Before You She Was a Pit Bull

by Elizabeth Ellen

Elizabeth Ellen is one of the most thrilling writers to come out of the literary Internet. She writes boldly about her wayward reckless women, cold-shouldered men, and unsupervised children. In her debut collection, Before You She Was a Pitbull, Ellen unleashes six stories that will crush your heart and leave you begging for more.

52 pages, Pamphlet

First published December 12, 2006

About the author

Elizabeth Ellen's stories have appeared in numerous online and print journals over the last ten years, including elimae, Quick Fiction, Hobart, Lamination Colony, Muumuu House, HTMLGIANT, and many others. She is the author of the chapbook Before You She Was a Pit Bull (Future Tense) and her collection of flash fictions, Sixteen Miles Outside of Phoenix, was included in A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: four chapbooks of short short fiction by four women (Rose Metal Press). Fast Machine is a collection of her best work from the last decade. She was recently awarded a Pushcart Prize for her story "Teen Culture" which appeared in American Short Fiction in 2012. She lives in Ann Arbor, where she co-edits Hobart and oversees Hobart's book division, Short Flight/Long Drive Books.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just a simple 5.5x8.5" photocopied book without a lot of design care. The cover image looks great online but up close this book reinforces the limitations of budget production. I regard FT highly, but this book seems like it would contribute to the bad rep/legitimacy issues indie presses face. The stories are okay.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

My buddy Double E is the freakin' best.

You can spot a story by Elizabeth Ellen from a mile away. It's sexy as hell and so brutally honest it scares you, it makes you laugh, it makes you blush, it makes you cry, and it moves you. It moves you.

Buy this and read her work now. And then when she's in The New Yorker, lord it over your friends that you've been into her waaaaaay longer than they have.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

ee's stories are jagged little things. i don't mean uneven, but sharp. if you could mold a writer out of bukowski, henry miller, and john fante in female frame you might have her. add to that a curious and very original midwestern stylism to flesh her out. the stories are spare and raw and seductive.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Elizabeth Ellen, and so will you if you read her stuff.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this would have been around when I was 25. She's a great story teller, but at this point in my life, married, three kids, I had a hard time relating.