Seasons of Glass and Iron

This short story collection gathers eighteen pieces of fiction and poetry written between 2008 and 2023. In her introduction, Amal El-Mohtar identifies the dominant thread uniting these works: her love for women talking to each other, reading each other, and being friends and lovers. Across fairy-tale retellings, science fiction, urban fantasy, and lyric poetry, the collection returns to displacement, language, bodily autonomy, and the transformative power of connection between women.

The title story, "Seasons of Glass and Iron," braids together two fairy-tale punishments. Tabitha walks in iron shoes, wearing down seven magical pairs as penance imposed by her bear-husband after she burned his enchanted skin at her mother's urging. Amira sits motionless atop a glass hill, holding a golden apple, kept alive by magic so long as she does not move. Tabitha climbs the hill one evening, and the two develop a deep bond. Amira reveals her father placed her on the hill to protect men from their own desire; Tabitha reveals her husband grew cruel. Each woman can see the injustice in the other's situation but not her own, until they name it for each other. When they agree to leave together, Amira stands, the glass hill shatters into sand, and the two walk into spring hand in hand.

"The Green Book" is structured as a found manuscript containing six different handwritings. One records a woman's terrified last words as she is killed by a group called the Sisterhood of Knives. In a later hand, that woman, Cynthia, speaks from within the book itself, her consciousness absorbed into its pages. Dominic Merrowin, an apprentice librarian, discovers that his teacher, Master Leuwin Orrerel, has begun an intimate correspondence with Cynthia. Cynthia erupts in anguish, declaring she wants to live, not exist as ink on a page. Dominic's framing letter reveals his alarm at Leuwin's obsession and begs an unnamed recipient for help.

In "Madeleine," a woman whose mother died of early-onset Alzheimer's experiences vivid involuntary flashbacks after a clinical drug trial. Her psychologist, Clarice, teaches her to disrupt the memories with incongruous phrases. During one episode, Madeleine encounters Zeinab, a girl who does not belong to any real memory. Through deliberately triggered flashbacks, the two develop a deep bond. When Clarice proposes hospitalization, Zeinab appears physically at Madeleine's bedside, revealing she was in the same trial and is now a rights adviser who has arranged Madeleine's discharge. The story closes with Madeleine feeling certain she has a future.

"The Lonely Sea in the Sky" takes the form of journal entries by Dr. Leila Ghufran, a planetary geologist diagnosed with Meisner Syndrome, a condition linked to exposure to Lucyite, an extraterrestrial diamond-like mineral from Neptune. Interspersed documents establish that Lucyite powers a global teleportation network called the Melee. Leila's entries grow fragmented and sympathetic toward a fringe group claiming Lucyite is a living organism. In her final entry, she reveals she swallowed Lucyite crystals and plans to liquefy them, believing this will transport her and Earth's stolen mineral back to Neptune, destroying the Melee and dissolving herself.

"And Their Lips Rang with the Sun" is narrated by a garrulous old woman describing Lam, a Sun-woman whose love affair with Qaf, a young man trained to sing the Moon into the sky, causes her to miss the dawn dance. The Sun does not rise. After bearing a son whose forehead bears both parents' letters joined into "Qull" (meaning "speak"), Lam is forbidden from seeing the child. The narrator reveals herself as Lam, and the listening stranger uncovers his forehead to reveal the same joined letters: Mother and son are reunited.

Several shorter pieces address displacement and language. "A Tale of Ash in Seven Birds" traces a displaced people through seven bird forms, each exploited by a "wizard-nation," until they rise as phoenixes. "Qahr" meditates on an untranslatable Arabic word for grief, opening with Bisan Owda's words about the destruction of Palestinian people's depth. "Thunderstorm in Glasgow, July 25, 2013" describes a storm shaking loose buried Arabic words from the speaker's throat. "Anabasis" follows a speaker who wears a soft mouth to cross borders that would read her as threat.

"The Truth About Owls" follows Anisa, a young Lebanese-British girl who carries guilt over her father's death, believing her angry wishes cause harm. Through her friendship with Izzy, a Black owl handler at a Scottish sanctuary, Anisa reframes her sense of power. When a difficult barn owl falls ill and Anisa spirals, Izzy challenges her to name the good things she wants. In the final scene, Anisa buys a notebook and begins writing in English, then Welsh, then Arabic.

"A Hollow Play" follows Emily, a queer Canadian in Glasgow, who writes unsent journal entries to her missing best friend Paige. Through her coworker Anna, Emily meets Lynette Byrd, a cabaret performer who is a Peri, a spirit from another world with the taloned feet of a bird. Lynette and her genderqueer partner Kel need to sacrifice something truly beloved to return home. Emily offers her journal, tearing out pages by a river. In the water, she sees Paige happy and chooses not to bring her back, accepting the loss.

"To Follow the Waves" is set in a fantastical Damascus. Hessa is a dream-crafter, an artisan who grinds visions into quartz circlets that transmit dreams to sleepers. She becomes obsessed with a woman whose hair hangs unbound, a transgression in a city where braiding declares one's trade. Hessa channels her desire into commissioned dreams. The woman, Nahla, appears at her door in fury: She has been experiencing Hessa's dreams from the inside, her body used without consent as raw material. Nahla demands to become Hessa's apprentice, and Hessa agrees.

"John Hollowback and the Witch" follows a man with a mysterious hollow in his back who seeks healing from a witch. Through three painful rituals, John recovers suppressed memories revealing he systematically isolated and manipulated a woman named Lydia and her closest friend Brigid. The witch turns out to be Brigid's mother, who healed him not to absolve him but so he would carry the full weight of his actions. A magic book that once rejected his writing now accepts only "I'm sorry." The witch slides the book into the last gap in his back, and it fits like an ending.

"Florilegia; or, Some Lies About Flowers" retells the myth of Blodeuwedd from The Mabinogion, a medieval Welsh tale collection. Created from flower blossoms by wizards to be a wife for Lleu Llaw Gyffes, Blodeuwedd experiences a constant hunger for roots and earth. Through Adain, a scholar who reveals she herself transitioned from lord to woman, Blodeuwedd learns the deeper properties of her component plants and begins to read herself differently. Drawing on the conditions of Lleu's boasted invulnerability, Blodeuwedd poisons him and forces him to swear oaths releasing her. As the magic called "man" leaves Lleu, he transforms into a hawk.

"Pockets" closes the collection. Nadia begins finding mysterious objects in her pockets, escalating from fudge to a fired pistol. With her friend Tessa, she conducts experiments and meets Warda, a university music librarian with the opposite condition: Objects vanish into her pockets. Warda has been writing letters, stories, and songs and sending them through her pockets, hoping someone would receive them. Nadia reaches into her pocket one last time and pulls out a handwritten letter declaring unconditional love for whoever reads it.