Five minutes with author Erin-Claire Barrow

Posted on 15 March, 2019

Tired of trying to find bedtimes stories that don’t always put the princess in a tower? 

Erin-Claire Barrow is the author and illustrator of The Adventurous Princess, a book of traditional fairy tales retold and illustrated with a feminist twist. Think: ladies with agency.

We caught up with Erin-Claire ahead of her in-conversation event at Muse on Sunday 24 March.

What inspired you to write The Adventurous Princess?

I really loved traditional fairy tales, full of adventure and magic. However, it’s always irked me that many of them reinforce normative, traditional gender roles and values, and lack diversity in their leading characters, who are usually either expressly or implicitly straight, white, young, able-bodied and conventionally beautiful.

I wrote The Adventurous Princess because I wanted to read and share fairy tales that had the charm of the traditional version but were more relatable for a modern girl or woman. I felt there was an opportunity to retell stories to challenge rather than embed stereotypes, and in particular, to enable brave, diverse heroines to determine their own fates, undertake adventures and achieve dreams that don’t always focus on romantic love.

Of course, it’s not clear cut – often there’s an assumption that the problem with traditional fairy tales is that they’re all about damsels in distress being rescued by knights in shining armour. Plenty of the women and girls in traditional fairy tales do their own rescuing and adventuring. For The Adventurous Princess, I chose mostly well-known fairy tales that I felt were in need of a retelling to challenge aspects of the traditional story and introduce some diversity to the characters.

As a child did you imagine fairy tales differently or did this analysis come later?

As a child, I was much less critical than I am now of fairy tales that reinforce gender stereotypes! However, I still used to gravitate towards stories with adventurous heroines. My favourite was The Seven Ravens, a Grimms’ fairy tale about a girl who sets off to rescue her brothers, who have been turned into ravens, and the challenges she faces along the way.

How does your creative process work – do you start with the pictures or text first?

In the very earliest stages of thinking about this project, I envisioned an exhibition of illustrations that challenged gender norms in fairy tale, with only a small amount of accompanying text. I soon became caught up in retelling the stories, however, and loved the idea of creating a book, so in the end, I had at least the outline of all the stories complete before I started on the illustrations.

I did a lot of research for this project and learned so much about fairy tales and fashion in the process. I looked into the history of all the fairy tales I retold, so that I was working from the original stories rather than modern retellings, and I tried to at least loosely base the fashion in each fairy tale on a different point in history – mostly for my own enjoyment as I was painting!

What materials do you use for your illustrations and where do you do your writing and illustration?

I use watercolour paints and am very grateful for the YWCA Canberra’s Great Ydeas grant that I won in 2016, which supported me to purchase the materials I needed to create illustrations for The Adventurous Princess.

I do most of my writing and illustrating at my home here in Canberra, although a few stories were written in my favourite coffee shop in the Adelaide Hills, where they very kindly brought me an endless supply of hot chocolates over a few days of frantic writing!

Have you got any recommendations for other reworkings of, or books about, fairy tales? And what’s on your TBR pile?

I’m combining these questions as my TBR pile is full of retellings of fairy tales! I didn’t let myself read any fairy tale retellings while I was working on The Adventurous Princess, as I was trying to keep my head in the space of the original stories and my twists on those, so now I have some wonderful books to catch up on.

In particular, I’m looking forward to The Beast’s Heart by Leife Shallcross and Vasilisa the Wise and other tales of brave young women by Kate Forsyth and illustrated by Lorena Carrington.

Can you let us know what you are working on at the moment?

At the moment I’m working on some fairy tale illustrations for people who ordered The Adventurous Princess through a crowdfunding campaign last year. I’ve discovered some very obscure fairy tales through this process, which I’m enjoying!

I have a lot of plans for future projects, but I’d love to keep exploring the feminist fairy tales theme. I’m particularly interested in unreliable narrators and perhaps a more adult take on fairy tale retellings. Watch this space!

the essentials 

What: Erin-Claire Barrow in conversation with Angharad Lodwick
When: Sunday 24 March from 3-4 pm
Where: Muse Canberra, inside East Hotel, 69 Canberra Avenue, Kingston
Cost: Adults $15/Kids under 12 $8 (includes a complimentary glass of house wine or juice)
Book now: musecanberra.com.au