A Grotesque Animal

At the age of forty-three, after discovering she was autistic, Amy Lee Lillard learned she was part of a community of unseen women who fell through the gaps due to medical bias and social stereotypes. And she learned that her brash and trashy family of women, purveyors of dirty jokes, dirty pictures, and dirty shame, may have broken under the weight of invisible disability.

A Grotesque Animal explores the making, unmaking, and making again of a woman with invisible and unknown disability and a working-class background. And Lillard uncovers what it means to be a disabled slut, a queer aging woman, a descendent of wild but tamed mothers, and a survivor of the things patriarchy does.

Release Date: June 5, 2025    PREORDER NOW

“This is a book that bares both teeth and soul. A bold and unabashed call to name our stories and ourselves, to take off the masks we’ve been taught to wear and live without shame. A book for the weird women—the queer women, the disabled women, the childfree and witchy women, who resist and refuse the narratives they’re given about what their bodies should be, who write their own stories, and who claim a new language for their lives.”
–Melissa Faliveno — author of Tomboyland

“This striking memoir sheds light on a topic that has been hidden for too long: the challenges and triumphs of girls and women with Autism. At a time when growing numbers of women are receiving this diagnosis at mid-life, Lillard offers clarity, hope, and companionship to those faced with re-learning who they are and what matters most to them.”
–Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips, author of The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World

“Exile in Guyville takes you on a deeply poetic journey of women in exile. Women out of time, women out of place, women out of their minds, and women out of luck leap from this haunting, beautiful, slender short story collection that stays with you long after you close the book. This is a terrific collection of sneakily powerful writing and an unfettered, wild imagination.”
–Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger

“This collection is explosive and inventive, balancing humor and horror as each story explores the ways in which women’s identities are built, broken, and rebuilt. I would happily be exiled with these complicated, stubborn, fierce, indomitable women!”
–Gwen E. Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw

About the Author

 Amy Lee Lillard is the author of Exile in Guyville, winner of the 2022 BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize; A Grotesque Animal from University of Iowa Press; and Dig Me Out from Atelier26 Books. She is the co-creator of Broads and Books Productions, creating podcasts, publications, and presses. Productions include Midwest Weird audio literary magazine, Fuzzy Memories Podcast, and the Wyrd Woman audio drama.

Erin Johnston will moderate the discussion.  She is co-creator of the podcast “Broads and Books,” a weekly series she hosts with Amy Lillard. Since 2019, the pair have discussed books, authors and pop culture.