Amanda and Sam chat with Lara Ehrlich, author of Bind Me Tighter Still, about domesticity and wildness in motherhood, the fierce love for our children, and feeling like we’re always falling short.

In Bind Me Tighter Still, the youngest of three siren sisters, Ceto, is weary of an existence driven by hunger. She trades her tail for legs, marries the first man she meets, and bears a daughter—only to discover that domesticity is just as mundane as sirenhood. In search of something more, she flees with her daughter Naia to the ocean, where she establishes a mermaid burlesque called Sirenland and reinvents herself, performing as a siren in a tank built into the limestone cliffs overlooking the sea. She hires and trains human women to perform with her, and Sirenland becomes a national roadside attraction. Her daughter Naia performs as well, until she turns 15 and begins to resist the world her mother has created.

Lara Ehrlich is the author of the story collection Animal Wife (Red Hen Press, 2020) and the novel Bind Me Tighter Still (Red Hen Press, 2025). Lara is also the host of Writer Mother Monster, a podcast that has featured more than 100 conversations with writer–mothers navigating the tension between artistic ambition and caregiving. Her writing has been published in StoryQuarterly, Hunger Mountain Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Literary Hub, and others, and she is the writer in residence at Connecticut College. She is the founder and director of Thought Fox Writers Den and lives with her family in Connecticut.

Socials and Links:

www.LaraEhrlich.com

www.ThoughtFox.org

https://www.facebook.com/lara.ehrlich

https://www.instagram.com/lara.ehrlich/

https://redhen.org/book/bind-me-tighter-still/

Mentioned in the episode:

Nobody’s Girl

Hans Christian Andersen

Disney’s The Little Mermaid

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