Q&A with Kris Spisak

 

 

 

Kris Spisak is the author of the new book Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods. Her other books include the novel The Baba Yaga Mask.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Becoming Baba Yaga?

 

A: Baba Yaga tales have swirled around the storytellers that I have known my entire life.

 

I knew of Baba Yaga as a child; I encountered her in Russian Literature classes and within Folktale Studies; but it wasn't until writing my novel, The Baba Yaga Mask — when I had the opportunity to meet with readers, book clubs, and library groups — that I came to realize how the depths of Baba Yaga were such a curiosity to those unfamiliar with her.

 

Because this witch of the woods has a legacy that traces back millennia, exploring her complexities is like spelunking in the caves of not only folklore but also of human history itself.

 

Protagonists named Ivan and Vasilisa may have chased her deep into the ground, through realms of silver, bronze and gold, but as contemporary readers, we have our own pursuits.

 

Exploring how Baba Yaga became “Baba Yaga” is a quest not just for entertainment value. The story of her evolving persona and her tales is a quest that also gives further understanding to our own personal growth and empowerment, mindfulness, feminism, motherhood, respect for aging, and a determination against all odds, no matter the era we live in.

 

Q: What do you see as the relationship between this book and your novel The Baba Yaga Mask?

 

A: Both my novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, and this new nonfiction book, Becoming Baba Yaga, are stand-alone books. However, both lend weight to the other and add to the conversation already in play in pop culture right now.

 

Baba Yaga has been appearing in modern media a lot lately. “Baba Yaga” is the code name for John Wick’s character. She appears in Dreamworks’ Puss in Boots. She appears in recent bestselling fiction from authors like GennaRose Nethercott (Thistlefoot) and Veronica Roth (When Among Crows). Orson Scott Card introduced her to massive audiences with his 1999 book, Enchantment.

 

So many people loosely know of her, but after writing The Baba Yaga Mask, I had the opportunity to lean into that curiosity and excavate everything she is and ever was.

 

Fiction readers, (especially lovers of multi-generational stories, sister stories, multicultural fiction, and historical fiction), will appreciate The Baba Yaga Mask as dual-timeline fiction that shifts between a contemporary quest across Eastern Europe for a grandmother who stepped off an airplane and disappeared and the World War II-era life of that grandmother as a teenager in Ukraine.

 

These two plotlines are held together by the Baba Yaga folktales generations of women in my protagonists’ family have told in whispers like codes of bravery between each other.

 

Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods captures not only the retelling of numerous classic Baba Yaga tales, but also a blend of history, analysis, and life coaching from the most unexpected of places.

 

Baba Yaga’s roots plunge into the Eastern European soil shared with famous figures like St. Olga of Kyiv and Catherine the Great, but also lesser-known traditions from the ancient Cucuteni–Trypillia society to nomadic tribes of Siberia. The legacy of the Amazons even have a role to play in the woman she has become.

 

Those who read both books will discover their interplay — specifically where one classic folktale pauses amid a plot point and then continues in full in the other book or how Easter eggs are hidden between the two books if the wider history is understood. Still, it’s been a joy to focus on Baba Yaga in such diverse ways. It’s my own way to honor a historical character who deserves our attention.

 

Q: What are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about the Baba Yaga figure?

 

A: There are two great misconceptions that linger around Baba Yaga. Both center on the idea of Baba Yaga as a witch. In this understanding, one might guess Baba Yaga to be nothing more than an early-Disney caricature personifying evil. She is flat. She is bad. She is a horror to fear.

 

But Baba Yaga is so much more complex than a simple, one-dimensional villain.

 

Baba Yaga can indeed threaten to eat you for supper. She may well kidnap you. However, amid her fear-factor, she consistently challenges the protagonists she encounters to live up to her high standards. If they can do so, not only can these protagonists be free, but they can also be empowered through their interactions with Baba Yaga.

 

Specific traits — always the same traits — can be their salvation. If people approach her with respect, with kindness, with bravery, and with a good work ethic, Baba Yaga almost acts as a fairy godmother-like presence in their lives. They just have to show their worthiness.

 

I love this challenge to her visitors, no matter whether they are children or adults. If we all lived our days, remembering to encounter others with respect, with kindness, with bravery for the tasks that we pursue, and with a true work ethic, imagine the world we could create together.

 

The second greatest misconception around Baba Yaga is in the word “witch” itself. As noted, she is so much more than that evil personified. Historically, when it's hard to put someone into a category, especially if that someone is a complex woman, the label of “witch” is the easiest label to apply. Sometimes, Baba Yaga seems to embrace such a name, but now that we know her more fully, we can give her more credit than that.

 

What do we call her? Oh, there are so many answers to that question: old woman of the woods, goddess, trickster, feminist, mother, crone…

 

But no matter what we land upon, recognizing her more fully is essential.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods has a three-fold purpose.

 

This nonfiction book is designed to expand the historical and cultural understanding of a folklore character who has lingered in the lines of tale tellers for thousands of years.

 

Baba Yaga as a character has endured, no matter the social or political upheaval that has existed around her. Humanity and civilizations have evolved, and so has Baba Yaga in the midst of it all.

 

It’s also a love letter to my own heritage, my Ukrainian background, and all of the strong women who have come before me.

 

So many of us know the influential women who have shaped our lives and our families for generations. Mine just happens to include ancestors who believed Baba Yaga was real and that she lingered in the nearby forests.

 

She was a force who not only terrified them, but who kept them in line. Yet keeping them in line, in Baba Yaga’s way, meant ensuring their determination and their ongoing pursuit of their best possibilities.

 

Those pursuits may not have been after firebirds; no, in my family, the pursuits may have been survival through a war, the fight for a country's independence, and the dedication to ensuring our loved ones survived. But within these stories, you’ll find Baba Yaga tales too.

 

Lastly, this book is an empowerment tool, because mentors and life coaches sometimes come from the most surprising places.

 

Think Yuval Noah Harari meets Brené Brown with a touch of the macabre, an examination of not only how Baba Yaga has become Baba Yaga over thousands of years, but also how Slavic folktales can teach us about who we have been and who we are, and how the lessons hiding between the ink and the absence can empower our daily lives.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I've fallen in love with the dual worlds that I've started to live within, being an author of fiction which weaves classic world stories throughout the plot, as well as nonfiction that delves into a deeper analysis and exploration of what that story has been to readers for centuries.

 

On that note, I am now diving down a new rabbit hole, weaving Alice in Wonderland into new dual timeline fiction, as well as new nonfiction I hope to tell you more about soon.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: My language and storytelling explorations and discoveries are something I love frequently sharing on Instagram, so I encourage folks to connect with me there (@Kris.Spisak). Shoot me a note or a DM, and tell me what your favorite story is. Who knows what we can discover? Connecting with readers and other lovers of stories is such a pleasure in my author life.

 

In addition, my monthly newsletter is also a round-up of my latest curiosities, creative explorations, and writing tips. You can sign up for my “On Words & Onwards” newsletter here.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Kris Spisak.