Susan Midalia, A Blast of a Poem

…and he wrapped me up and told me that he loved my great fat tongue and my sweeping lashes and my voluptuous udders splayed richly on his chest, and we laughed and made love and made many sodden promises.
Susan Midalia, ‘A Blast of a Poem’.

Susan Midalia grew up in the Western Australian wheatbelt, and has lived in Perth for most of her adult life. She studied at the University of Western Australia and Cambridge University and holds a PhD in contemporary Australian women’s fiction. She has taught literature at secondary and tertiary levels over many years and is now a writer and freelance editor who conducts workshops on short story writing.

Susan has published two collections of short stories. Her first, A History of the Beanbag and other stories, was shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards in 2007. An Unknown Sky (2012) was short listed for the Steel Rudd Award. She was one of the judges of the 2102 T.A.G. Hungerford Award for an unpublished fiction or creative non-fiction manuscript, and is currently the judge of the Todhunter Literary Award for short stories, essays and one-act plays. Her third collection of short stories will be published in 2015.

…a bittersweet story about what happens when conception doesn’t happen on demand. What then? —Sue Terry, whisperinggums.com