by Liz Ziemska

German translation by Helene Zuber

Liz Ziemska’s short story The Mushroom Queen (originally published in Tin House, 2015) is a kind of modern, magical horror-fairy tale. It tells the story of a woman who wants to break free from her current boring, quotidian life, slowed down by a long-lasting marriage and two beloved dogs. She can feel it, she wants to experience something new, break free.

One night, her calls from the unconscious are heard, as she is drawn outside by a strange moonlit force. There, in her properly kept and tended garden—the beacon of happy marital life—she encounters the Mushroom Queen: A sort of Doppelgänger. They look at each other and as the woman tries to reach out, the Mushroom Queen grabs her, throws her underground and takes over her life.

The woman meanwhile sinks into the soil and dissolves, turns into mycelium. She travels to the roots of the Mushroom Queen’s birthplace. There, she discovers life beyond a cult of individuality, confined to a dark, calm solitude. Above ground, the Mushroom Queen, pretends to be the woman and goes on a journey as an individual to discover love – this human phenomenon she learned about while sifting through an old box of discarded books in her past life.

But eventually reality catches up on desire and both “women” find themselves in a face-to-face, or better said mycellium-to-mycelium, to claim what they believe is rightfully theirs.