INTO THE FOREST
Tales of the Baba Yaga

2023 Bram Stoker Awards® FINALIST
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2023 Silver Falchion Awards Winner 

From editor Lindy Ryan comes INTO THE FOREST, an anthology from women of contemporary horror who venture deep into the woods to reimagine one of folklore’s most enduring—and devouring—women. Featuring Gwendolyn Kiste, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Mercedes M. Yardley, Monique Snyman, Donna Lynch, Lisa Quigley, R. J. Joseph, and many more, with an introduction by Christina Henry.

Teeth gnash. Bones rattle. The forest waits.
 
Deep in the forest, behind a fence crowned with skulls, an old woman waits in a cottage perched on birds’ legs. She is witch and grandmother, helper and devourer, giver of life and bringer of death. For centuries, Baba Yaga has embodied the contradictions women are taught to fear: age and appetite, wisdom and wickedness, nurture and rage. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch—and somewhere beneath our own skin, we recognize her.
 
From the oldest Slavic folktales to the witches and wicked women who haunt contemporary horror, Baba Yaga has never fit neatly into the role of villain. Sometimes she tests us. Sometimes she feeds us. Sometimes she eats us whole. Maiden, Mother, Crone—her stories remind us that feminine power does not have to be beautiful, benevolent, or easily understood. The deeper we wander into her woods, the closer we come to the parts of ourselves we have been warned not to become.
 
In a world still eager to fear women who grow older, angrier, hungrier, and harder to tame, INTO THE FOREST returns to Baba Yaga’s domain to reclaim the witch in the woods. Here, women of contemporary horror gather the guts and bones of old stories and make them strange again, following the crooked path toward transformation, retribution, and the terrible freedom of becoming something other than what the world expects.

praise for Into the Forest

"Perfect for horror fans who can't get enough of folklore and fairy-tale retellings that veer in unexpected directions." –Booklist, STARRED Review

"Fans of folklore retellings will find plenty to enjoy." –​Publishers Weekly

"Interpretations vary with delicious wildness... But what links the stories is a folkloric power located on the outer edge of our consciousness, yet which seems to burrow right into the centre of our souls." –Daily Mail UK

"Lindy Ryan’s preface sets the tone for the anthology, situating it as a contribution to the recent flowering of collections featuring women writing horror, while Christina Henry’s foreword provides historical and scholastic context for Baba Yaga folktales. The book’s tone shifts past these introductions. Throughout, the prose is lyrical and brutal; each story unfolds hidden truths about the all-devouring witch. The stories in Into the Forest collect the guts and bones of some of the world’s oldest witch tales and refashion them into something new, beautiful, and gruesome." –Foreword Reviews

“A powerful literary reflection... Outstanding in its diversity and interpretations, Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga is very highly recommended not just for horror collections, but for libraries strong in women’s literature, as well as for reader’s book groups who would study the legend and realities of the Baba Yaga folktale as it journeys into the heart and soul of women's experiences and psychology.” –Midwest Book Review

"Edited by Lindy Ryan, a champion of women's voices in horror, this is a sharply imaginative, diverse anthology of dark fantasy and horror stories.... Readers who love to tread the dark and treacherous paths of the human heart will happily lose themselves here." –Shelf Awareness

"A magical production for fans of fairy tales and folklore." –Audiofile Magazine

"A great [anthology] to, erm, peck at while you dream of running wild deep in the forest." –Horror Tree

“A lovely, thorned, haunted gathering of tales of what it means to occupy a woman’s body. Baba Yaga serves a reminder of the wildness sleeping within all of us. This collection brings her roaring to life.”  —Kristi DeMeester, author of SUCH A PRETTY SMILE 

“I have loved Baba Yaga since I was a girl. Her wild disregard for the "rules of man" inspired me. She isn't bound by hearth and home, rather it is bound to her. Baba creates her world, remakes it in her image, and the world—the wild world—loves her for it. All else trembles. Here are 23 stories that pay proper tribute to Baba Yaga's wild nature in all its facets. From Yi Izzy Yu's horrifically charming “The Story of a House” to the sensual tale of revolution and magic in “Water Like Broken Glass” by Carina Bissett, each story explores what it means to be untamed. These aren't just tales of a child eating witch, though there is plenty of that. These are stories about what it means to be a woman fluent in darkness. Each of these authors speaks Baba Yaga's language. It's the language of starlight, shadow, bone, and blood. They have borrowed the witch's spirit, blended it with their own, and created a grimoire from which all of us can draw upon.” —Angela Yuriko Smith, multiple Bram Stoker Award®-winning and Elgin Award-nominated author 

“INTO THE FOREST explores the folklore of Baba Yaga through new tales filled with transformation and retribution, from a masterful group of authors. We travel back and forth in time, from Europe to the American South as violence and madness drive the used, abused, and betrayed into dense stretches of trees. There we find a path to strength and power, to unearthing or becoming the otherworldly Maiden, Mother, Crone.” —Linda D. Addison, award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and SFPA Grand Master
© 2026. Lindy Ryan. All rights reserved.