This post, by Lara Ehrlich, author of Animal wife, is the 32nd in a series of posts by writers whose books have been entered for The Story Prize in 2020.
“This photo by @chalk_dreams invokes that period of childhood, teetering on the cusp of puberty, when kids cling to their belief in magic as reality encroaches on their inner lives. I thought about this photo a lot as I wrote ‘Animal Wife,’ the central story in my collection of the same name. First published in @hungermountain, it’s about a young girl who embarks on a quest to find her mother who she believes has transformed into a swan. Animal Wife as a whole is about women’s transformations from girls into wives, mothers, and monsters. The collection was selected by @annhood56 as the winner of the @redhenpress Fiction Award and will be on shelves in September 2020.”
Find the whole Instagram post here.