Havena and the Deer Women

A lyrical retelling of Giselle set in 1826 Florida, where spirit and memory blur the edges of reality.

In the swamplands of early 19th-century Florida, a young Mikasuki woman named Havena dances at the edge of moonlight and mourning. Each night, a boy watches her ghostly form appear by the lake—elegant, solemn, and unreachable.

But Havena’s story is no simple haunting.

Through fragmented time and sacred memory, the tale unfolds: a love forbidden, a betrayal that shatters, and a transformation that transcends death. Woven with elements of Mikasuki and Muscogee culture, Deer Woman lore, and the framework of the ballet Giselle, this prose-poem novelette offers a vivid meditation on grief, justice, and the resilience of spirit.

For readers who love:

• Lyrical historical fiction
• Indigenous retellings
• Stories that blend the supernatural with emotional truth
• Short literary works with a haunting atmosphere