An electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, about addiction and sex, family and independence, and who holds the power in a modern underworld.
Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she's in charge.
Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears. Alternating between the two women's perspectives, Rachel Lyon's Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a tale that explores love, control, obliteration, and America's own late capitalist mythos. Lyon's reinvention of Persephone and Demeter's story makes for a haunting and ecstatic novel that vibrates with lush abandon. Readers will not soon forget it.
“A powerful, brilliantly imagined story" (Library Journal, starred review) about an ambitious young artist whose accidental photograph of a boy falling to his death could jumpstart her career, but devastate her most intimate friendship.
Lu Rile is a relentlessly focused young photographer struggling to make ends meet. Working three jobs, responsible for her aging father, and worrying that her crumbling loft apartment is being sold to developers, she is at a point of desperation. One day, in the background of a self-portrait, Lu accidentally captures an image of a boy falling to his death. The photograph turns out to be startlingly gorgeous, the best work of art she's ever made. It's an image that could change her life . . . if she lets it.
But the decision to show the photograph is not easy. The boy is her neighbors' son, and the tragedy brings all the building's residents together. It especially unites Lu with the boy's beautiful grieving mother, Kate. As the two forge an intense bond based on sympathy, loneliness, and budding attraction, Lu feels increasingly unsettled and guilty, torn between equally fierce desires: to advance her career, and to protect a woman she has come to love.
Set in early 90s Brooklyn on the brink of gentrification, Self-Portrait with Boy is a "sparkling debut" (The New York Times Book Review) about the emotional dues that must be paid on the road to success and a powerful exploration of the complex terrain of female friendship. "The conflict is rich and thorny, raising questions about art and morality, love and betrayal, sacrifice and opportunism, and the chance moments that can define a life . . . . It wrestles with the nature of art, but moves with the speed of a page-turner" (Los Angeles Times).
What Wasn’t, The Rumpus, November 2021
150 BPM, Catapult, February 2020
You’ll Know When It’s Time, One Story, February 2020
We Love You, Francie, Pigeon Pages, July 2019
Paper Dancers, Southampton Review, June 2019
Secretly Sexy: Where Are They Now?, with Adam Nemett, Nassau Weekly 40th Anniversary Issue, April 2019
The Best Light Fades, New Limestone Review, March 2019
Utopia Falls, Necessary Fiction, October 2018
In the Gully, Breadcrumbs Magazine, September 2018
Mina and Me, Flock, Spring 2018
Midge's Saturday Night, Pigeon Pages, March 2018
Chicken, Electric Literature Recommended Reading, March 2018
I'm Only Telling You So You'll Know, Jellyfish Review, February 2018
Naming Maura Maura, Conium Review, December 2017
Sure Thing, WAVES: A Confluence of Women's Voices, an anthology from A Room of Her Own Foundation
Tripping Sunny Chaudhry, Short Story Advent Calendar, Christmas Eve 2017
Jennie, Jake, People Holding, August 2017 (audio available here)
How Did He Become This Way, and Where Will He Go from Here? States of the Union, Summer 2017
Totally Sane & Humble Ways To Announce that Your Short Story Will Be Published, McSweeney's, January 2017
How Did He Get This Way, and Where Will He Go from Here? Heavy Feather Review, February 2017
The Mother Party, Saint Ann's Review, Summer 2016
F*ckbois from Space, 7x7 LA, June 2016
The Mother Party, No Extra Words podcast, May 2016
Tell Me Your Favorite Slow Jam, and I'll Tell You What Beverage You're Currently Crying Into, McSweeney's, April 2016
Florida, Joyland, January 2016
Tripping Sunny Chaudhry, Bodega Magazine, January 2016
Mashup Feelings: A List, The Toast, September 2015
Wham! - or - My Superhuman Heart, Liars League Hong Kong reading series, September 2015
The Beetle Leopard, Two Cities Review, July 2014
Portrait of the Artist's Daughter with Clown Car, Southern Pacific Review (first place, SPR short story contest), May 2014
The Installation, Baltimore Review, Spring 2013
Your Goddamn Favorite, Portland Review, Spring 2013
Cannibal, Smokelong Quarterly, March 2013
Sugar Daddy, Works and Days, Summer 2012
Spooning, Works and Days, Summer 2012
The Whale and the Waterslide, Hobart, August 2010
A Good Rejection Is Kind but Clear, Medium, April 2020
The Sacred Act of Art-Making: A Conversation with Patrick Coleman, The Rumpus, August 2019
Other Rachel Lyons, ➰➰➰, June 2019
Kathleen Alcott on the Lie of American Meritocracy, Electric Literature, May 2019
How Can Our Mothers Ever Live Up To Our Expectations?, Electric Literature, April 2019
In ‘Women Talking,’ Mennonite Women Grapple with Faith and Justice, Electric Literature, April 2019
Other Rachel Lyons, Longreads, April 2019
Ann Beattie’s ‘A Wonderful Stroke of Luck’ Is a Character Study of Generation Y, Electric Literature, April 2019
On Saviors and Superheroes: An Iterview with Adam Nemett, author of WE CAN SAVE US ALL, The Rumpus, December 2018
"Lief Enger Thinks We’re All Unreliable Narrators,” Electric Literature, November 2018
"The Devoted" Wrestles with Sexual Abuse in the Spiritual World," Electric Literature, August 2018
Defensive Masculinity in the Creative Writing Classroom, AWP Writers Notebook, April 2018
Rachel Lyon Recommends, Writers Recommend series, Poets & Writers March 2018
Is Any Story Too Private To Use in One's Art?, LitHub February 2018
Book Character Names: Peeking Into the Process, nameberry.com February 2018
Art Monsters, New Limestone Review February 2018
Notes on a Nine-Year Submissions Spreadsheet, Submittable September 2017
I Didn't Believe My Eating Disorder Was an Eating Disorder, Bustle March 2017
Various short articles, Atlas Obscura December 2016
Writers' Pen Names: A Concise History from Benjamin Franklin to Mark Twain to Salman Rushdie, nameberry.com September 2016
The Baritone on the Citibike, New York Times: Metropolitan Diary September 2016
My Novel, and Tugboats, The Baltimore Review blog August 2016
Letters to Paris: Two Writers Talk Creative Accountability and Feminine Power, Luna Luna Magazine April 2016
My Valentine's Day Expectations Made Me Miserable, Until I Decided To Celebrate Differently, Bustle February 2016
Here's an Actual Ghost Story from a Skeptic, Luna Luna Magazine October 2015
Interview with Alessandra Simmons, 5-9: Working Writers April 2015
Mindy to Mork: Animated GIF as Cultural Relic, ArtCritical May 2014
Review: Outrageous Fortune: Growing Up in Leeds Castle, Publishers Weekly August 2013
Review: Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date, Publishers Weekly July 2013
Review: The Art of Sleeping Alone: A Memoir, Publishers Weekly, May 2013
Vievee Francis: Coming to the 'I', Indiana Review blog September 2012
Roxane Gay: Where There's Wit, and Also Darkness, Indiana Review blog August 2012
A Conversation with Mary Hamilton, Indiana Review blog April 2012
Ming Holden and the Survival Girls, WFIU Public Radio April 2012
Writer Rigoberto Gonzalez: Across Genres, Across Communities, WFIU Public Radio March 2012
That Skin, that Muscle, that Metal and Bone, Arts & Letters Spring 2012
Julia Karr: The 'Truth' About Writing for Young Adults, WFIU Public Radio January 2012
Artists in the Making: Bre'Anna Robinson's Audio Diary, WFIU Public Radio November 2011