Sharpest Tooth Publishing
Sharpest Tooth Publishing is Tish Black publishing books by Tish Black. Call it self-publishing, author-owned publishing, or independent publishing. The fun part is writing. The hard part is marketing. Physical copies and ebooks are available through all major online booksellers.
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Catalogue
Ebony, Blood, and Snow: New Stories from Old Tales
Paperback: 978-1-0691279-0-7
Ebook: 978-1-0691279-1-4
Published: April 8, 2025
Categories: adult, short stories, fairy tales, fantasy, LGBT+
Darkest Season: New Stories from Winter Tales
Coming November 2026
Behind the Name
Charles Perrault published Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités (Stories or Tales from Past Times, with Morals) in 1697, which included eight tales with a moralité (moral poem) following each. In 1911, S. R. Littlewood translated Perrault’s tales and adapted the moralité of “Le petit chaperon rouge” (“Little Red Riding Hood”) from a direct translation into a rhyming poem;
Little girls, this seems to say,
Never stop upon your way,
Never trust a stranger-friend;
No one knows how it will end.
As you’re pretty so be wise;
Wolves may lurk in every guise.
Handsome they may be, and kind,
Gay, and charming— nevermind!
Now, as then, ‘tis simple truth—
Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth!
Perrault’s is not my favourite version of Little Red Riding Hood, in which the girl gets eaten in the end. I much prefer Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves,” in which the girl “knew she was nobody’s meat.” Its film adaptation makes use of Littlewood’s poem as the credits begin to roll, making the final line spoken in the film, “Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth.”
It’s a poetic rewording of Perrault’s original final line (as translated by Jack Zipes), “the docile ones are those who are most dangerous.” Perrault was referring to men/“wolves” who would do harm to “young girls, pretty, well brought-up, and gentle,” but allow me an interpretation of my own.
Some of us—writers, that is—are seen to be quiet, introverted, and sweetest. But when we put pen to paper, our writing turns out to be the sharpest: contrarian, taboo, extreme, unconventional. The ones with the sharpest tooth have the best comebacks (even if we don’t think of them until hours later), can make our point with a biting comment, and know how to write our own anti-establishment morals into compelling stories.
Sharpest Tooth Publishing produces the sharpest fiction by the sweetest authors.
- Tish Black, author and publisher