Margaret Yocom’s erasure poetry of All Kinds of Fur is a haunting and spell-binding journey inside and underneath one of the Grimm Brothers’ most controversial tales. Known for its horrifying twist of a king who wants to marry his own daughter, All Kinds of Fur has lived in various forms, versions, and iterations. The central character, a young woman (who is called All Kinds of Fur), trying to run away from the lust of her father, covers herself in a mantle made of different kinds of pelts and covers herself in soot. She uses subterfuge and magic to survive and remain hidden.
The erasure poetry imbedded within the translation of All Kinds of Fur reveals and heightens the voice of the young girl in this story. In Yocom’s afterword at the end of the book, Yocom states that she discovers that the girl calls herself “kind,” meaning “child” in the German. Other translations had not used this word, and knowing that All Kinds of Fur calls herself this, brings a stark and chilling acknowledgement of the terrifying experience of being a child running away from an incestuous father-king. The poetry reflects this inner terror, as throughout the book All Kinds of Fur’s voice comes crashing out of the pages as a child running, hiding, harkening to the night, and conveying to the reader her need for survival.
In reading the erasure, it also weaves through the pages like magical spells and incantations, reminding the reader that this is a magical being indeed, casting and shape-shifting to thwart those who seek to turn her into a child bride, or strangely, erase her completely.
The book is a culmination of Yocom’s extensive work with All Kinds of Fur, and the research, reflection, and creative writing process are clear in this beautiful little booklet. The cover features a work by Anne Siems titled Bear Girl, which is a perfect image to accompany the work inside.
Yocom’s work illustrates some of the very best features that the discipline of folklore has to offer in the research, re-visioning, re-imagining, and continued exploration of fairy tales. Her writing in the afterword section states her process in writing erasure and her choices regarding everything from points of research to the choices of fonts and font color. This kind of nuance and detail is interesting and poignant for understanding this little gem as a whole. Her work is a testament to how much can continue to unfold using a feminist folkloristic lens in translations and interpretations of texts, and the use of creative writing as a process of continuing textual conversations and perhaps, as she states, even arguments.
Reading this small book about an old Grimm tale is a surprising experience—it is a little bit like being handed a very cute present that ends up being a Molotov cocktail. The best kind of folklore.
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[Review length: 476 words • Review posted on April 8, 2019]