American Thighs

Elizabeth Ellen’s writing has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, FENCE, Post Road, American Short Fiction, McSweeney’s, among other publications. She is the author of several books including the novel Person/a and the story collection Her Lesser Work. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for fiction and is the founder and editor of Short Flight/Long Drive books. She lives in Michigan.

"Ellen walks on at least five different tightropes, handling the difficult themes of teenage angst, family conflicts, and trauma with deft skill. Brilliant." —Booklist"Gossip, delusion, sapphic mania, Britney Spears—American Thighs has everything I want from a novel in Elizabeth Ellen’s inimitable style. It’s fearless, it’s propulsive, it's wildly entertaining. I devoured this novel." —Anna Dorn, author of Exalted“Furious, hilarious, frantic, messy, American Thighs is the Moby-Dick for our present crazed moment, questing after everything precious and innocent we’ve destroyed. Open it up and get out of its way.” —Daniel Handler (AKA Lemony Snicket), author of A Series of Unfortunate Events"Elizabeth Ellen’s American Thighs is an elegy for American girlhood, for the way in which we are squeezed in the vise of pop culture and the male gaze, and for the way we increasingly have little choice but to wild the fuck OUT. Elizabeth Ellen is one of the most fearless, gripping writers out there, writing the way Bret Easton Ellis would if he had actual balls. I started panting on page 1 of this book, and I still haven’t caught my breath." —Lindsay Hunter, author of Hot Springs Drive