I have been writing since childhood and discovering happiness through many sorts of writing—although I find myself often focusing on what may destroy happiness as my characters struggle to create better lives for themselves and others. In The Merhorse my primary character is a voice actor who, after her husband’s death, breaks her promise to him never to contact his relatives. She travels to the family’s hotel in Maine to unravel mysteries and to learn, at last, who her husband really was. At the hotel, which formerly was called The Merhorse, she must discover why her husband extracted his extreme promise and how she can release herself from an obsessive love affair and the forces that weakened her husband.
In The Withers, I imagined a world surviving a disaster that led to organ failure among the genetically predisposed. My character Riatta, financially destitute and afflicted with mysterious bodily markings called withers, is a survivor who, along with her friend Diana, another woman with withers, attempts to find some measure of happiness even while she is shunned by those unmarked who wish to forget the circumstances that led to many lives being lost. A novel about friendship, obsession, guilt, betrayal, profound loss, and the lure of forgetting, The Withers asks questions about how self-trust can be reclaimed even in the most horrifying circumstances.
My novel, Tabitha, Get Up, semi-finalist for the 2026 Thurber Prize for American Humor, might seem like a wildly different piece of work. It’s a comic novel about a woman who attempts to regain her self-respect by writing two biographies simultaneously: one about a celebrity so charismatic his face is on the side of buses, another about an author of erotica with a fanatical cult following. In the sequel, Tabitha, Stay Up, the title character struggles to save the world’s best bar, contends with diabolical twins and a mystical vision, and refuses to count her blessings. Like my other novels, my comic novels ask serious questions about friendship and self-trust and how to survive in precarious environments.
I am a multi-genre author, not because I’m polygamous when it comes to genre, but because each genre is addictive and possibly a bit contagious. Along with the novels mentioned above, I’ve written a twisty mystery novel, Wrongful, about writers behaving horribly at two literary conferences, as well as seven collections of poetry, two short story collections, a novella, four books of literary criticism, and an essay collection. My poetry has appeared widely, including in The New Yorker, Poetry, Southern Review, and three editions of Best American Poetry.
I am the lucky mother of two adult daughters. I live in Easton, Pennsylvania, with my wonderful husband, and our sweet pet rabbit Mellow, who turned up abandoned on our driveway and now benevolently rules our lives.
www.leeupton.com
Regal House Publishing is proud to bring you Lee Upton’s The Merhorse in 2028.
