"Seasons of Glass and Iron" is a 2016 fantasy story by Canadian writer Amal El-Mohtar. It was first published in the anthology The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales.
Tabitha and Amira are both trapped in fairy tales: Tabitha is marching around the world until she wears out seven pairs of iron shoes in an effort to free her husband from an enchantment, while Amira sits atop a glass mountain awaiting a man to climb all the way up and claim her as his bride. When Tabitha accidentally climbs up Amira's mountain one day, they become friends, and their lives change.
El-Mohtar was inspired to write the story when her 7-year-old niece asked to be told a fairy tale, but the only ones she could think of involved "women being rescued by men or tormented by other women".[1]
Seasons won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story of 2016,[2] the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Short Story,[3] and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Short Story.[4] It was also shortlisted for the 2017 World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction,[5] the 2017 Aurora Award for Best Short Fiction,[6] and the 2017 Theodore Sturgeon Award.[7]
Publishers Weekly called it "excellent", and observed that it "explores the power of women's friendships to rewrite—or at least expose—misogynist ideologies",[8] while Tor.com noted that it "undermines the logic of [Tabitha and Amira's] self-imposed martyrdom" and "invites introspection".[9]