Sonya Moor is a French and British writer living in Paris. I first encountered her work in Confingo Magazine, which published the title short story of her collection The Comet and Other Stories in its Spring 2021 issue. Confingo Press is noted, inter alia, for its list of stylish and unusual arts-linked non-fiction and fiction. Sonya Moor’s platform here is of ekphrasis – writing descriptive of art. As the author says in her introduction, the inspiration derives “from visual to musical, to comedic and criminal”. The stories “present female protagonists inspired by representations of females”.
‘Three Weddings’ is inspired by the film My Fair Lady, which is itself a modern take on the story of Pygmalion. Here, a father’s obsession with his beautiful daughter, Galatea, is visited over a number of years from the perspective of an older cousin, at three family weddings. “Caz and I stare at the baby: a great cream puff of a thing.” “Dressed like that, anyone would think it was the baby getting married, not her brother”. Moor artfully presents uncomfortable family dynamics giving us glimpses into the life of a girl growing up as an ‘ideal’.
First published in The Comet and Other Stories, Confingo Publishing, 2023
A Personal Anthology 