Elizabeth Hopkinson
Elizabeth Hopkinson, winner of the James White Award, writes fairy tales, fantasy and historical fiction. She reprints her short stories here.
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Elizabeth Hopkinson is from West Yorkshire, home of the Brontës, Anne Lister and the Cottingley Fairies. She has had over 80 short stories, fairy tales and flash fictions published in the likes of Dancing with Mr Darcy, The Forgotten & the Fantastical, Mslexia, Interzone and Strange Horizons. Her stories have been performed in the Solstice Shorts Festival and by Liars’ League. Elizabeth herself has appeared at Ilkley Literature Festival Fringe, and is a regular at Bradford Brick Box Room’s open mic. She was the winner of the James White Award, Fairytalez best gender-swap fairy tale, and the Liars’ League/National Gallery Inspiration contest, as well as being a runner-up in several other contests. She has crowdfunded a collection of Asexual Fairy Tales, which came out from SilverWood Books in 2019. She has spent much of the past decade working on a trilogy about a castrato and a bird-charmer in C18th Italy. Elizabeth is married with one grown-up daughter. She identifies as asexual, and is committed to asexual rights.
Fiction · Posts · Books
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Fiction
Coffee and the Kobold
Published Sep 14, 2020 · 2,480 words (10 minutes) · 85 views
Fantasy Historical Frederick the great fairy tale coffee stories germany coffee kobold
An old soldier meets a kobold who gives him the gift of coffee smelling in Frederick the Great’s Berlin. On one condition...
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Fiction
Chasing Unicorns
Published Aug 18, 2020 · 1,570 words (6 minutes) · 135 views
Fantasy Historical Romance unicorns Second World War meteors england
It's 1949 and Agnes has come to Swanwick to document the unicorn migration, a once-in-a-century occurence. But can she face it without her paranaturalist husband Hedley, lost in the War? This story was originally commissioned in memory of Katy Clarke, former vice-chariman of Swanwick Writers' Summer School.
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Fiction
The Thirteenth King
Published Apr 4, 2020 · 2,410 words (9 minutes)
Fantasy Humor fairy tale fairy tales retold quirky uplifting
There is a kind of truth in everything. Even a fairy tale about a boy with twelve books in his back pocket who somehow ends up becoming king of the most beige-brown city imaginable.
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Fiction
Mr Spink Learns to Fly
Published Apr 4, 2020 · 2,625 words (10 minutes) · 165 views
Fantasy Humor quirky bookshop magic carpet
The owner of an antique bookshop discovers love and adventure when it turns out the carpet in his shop is the magic, flying kind, infused with the personality of a 16th century Persian nobleman.
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Fiction
Tam-lin
Published Mar 10, 2020 · 1,543 words (6 minutes) · 348 views
Fantasy Romance retelling fairy tale Scotland traditional
My retelling of the Scottish ballad about a brave girl who risks all to rescue the knight she loves from entrhallment to the Fairy Queen.
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Fiction
Cat Flowers
Published Feb 6, 2020 · 328 words (2 minutes) · 235 views
Did you know that cats can do magic? Mine can. A brief and magical story inspired by my cat, Sootica.
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Fiction
Enter the Komodo
Published Jan 6, 2020 · 3,387 words (13 minutes)
Fantasy Humor surreal Gulliver quirky
Antimony needs a man like the Academy of Lagado needs a paper bicycle. As its new Chancellor, she is determined to bring the Swiftian institution into the modern world. So, why has a Komodo dragon arrived on her doorstep with a sign saying Marry Me around its neck? And how can she get rid of it? A lightheated story inspired by Gulliver's Travels.
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Fiction
Snow Star
Published Dec 5, 2019 · 154 words (1 minute) · 383 views
Fantasy fairy tale christmas flash fiction snow star magical
A Flash Fiction Fairy Tale for Christmas. On Christmas night, the children gather in the snow cave...
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Fiction
The Legend of the Bradford Boar
Published Oct 9, 2019 · 927 words (4 minutes) · 519 views
Classic Fantasy Historical retelling Yorkshire myths and legends local legend
Discover the Yorkshire legend of the Bradford Boar, retold by Elizabeth Hopkinson. A fearsome boar guards the well. Can anyone defefat it?
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Fiction
The Origin of Love
Published Aug 30, 2019 · 519 words (2 minutes) · 468 views
Classic Fantasy lgbtq+ asexuality Greek mythology
A sneak peek at the first story in my new collection, Asexual Fairy Tales, now available to preorder. The tale of why humans go seeking their other half. Based on Plato.
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