Fairy tales and folk tales, originally passed down orally through generations, are a fundamental part of our shared world culture.

They are a way to interpret - through magic and monsters, princesses and paupers, queens and quests - lessons on morality and society. They show a once upon a time world of simple archetypes in fantastical situations.

This book gathers twenty-one authors who have brought new focus to fairy tales by combining two well known stories with a literary genre of their choice.

Upon a Once Time contains the following tales re-imagined: The Arthurian Cycle, The Bad Wife, Beauty and the Beast, The Boy Who Drew Cats, The Brown Bear of Norway, Caliph Stork, Cinderella, Diamonds and Toads, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, The Goblin Spider, The Golem of Prague, Iron John, The Little Mermaid, Little Red Riding Hood, Math Fab Mathonwy, Momotaro, The Nightingale, Petrosinella, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed, The Red Shoes, Rumpelstiltskin, Rusalka Tales, Schneewittchen, The Selkie Bride, Sleeping Beauty, The Swineherd, Taketori Monogatari, Thousandfurs, Tom Thumb, The Twelve Months, The Valiant Little Tailor, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Vasilisa the Wise, The Waters of Life, The Well of the World's End, The Wild Swans, and The Woodcutter's Daughter.

Stories by by Brent Baldwin. Maya Chhabra, Lin Darrow, Evan Dicken, CJ Dotson, Kit Falbo, Joshua Gage, Taryn Haas, Jamie Lackey, Alex Langer, Anna Madden, Anna Martino, Melissa Mead, Dennis Mombauer, Mike Morgan, Suri Parmar, Cat Rambo, M. Regan, Jude Reid, NA Sulway, and Rebecca E. Treasure