The Princess Saves Herself in This One is the debut collection of poetry by American poet Amanda Lovelace, first self-published in 2016 through CreateSpace and then published by Andrews McMeel Publishing in 2017. [1] Its narrative arc follows a princess who is learning to become her own savior; the semi-autobiographical book's author is the princess.[ citation needed ] It is the first installment in a series called Women Are Some Kind of Magic, which focuses on the resilience of women. [2] The book won the Goodreads Choice Award for poetry in 2016.
The Princess Saves Herself in This One has four sections, each showing the princess's progression in agreement with an overlying theme.[ citation needed ]
The first section focuses mainly on the author, and her battles in the past. It goes through her relationships with family members, her younger life, and her past assault. This section ends when the princess locks herself away in a tower and waits for a prince to come and rescue her.[ citation needed ]
In the second section of poems the princess confronts the issues that have come in her life. They are represented in the ideas of the "big bad wolf" who has hurt her in the past and the dragons who have terrorized her, as well as talking about the death of her mother and her sister.[ citation needed ]
The third section of poems, in which the princess stands up to face the dragon, deals with the grief she faced in losing her mother, and how she felt when she fell in love with the right person.[ citation needed ]
In the final section Lovelace encourages the reader to believe that they can deal with anything.[ citation needed ]
According to one reviewer, The Princess Saves Herself in This One and the accompanying volumes "take some of the most recognized female archetypes — princess, witch, and soon, mermaid — and retells their narratives in a modern, feminist, empowered way". Lovelace said the book is about the abuse she has faced in her life, and added that the book was going to be uncomfortable for people. She told Bustle , "If there’s one thing I'm trying to do with this particular poetry series, it's to show the rich inner lives of women with a focus on our hidden everyday struggles". [3]
The second volume, The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One, centers on a witch and deals with "anger and rape culture"; it was published in March 2018, again by Andrews McMeel. The Mermaid's Voice Returns In This One, about sexual trauma and healing, is published in the spring of 2019. [3]
Reviews of The Princess were mixed, and some controversy followed. Sales were going "remarkably well" for a collection of poetry. [4]
E. Ce Miller, for The Bustle, said it was full of "autobiographical pain, subtle strength, and quiet resilience". [3] Some, however, take issue with the idea of Instapoetry, a category under which the princess does fall. Instapoetry is poetry mostly posted on the social media site Instagram which closely follows the style of Charles Bukowski. The style is heavily criticized for its simplicity in the subjects.[ citation needed ] There has been debate as to whether the style is killing or reviving poetry. [5]
"The Little Mermaid", sometimes translated in English as "The Little Sea Maid", is a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Originally published in 1837 as part of a collection of fairy tales for children, the story follows the journey of a young mermaid princess who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a human soul.
Glinda is a fictional character created by L. Frank Baum for his Oz novels. She first appears in Baum's 1900 children's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and is the most powerful sorceress in the Land of Oz, ruler of the Quadling Country South of the Emerald City, and protector of Princess Ozma.
Ariel is a fictional character in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film The Little Mermaid (1989). Ariel is voiced by Jodi Benson in all official animated appearances. Ariel is the youngest daughter of King Triton and Queen Athena of an underwater kingdom called Atlantica. She is often rebellious, and in the first film, she longs to be a part of the human world. She marries Prince Eric, whom she rescued from a shipwreck, and together they have a daughter, Melody. She is the fourth Disney Princess and also the first Disney Princess to be developed during the Disney Renaissance.
Ruth Manning-Sanders was an English poet and author born in Wales, known for a series of children's books for which she collected and related fairy tales worldwide. She published over 90 books in her lifetime
Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid is a Japanese anime film based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 fairy tale, released in 1975 by Toei Animation. Unlike the Disney adaptation released 14 years later, this film is closer to Andersen's story, notably in its preservation of the original and tragic ending. The two main protagonists are the youngest daughter of the royal family, Marina, and her best friend Fritz, an Atlantic dolphin calf. In Japan, this film was shown in the Toei Manga Matsuri in 1975.
The Little Mermaid is a 1976 Czechoslovak fantasy film directed by Karel Kachyňa based on the 1837 fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen. The film won the Main Prize at 1977 Gijón International Film Festival. The plot faithfully follows Andersen's story, with the main difference that mermaids are portrayed as water nymphs with legs instead of fish tails.
