Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories
by Amal El-Mohtar
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted April 10, 2026
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The title story in Amal's second collection won three awards (Hugo, Nebula, Locus), along with four other nominations. I had previously read it and two others, the rest being new to me. In total, the fifteen stories and three poems won five awards, plus thirteen nominations. Of the few that did not receive such recognition, it doesn't mean they didn't deserve it. Honestly, the further into the book I read, the more times I said to myself, "No, this is my favorite." Thus I will not go into detail about any of them, only note that you cannot go wrong in reading this. If I was a betting man, I would bet the collection will be on numerous ballots next year. In her introduction, Amal says a fellow author told her a collection should represent a 'coherent aesthetic argument' for the writer, but she could not say if that applies to this one, since the majority of stories had been commissioned for various anthologies. The fact she could write stories on commission, with different themes specified, does not mean there are not personal insights to be gleaned from them. She also wrote:
"I wasn't sure what argument, coherent or otherwise, would emerge from gathering my favourites, and I was curious to see if they'd make a pattern, surface something deep about myself. Mostly, what emerged is that I love women. I love women talking to each other. I love women reading each other, through letters and journals and flowers, offering up the stories of themselves to each other's tender scrutiny."
Amal is married to a man, and is bisexual. Many of the stories are about relationships between women, or at least the longing for that, and several have characters writing letters to their love, either current, or past, or in a hoped for future. They also show her love for her heritage (Lebanese), and places she has lived, studied, worked, or at least visited, including London and Glasgow. She lives mainly in Ottawa, where she was born, but for a few years of her childhood Lebanon was her home. Most of all, these show how much she loves life, exploring the beauty to be found in the world, in other people, and within herself. Some may reveal personal traumas, not necessarily her own, but someone she knows, someone with whom she has shared 'tender scrutiny.' One story I will mention does not involve love, but rather fear and anxiety. Amal says it was prompted by a specific news story of a young refugee, but what I thought of while reading "Anabasis" was when she was denied access to the US from Canada during the first term of the current occupant of the White House. She was only at a US airport to connect to another destination for a writers' conference, yet she and her mother had to return to Canada. Luckily she was able to reach her destination by other means.
"My passport is a blue rectangle stamped Canada. My name is inside it. The border’s eye falls on it and shifts it into threat. The border’s eye looks at me and we wrestle, as his eye tries to change me into Arab or Muslim, and I struggle to remain Canadian."
Amal is no threat, except maybe to your emotions as you read her beautiful prose and verse. This is a short book, barely over 200 pages, but I found myself re-reading several passages, and it was hard returnig it to the library. Highly recommended. Now I need to read her first collection, The Honey Month, which is even shorter, but I'm sure it is as full of beauty.
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