Sunday Short: We Make Women Out of Snow by Tara Cartland

Are you waiting for me to say that she looks like you, Jane? She doesn’t. She looks like whatever is hiding behind the wall of Fitzjames’ chest. She looks kind. He cradles her in the crook of his arm as he climbs the tall stepladder, and places her, gently, atop her own body.

I'm really enjoying Seizure's flash fiction series, Flashers (only a little because I've had one of my own pieces published by them). Tara Cartland is one of those writers you can see exploding over the next few years. Her wonderful time-stop story, Frank O’Hara’s Animals, won the Overland / Victoria University Short Story Prize late last year, and she's since gone on to be shortlisted in the QANTAS Spirit of Youth awards. Her ability to capture brief, scattered moments of life and infuse them with so much weight is pretty marvelous. We Make Women Out of Snow is only a little thing, but it tells of lost loves and aches that rings wonderfully true. You can read We Make Women Out of Snow care of the Seizure Flashers series here.