Lectures and Talks

I am available and excited to lecture and storytell about fairy tales, their tellers, and folklore at your event. Contact me to talk about creating something engaging for your audience!

Lecture Recordings

Tricks, Treats, and Turnips: The Origins of Halloween Traditions

Wednesday, October 28
in Ottawa

A day to honour the dead or a day to TP your neighbour’s house? From Christian and Celtic origins, All Hallows’ Eve has changed its meaning, traditions, and symbols over the centuries. Our pillowcases full of candy would confuse the ancient Romans honouring their martyrs, but might delight the Celts who would offer it to the fairies. Exploring traditions of harvests, death, and monsters, folklore scholar and fairy tale author Tish Black brings the past and present together to help us understand Halloween’s spooky origins and 12-foot skeletons.

Once Upon a Witch: The Witch Figure in Fairy Tales and Folklore

October 14, 2026
in Ottawa with N.G. Avant and WitchSchool.ca

A conversation with fairy-tale author and scholar Tish Black about the witches of fairy tales and folklore, from their chicken-legged huts to their gingerbread houses.

Exploring the role of witches in fairy tales, from wicked stepmothers to cannibals in gingerbread houses, fairy-tale author and scholar Tish Black shares the meaning and use of witches in our most enduring stories. The roles of women under patriarchy play out in our folk tales; good, young, beautiful fairies help our heroines stay compliant while evil, old, ugly witches challenge our heroes on their journey. Looking at goddesses of ancient myths, fairies of French fairy tales, and witches of folklore around the world, we will discuss how these archetypes have influenced our ideas of powerful women and ourselves.

The Women Who Defined Fairy Tales (and History Forgot)

June 17, 2026
in Ottawa

A Who’s Who of the fairy tale literary salons of 1690s Paris. At the center is the Queen Bee, Madame d’Aulnoy, a woman with a mysterious past who coined the term “fairy tale.” Surrounding her are accomplished women writers celebrated at court, crowned by the Académie Française, and entangled in scandals from political intrigue to accusations of lesbianism.

In the background is Charles Perrault, who dismissed fairy tales as unworthy of serious literature, yet lives on as Mother Goose, while the women who shaped the genre are largely forgotten. This talk brings the Salonnières back into focus, giving them and their work their fair due as the true creators of the literary fairy tale.