K A R E N

I'm a writer; author of the novel, i, scorpion: foul belly-crawler of the desert (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2000); the collection of short prose, Tough Broads and Classy Dames (WLK Press, 2001); the novella, Magenta's Adventures Underground (WLK Press, 2004); numerous self-published drawing stories [click here to see some of them in My Pics]; and the novel, The Second Elizabeth (Six Gallery Press, February 2009). I've done readings all over downtown New York, in Pittsburgh, and in Paris; in 2000, I read my way across America, traveling by Greyhound bus. Look for me in a roundtable scene with New York author/editors in the 2007 documentary, "Obscene: How Barney Rosset Published Dirty Books for Fun and Profit."

RELEASED FEBRUARY 2009:
The Second Elizabeth
Six Gallery Press

Click here for an audio excerpt.
Click here to buy on Amazon.
“Karen E. Lillis writes with a cadence and a rhythm that are hypnotic….[ The Second Elizabeth ] celebrates what my theologian father called ‘the mystery in the ordinary.’ ” Eckhard Gerdes, Journal of Experimental Fiction
"What is most striking about The Second Elizabeth is the style, which reflects deep concern with the mystery and structure of language itself." Bill O'Driscoll, Pittsburgh City Paper
" The Second Elizabeth is a book about names, a book about words. Karen Lillis is concerned not only with personal, proper, or place names, but with language too as a naming system…. For language is given to us by other people, suffused with the memory of other people, tainted by other people before our own existence: 'My story wrote itself on me and it forced tears out of my middle, my story that I didn’t write made mixed up letters pour down my cheeks, my story that I didn’t want wanted me to have a new language called Elizabeth because the old language couldn’t speak anymore....' In the drowse of Charlottesville, Virginia,… words must be refashioned—in an apartment, a deli, along the train tracks. Indeed, The Second Elizabeth reads in a way like an extended prose-poem, and Lillis is, like a poet, a maker of words." Michael S. Begnal, author, The Lakes of Coma
"Throughout [ The Second Elizabeth ], Lillis is consumed with naming, but it is more than naming....Lillis tries on each word, each memory, like a pair of shoes, finding ones that fit, discarding all others." Jen Michalski, author, Close Encounters
" The Second Elizabeth is a wonderfully wistful fictionalization of identity's questions: who am I, and why? Karen Lillis' answer is written From The Heart, which means written in warmth and in blood." Joshua Cohen, author, A Heaven of Others
"Raised in the woods by wolves, the demon seed of Colette, and Sigmund Freud's psychotic Doktor Schreber, Lillis writes like some Wild Boy from Aveyron drawing on the boxcars of an Underworld-bound train." Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, author, Close to the Art of Those Fearless at Sea
"The Virginia that is alive in the mind and body of her main character Elizabeth is a place where the trees weep and whisper to each other, the night breathes deeply from its belly, sounds of the deli where she works become a rhapsody, and like a post-modern Tennessee Williams or William Faulkner the late summer heat is a palpable character in the action….Lillis gently unfolds the mystery of how one life touches another and manages to change it. Elizabeth's hot, sticky, and anguished southern summer filled with melancholy and longing brings a glimmer of hope, new love and rebirth as the second Elizabeth." Wanda Phipps, author, Wake-Up Calls: 66 Morning Poems
“Hard work finding the Middle of the Night as it shifts and wanders beginning its long low moan. Incongruities and suppression are everywhere. A serene observer persists…. Watch as The Second Elizabeth emerges from beneath the shadows and dreams of an old world, dancing herself out a fearless Pocahontas.” Merry Fortune, author, Ghosts by Albert Ayler, Ghosts by Albert Ayler
"In ... The Second Elizabeth , Karen uses an elaborate form of repetition to examine her characters and, more centrally, language. The poetic way she writes unfolds, folds up, and unfolds again....It is a captivating look at how language can be used." Jason Behrends, What to Do During an Orange Alert
"With a strong influence of poetry, Lillis crafts a complex and moving story that many women will relate to when discussing their true best friends in life. Moving and inspiring, The Second Elizabeth is a novel for anyone who believes in the power of friendship." Midwest Book Review
From The Second Elizabeth : "I met Beth and I remembered that a new Elizabeth was created, by me, when I was thirteen. I met Beth and I remembered that an Elizabeth had been silenced, by me, since I was thirteen.... I met Beth and I remembered that I used to see the Z next to the A next to the B. I met Beth and I remembered that the name Elizabeth once contained the whole alphabet, when I was a young girl."
Years after a trauma, Elizabeth has retreated to a former home, to the scene of the crime, and to the lush Southern landscape that may be the tonic to heal her. The story begins as she encounters Beth, her new neighbor and coworker, whose resilience and originality awaken a memory of a younger self, and the vision of a self reborn. The young women share not only a name but a heartbreaking past, and a yearning for love in their future. With Beth as her muse and guide, Elizabeth is free to reimagine her personal history as the tale of their friendship unfolds in present tense.
The Second Elizabeth is a densely poetic meditation on love and language, Virginia and virginity, loss and longing, trauma and recovery. In lush, obsessive text the narration reveals the bonds of female experience, the politics of naming, and the sensuality of nature. As in her novel i, scorpion (Words Like Kudzu, 2000), Lillis uses the device of a double to great effect, to describe the nuances and contradictions of a woman's experience.

Etc:

Karen on Blogger:

Prose: eyescorpion.blogspot.com
Photos: www.threeriversfoureyes.blogspot.com

My writing on the web:

Pulse Berlin   love story/ the endless war/ nyc 2003 (excerpt)
Keyhole Magazine   The Second Elizabeth (audio excerpt)
SALiT Magazine   Three Poems
Avatar Review   Wooden Splinter
Anderbo   Advil
nth position   Oatlands Steeplechase 1978
Poets Against the War   She Laments the Midnight War Council
Pittsburgh Quarterly Pittsburgh's Small Publishing Houses Are Flourishing

SEE MY BOOK PROJECTS:

Included in experimental prose anthology:   Wreckage of Reason
Novella:   Magenta's Adventures Underground
Graphic short:   Hair Story
Graphic short:   Water Story
Graphic short:   Greyhound Story
Photo book:   A Journey in Postcards
Included as photographer:   The States

ATTENTION BOOKSELLERS AND RETAILERS:

Magenta available at SPD Books:   Small Press Distribution

PRESS:

Interview article about The Second Elizabeth: Hipster Book Club Interview about The Second Elizabeth:   Cville Words lit blog Interview about The Second Elizabeth:   Orange Alert blog
Conversation with Novelist Michael Kimball: Keyhole Magazine
Pittsburgh City Paper:   The Second Elizabeth reviewed
JMWW, Fall 2008:   The Second Elizabeth reviewed
Bookslut's Indie Heartthrob Interview Series:   Karen Interviewed
Pitt News:   Karen interviewed
Magenta reviewed:   ULA Book Reviews (Karen Lillis=Carol Lewis)
Kilometre Zero:   Karen spotted