Sarah Andersen is an American cartoonist and illustrator, and the author of the webcomic Sarah's Scribbles.
Madeline Miller is an American novelist, author of The Song of Achilles (2011) and Circe (2018). Miller spent ten years writing The Song of Achilles while she worked as a teacher of Latin and Greek. The novel tells the story of the love between the mythological figures Achilles and Patroclus; it won the Orange Prize for Fiction, making Miller the fourth debut novelist to win the prize. She is a 2019 recipient of the Alex Awards.
Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. Born in Punjab, India, Kaur immigrated to Canada at a young age with her family. She began performing poetry in 2009 and rose to fame on Instagram, eventually becoming a popular poet through her three collections of poetry.
Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut at the age of 16 as the voice of the title character in the Disney animated musical film Moana (2016). She went on to star in the NBC drama series Rise (2018), the Netflix drama film All Together Now (2020), the supernatural comedy Darby and the Dead (2022), the Amazon Prime Video sci-fi series The Power (2023), the Disney Channel animated series Hailey's On It!, and the 2024 film adaptation of the Mean Girls musical.
Sarah's Scribbles is a webcomic by Sarah Andersen started in 2011. Andersen initially published the webcomic on Tumblr, but has since released it on various services, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tapas and her own website. Sarah's Scribbles follows Andersen's experiences as a millennial and focuses on themes such as adulthood and maturity. The comic receives millions of views on the Tapas platform and has won multiple Goodreads Choice Awards and a Ringo Award. Andersen has published four print collections of the webcomic: Adulthood is a Myth; Big Mushy Happy Lump; Herding Cats; and Oddball.
Amanda Lovelace is an American poet who rose to fame through her poetry posted to Tumblr and Instagram. Her works have feminist themes, often focusing on modern interpretations of traditional tales. She is the author of the women are some kind of magic series, including the Goodreads Choice Award-winning the princess saves herself in this one and women are some kind of magic.
Amanda S. C. Gorman is an American poet, activist, and model. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. She rose to fame in 2021 for writing and delivering her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of Joe Biden. Gorman's inauguration poem generated international acclaim and shortly thereafter, two of her books achieved best-seller status, and she obtained a professional management contract.
Olivia Gatwood is a poet, writer, and educator on topics that include coming of age, feminism, gendered violence, & true crime.
Milk and Honey is a collection of both abstract fiction and non-fiction poetry and prose by Indian-Canadian poet Rupi Kaur. The collection's themes feature aspects of survival, feminism and relationships, and is divided into four sections, with each section serving a different purpose and relevance to Kaur's personal experiences. The sections further explore the themes of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity, accompanied by simple line art illustrations. These sections are titled "the hurting", "the loving", "the breaking" and "the healing". Kaur has cited her cultural background as an inspiration for the book's style, as well as an attempt to make the book more accessible to a wide demographic or readers. The book's simplistic style and themes have drawn forth some negative criticism and alleged rumours about Kaur herself. Critics have sometimes referred to Kaur's work as "Instapoetry" due to Kaur's usage of social media platform Instagram to market her poems and illustrations.
Najwa Zebian is a Lebanese–Canadian activist, author, poet, educator, and speaker based in London, Ontario. Zebian gained widespread attention on Instagram through sharing her instapoetry and popularity during the #MeToo movement via her TEDx talks and interviews on Canadian news outlets such as CBC, and Entertainment Tonight, among others.
Nikita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet, playwright, writer and illustrator based in south England. She has written and curated eight volumes of poetry. Gill uses social media to engage her audience and she has over 780,000 followers on Instagram, one of the most popular poets on the platform.
Lang Leav is an Australian novelist and poet.
Circe is a 2018 novel by American writer Madeline Miller. Set during the Greek Heroic Age, it is an adaptation of various Greek myths, most notably the Odyssey, as told from the perspective of the witch Circe. The novel explores Circe's origin story and narrates Circe's encounters with mythological figures such as Hermes, the Minotaur, Jason, and Medea, and ultimately her romance with Odysseus and his son, Telemachus.
Alicia Cook is a poet, essayist and activist. She is best known for writing bestselling book Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately and for spreading awareness on the impact of drug addiction.