you were wrong.”  In these imaginative and evocative poems, expectations are subverted, and flat, centuries-old characters are brought to life in both amusing and startling ways. Castle tells the old story of Red Riding Hood from new angles and perspectives, creating a multitude of responses from the reader, eliciting from us everything from moments of cringing to laughter. Most interestingly, Castle subverts the predictable and achieves complexity by using an unlikely combination of forms and mixed modes–from the more traditional lineated lyric and narrative poems to the unexpected Haibun and Abecedarian, using every technique available to create this lively and memorable book. These poems invite us to confront what we take for granted and then let loose our own inner wolf to bite in and savor them all–one well-crafted word at a time. —Kimberly K. Williams, author of Sometimes a Woman and Still Lives

Reading from Our Wolves for Alien Buddha

Paperback

Author Biography

Luanne Castle lives in Arizona, next to a wash that wildlife use as a thoroughfare. She has published two full-length poetry collections, Rooted and Winged (Finishing Line Press 2022), a Book Excellence Award Winner, and Doll God (Kelsay Books 2015), which won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry. Her chapbooks are Our Wolves (Alien Buddha Press 2023), First Runner-up for the Eric Hoffer Award, and Kin Types (Finishing Line Press 2017), a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Luanne’s Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfictions, and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, Your Impossible Voice, Gooseberry Pie, Bending Genres, Bull, The Ekphrastic Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Cleaver, Disappointed Housewife, South 85, Roi Fainéant, River Teeth, The Dribble Drabble Review, Flash Boulevard, Verse Daily, Saranac Review, Pleiades, American Journal of Poetry, The Mackinaw, Thimble, One Art, Lothlorien, River Teeth, MasticadoresUSA, Storyteller Poetry Journal, TAB, and other journals. Her Best of the Net-nominated mixed-media art has been showcased at Watershed Review, Wildscape, Mad Swirl, Raw Lit, and Thimble. Luanne blogs at Writer Site.