Lara Ehrlich

Lara Ehrlich is the author of Animal Wife, a collection of stories about women’s transformations from girls into wives, mothers, and monsters. Animal Wife won Red Hen Press’s Fiction Award, judged by Ann Hood, and was published by the press in 2020. The collection was the winner of an Eric Hoffer Award and was a Forward Indie Award finalist. Lara’s stories have appeared in StoryQuarterly, Hunger Mountain, SmokeLong Quarterly, (f)riction, LitHub, and many other publications, and she has received fellowship and residency support from Bread Loaf Writers Workshop, Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, PEN America, the Midwest Writers Workshop, the Garrett on the Green, and others. Lara has led workshops and panels at Bread Loaf Writers Workshop, Yale Writers Workshop, AWP, the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, and Story Studio Chicago, among other organizations, and she teaches at the University of Connecticut and acts as Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Writer in Residence at Connecticut College. Lara is the host of Writer Mother Monster, a conversation series devoted to dismantling the myth of “having it all” and offering writer-moms solidarity, support, and advice. Lara is the founder and director of Thought Fox Writers Den, which builds community and supports writers of all levels with in-person and virtual workshops, coaching, events, and more. She lives in Gales Ferry, Connecticut. www.LaraEhrlich.com


All Books

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Bind Me Tighter Still

Lara Ehrlich

Publication Date: September 9, 2025

$17.95 Tradepaper

ISBN: 978-1-63628-280-0

Description:

The youngest of three siren sisters, Ceto is weary of an existence driven by hunger, no better than a fish. She trades her tail for life on land, marries the first man she meets, and bears a daughter, only to discover that domesticity is just as mundane as sirenhood. In search of something more, she flees with her daughter Naia to the ocean, where she establishes a mermaid burlesque and recreates herself, performing as a siren in a tank built into the limestone cliffs overlooking the sea. She trains more sirens, expanding Sirenland from a roadside attraction to a national sensation she rules without opposition—until Naia, at 15, begins to push back against the world Ceto has created and the role she performs in her mother’s shows. A death at Sirenland threatens Ceto’s authority and leads Naia to question whether this women-ruled kingdom is truly as empowering as her mother would have her believe. Bind Me Tighter Still explores power and hunger, sacrifice and motherhood, and celebrates the fierceness of female strength in a male-dominated world.

ADVANCED PRAISE

“The poetic prose mixed with the intense subject matter creates an undertow that will pull readers in.” —Booklist

“A gorgeous, playful, thoughtful novel for feminists, for mothers and daughters, for those of us who grew up on the *other* version of mermaids, and who’ve thought from time to time that we might prefer to join the sirens rather than tie ourselves to the mast.” 
—Amber Sparks, author of And I Do Not Forgive You

“A thought-provoking and often intense exploration of motherhood, sisterhood, and the ties that bind.”
—Kirkus Reviews

A vintage graphic of a woman in a yellow apron with a wolf merged with her and black script that reads Animal Wife stories by Lara Ehrlich.
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Animal Wife

Lara Ehrlich

Publication Date: September 8, 2020

$14.95 Tradepaper

ISBN: 978-1-59709-884-7

Description:

Animal Wife is composed of fifteen stories unified by girls and women seeking liberation from family responsibilities, from societal expectations, from their own minds. They address the complexities of transitioning from innocence to experience and take on the anxiety of motherhood. The majority of the stories are set in an off-kilter version of our world, where the fantastical can exist side by side with—and reveal the absurdities of—the mundane. They often include monsters, mothers, and monstrous mothers.

ADVANCE PRAISE

“From the first sentence Animal Wife grabbed me and never let go. Sensual and intelligent, with gorgeous prose, it made me dizzy with its exploration and illumination of the inner and outer lives of girls and women.”—Ann Hood, New York Times bestselling author

“In this sparkling debut collection, Ehrlich draws on the dark undersides of fairytales to portray the growth, strangeness, and ferocity of childhood with haunting beauty. Each story takes us deeper into the rabbit hole: with mythical monsters and Ovidian transformations, girls discover their own strength and darkness. As the women in these stories cast about for freedom, they become dangerous beings themselves; Ehrlich reminds us how thin the line is between violence and desire. She is a master observer of the magic and mystery that lurk at the edge of our lives. This collection is the arrival of a startling and undeniable new talent in the world of genre-breaking fiction.”—Blair Hurley, author of The Devoted

“The stories in Lara Ehrlich’s Animal Wife are gorgeous and heartbreaking. They glide into each other, refract, and expand outward again, echoing seasons and change and longing. They cause astonishment and wonder. They ask: what does it mean to be in a body? What do we ever know about girlhood? It is a complex and rewarding read.”—Kristen Arnett, author of Felt in the Jaw and Mostly Dead Things

” Lara Ehrlich is a master stylist of the surreal, the fabulist, and the fantastic. I loved each of these whimsical, magical stories that centered around girls and women and their transformations (whether that be into women, mothers, or animals). I was particularly intrigued by the way Lara beautifully portrays the inner struggle between wildness and domesticity, the surreal elements of each story lending a mythical complexity to these conflicts. Really lovely and thought-provoking. Perfect for fans of Aimee Bender, Karen Russell, and Angela Carter. Also, if you’re a language-lover and (like me) find yourself highlighting gorgeous prose, this collection is full of lines like this: “In none of her lives will she be be brilliant or famous or content. Her mediocrity will hound her through a kaleidoscope of futures.” I deeply enjoyed every story (and sentence) and find myself still thinking about them and the ideas they raise days after. “—Joy Baglio, founder of Pioneer Valley Writer’s Workshop

News

Lara Ehrlich featured on Poets & Writers

“Plot does not come naturally to me. Instead of staring at a blank page hoping for inspiration, I take a long walk and dictate to myself using my phone’s recording […]

12 Books You Should Read in September

Recommended Reading from Lit Hub Staff and Contributors Lara Ehrlich, Animal Wife(Red Hen Press) “My mother said girls have to take care of themselves. That’s how we avoid turning into sea […]

10 Short Stories About Women’s Transformations

Lara Ehrlich recommends fiction by women about mythological and psychological metamorphoses. The Little Mermaid sacrifices her tail for a human soul. The Navajo Changing Woman grows old and is reborn […]

Book lunch to include music, cocktails and doughnuts

Author Lara Ehrlich knows how to add a little razzle-dazzle to a virtual event. Ehrlich, whose award-winning short story collection, “Animal Wife,” will make its debut — virtually — next Tuesday, with […]

Without Books Episode 15: Lara Ehrlich

Lara Ehrlich is the author of the short story collection Animal Wife (Red Hen Press, Sept 2020), which won Red Hen’s Fiction Award, judged by Ann Hood. Lara lives in […]

Reviews

[REVIEW] Animal Wife by Lara Ehrlich

The cover of Lara Ehrlich’s debut short story collection, Animal Wife, might make you scream. On it, a quintessential 1950’s housewife, dressed in a frilly apron and with a bow in […]

Kirkus Reviews: Animal Wife

Girls and women caught between myth and the modern world. Selected by Ann Hood as the winner of the Red Hen Fiction Award, Ehrlich’s debut collection contains 15 stories, some […]