Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods

Explore the folklore of the trickster, villain, and rescuer known as Baba Yaga in a new light.

＂With Becoming Baba Yaga, Kris Spisak presents a robust work of scholarship. Baba Yaga is a wily shapeshifter, nearly impossible to pin down--but Spisak miraculously transforms alongside her, ever keeping up.＂ --from the foreword by GennaRose Nethercott, bestselling author of Thistlefoot

When darkness, fear, and instability inundate our daily lives, folktale figures like Baba Yaga speak to the dichotomy of our existence--the hope and the horror, the magic and the mundane. At once an old hag and an enchantress, a demon and wish granter, a feminist and nothing more than a fairytale, Baba Yaga is an endlessly complex folktale character.

Becoming Baba Yaga provides an in-depth look at the Baba Yaga mythos and history through Slavic folklore. Filled with historical and cultural context, analyses, and the stories themselves that add depth to the conversation. A comprehensive resource for anyone hoping to learn more about this ambiguous character and how her multifaceted presence still ripples through the present day, Becoming Baba Yaga is as thoughtful as it is illuminating.

Spisak explores Baba Yaga’s connection to nature as an Earth goddess and as an herbalist. She also delves into the Shadow Self and Baba Yaga’s aspect as a trickster and places her in a modern context as not merely a witch of the woods but also as an archetype and force for finding your own path. Becoming Baba Yaga shares how she is both a force for good as much as evil and a feminist before her time.

Kris Spisak earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the College of William and Mary, her master of liberal arts from the University of Richmond, and a further graduate credit in fiction from the University of Iowa’s writing program in Florence, Italy. She taught college writing courses for six years at schools including Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond, before stepping away from the classroom to pursue her own writing work. Kris has been spotlighted in Writer’s Digest and the Huffington Post for her work as an editor and author dedicated to helping other writers. She is the author of The Baba Yaga Mask (a novel) and Get a Grip on Your Grammar. When not working on her own projects, she is an active speaker, workshop leader, and creative strategist. Kris is on the advisory board of James River Writers and is also a member of the Virginia Writers Club and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.