The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Jarvis, Kelly. “The Twelve Working Princesses.” Corvid Queen, https://corvidqueen.com/stories/the-twelve-working-princesses-kelly-jarvis. Note that all parenthetical citations refer to the line number from which the quotation is taken.

“The Twelve Working Princesses” is a speculative poem by American poet Kelly Jarvis, an assistant editor for The Fairy Tale Magazine. The poem retells the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses, in which a group of princesses escape captivity by spending their nights dancing in a magical land. Eventually, they’re outsmarted and the eldest is forced into marriage. The story can be read here: https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TwelDanc.shtml. Jarvis’s version reimagines this scene into a more feminist quest for independence.