“Beasts and Beauty” author Soman Chainani talks about the motivation and process behind his new collection of updated twists on Brothers Grimm’s classic fairy tales during a conversation with Salon’s D. Watkins. “I don’t seek out to do gratuitous representation for any moralizing sake,” the bestselling author of “The School for Good and Evil” said. “I just seek out to represent different shades of myself, which tend to be universal because they fit other people’s identities as well.”

Watch the full “Salon Talks” conversation here: https://www.salon.com/tv/video/ldtyam

Illustration by Julia Iredale Courtesy of HarperCollins