Lizzie Carver
AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR & POET
About the Author
Lizzie Carver is a queer writer and poet living in Southern Illinois. The grandchild of a mortician and a homicide victim, Carver grew up knee deep in death. Their writing career began with an opinion piece mourning the demolition of their historic family funeral home, and their writing successes now include several awards and publications in assorted literary magazines.
Carver's writing has been described as having "a beautiful ugliness." Their stories are an examination of generational trauma, child abuse, mental health, small-town queerness, and the unique worldview that results from being raised connected to the death business. Their stories are the clinical meets the poetic, often exploring the intersection of love and hate in troubled households.
Awards & Honors
SinC PRIDE Award
Recognized in 2025 as an emerging queer voice in the crime fiction genre for unpublished manuscript SOFT LITTLE MONSTERS.
Project now represented by Gracie Freeman Lifschutz at Dystel, Goderich, & Bourret.
Uncharted Mag Thrilling Short Story Contest
Selected as the 2023 second-place winner by Gabino Iglesias for short story "Blood Flees Our Mouths."
Press & Mentions
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Carver's recognition as the winner of the SinC PRIDE Award was announced on Publishers Weekly, as well as on the SinC website, In Recognition of Murder, File 770, and The Rap Sheet.
QUERYTRACKER INTERVIEW
Carver was interviewed as a success story on QueryTracker.
PRAISE FROM AUTHOR GABINO IGLESIAS
About Carver's short story "Blood Flees Our Mouths," Iglesias complimented, "When you have a maelstrom of anger, maltreatment, violence, and generational trauma, the worst thing you can do is add a gun to the mix, and that’s exactly what this story does. It’s also, strangely, about love and protecting those we love. The atmosphere is fantastic, and the broken characters are, sadly, very believable."
PRAISE FROM AUTHOR RENEE JAMES
About Carver's unpublished manuscript SOFT LITTLE MONSTERS, James complimented, "Wild and well done... This is really powerful stuff... The action scenes are electric. The narrator's voice--word choices, slang, bad grammar, etc.--works way better than any other attempts I've seen in a long time... If you like this kind of noir, this is definitely a bell-ringer."
