uncannymagazine:Congratulations to Sarah Pinsker! “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” is a wi

Congratulations to Sarah Pinsker! “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” is a winner for a Nebula Award for Short Story! Read it here: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/where-oaken-hearts-do-gather/)ID:
“One autumn as the wind blew cold and stripped red leaves from branches Fair Ellen ran to meet her love Where oaken hearts do gather” Quote from “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” by Sarah Pinsker in Issue 39 of Uncanny Magazine, art by Paul Lewin.
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FIC READERS: If you haven’t read this story, you are sleeping on some absolutely amazing shit.

The quote above does not do it justice, but no shame – it’s hard to make a coherent quote out of a story written in the form and format of a reddit-style “lyric explainer” page for a particular traditional folk song (that the author wrote and then also recorded?? and it’s great???), with asynchronous commentary that covers all the fandom favorites of meta, Discourse, trolling, nerding out, and something ominous.

(“something ominous” is always the best bit of fandom i will not be taking questions)

For a non-spoilery taste of the style with a lil bit of a hook, try this quote:

Fair Ellen’s steps did lightly fall
On autumn’s red-stained blanket²⁶^,²⁷^,²⁸
As off she ran to meet her love²⁹
Where oaken hearts do gather

²⁶ Could be blood! –Dynamum
²⁷ This brings us around to what was previewed at the beginning– there the leaves were being stripped by autumn wind, here they’re already on the ground, but she’s off to meet her guy. –Rhiannononymous
²⁸ Hear me out: if you go with the “in autumn” opening variant that the Dead used instead of “one autumn,” this is something that happens every year. The leaves turn red, and off sweet Ellen goes again. That would explain the different-but-repeated nature of the opening and this stanza. That’s what always happens; what happens to William specifically is what happens thistime. –HolyGreil
–HenryMartyn marked this as cool stuff–
²⁹ Her light steps and “her love” here tell us that from the narrator’s perspective she is in love and has no intent to deceive. That makes what happens all the more surprising to the listener. –Rhiannononymous