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Her Lesser Work cover

Her Lesser Work

Elizabeth Ellen

  • Release Date: April 02, 2021
  • ISBN 978-0-9964949-6-0
  • 335 pages

"Her Lesser Work is full of power and it takes risks and it's alive and real and it fixes a very sharp eye on the shit humans do to each other and themselves."

      -Lindsay Lerman, LitReactor 

"Her Lesser Work is far and away my favorite of your books, and 'G.O.A.T' in particular is a blast of brilliance."

     -Garielle Lutz, author Worsted

"Um, is 'Plant Hospital' both the hottest story and the hottest piece of literary gossip of the decade?!"

     -Rebecca van Laer

"[Her Lesser Work] is a collection of mordant and formally inventive stories circling themes of, let’s say, desire and escape within repressive structures."

      -Walker Caplan, Literary Hub

"Seeing the cover, it is no surprise that sex and power are primary focuses throughout the stories in Her Lesser Work, but what is unique to the collection is how Elizabeth Ellen subverts traditional narratives of gender roles within these dynamics—in many of the stories about sexual transgressions between men and women, the female character is almost always the one in a position of power (at least overtly). The sexual transgressions themselves are not unfamiliar narratives, but by reimaging with subverted gender roles, Her Lesser Work adds a new perspective to the discourse of gender, agency, and control."

-Shelby Hinte, Zyzzyva

"a cult classic of the future, ... a bunch of these stories string together with similar details, or autofiction, blurring around real life and divorce and desires. there’s a self awareness of performance, of diary, of self sabotage, letting the exotic pet bite ur hand and then examining the wounds."

      - Delia Rainey, Goodreads 

"it’s her writing style, this carefree or almost literally free of caring type of writing, that gives her voice some authority. That and I dig her trashy vibes."

      -Goodreads reviewer 

 

TOC:

Signs (Joyland)

Person Under Train

She Lit Cigarettes Instead of Talking (FENCE)

Republicans

I Was Punishing Myself (FENCE)

YOLO

Limoncello

Other Families Like Ours (Southwest Review)

Devils Tower (Hobart)

Lucky Woman (Harper's Magazine)

The Last Time I Saw My Father (Muumuu House)

She Had Not Once Written About Ice (Bennington Review)

Abdomens of Young, Attractive Lawn-Dart Throwers

Little Thief

G.O.A.T.

Billy (Muumuu House)

Ohio Out of the Girl

Plant Hospital

(the) Conjuring

Snatch Shots (Joyland)

 

Elizabeth Ellen

Elizabeth Ellen is a college dropout from the Midwest, as well as the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for fiction. Her stories have been published in Joyland, Southwest Review, and Harper's Magazine. Her first novel, Person/a, was chosen by Lithub as a "best work of experimental literature" in 2017. 

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