LAURA VOGT BOOKS

Represented by Catherine Cho of Paper Literary.

I write historical fiction and fabulism blends that fit in the upmarket or bookclub space. My writing has the immersive worldbuilding, lyrical prose, and pinch of speculative similar to SEA OF TRANQUILTY by Emily St. John Mandel. Other comparable works would be Erica Bauermeister's THE SCENT KEEPER, Adrienne Young's THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW, Susanna Clarke's PIRANESI, and Delia Owen's WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING.

My stories typically include a strong female protagonist, an exploration of the dynamic connection between women through time, and feminist revisionist history. There's also typically some adventure, folklore or mythology, and a slow-burn romance.

IN THE GREAT QUIET

• Shortlisted for 2022 Retreat West Opening Lines Competition

• Long Longlisted for 2022 Cheshire Novel Prize

THE FOUR WINDS with the lyrical prose, immersive worldbuilding, and fabulism of SEA OF TRANQUILITY

Based on the life of my grandmother’s grandmother, IN THE GREAT QUIET is an upmarket historical story of 89,000 words. It is a genre-busting blend of history, folklore, fabulism, hybrid-genre, and romance.

Oklahoma, 1893. High Noon.

Oklahoma Territory, 1893. High noon. It’s the wild west, and in moments, the race begins. Minnie Hoopes flees her past, determined to establish a homestead in outlaw country. At the end of the dangerous race, Minnie, an unmarried woman, has land of her very own—but she also has the blood of two cowboys on her hands. A notorious outlaw helps her hide the bodies, and throughout winter, the sheriff keeps asking questions. When folks start accusing her neighbors, Minnie must decide to either turn herself in—and lose her land—or protect her neighbors from impending vigilante law. Haunted by her secrets, during the long winter nights isolated on her homestead, Minnie hears voices whispering across the prairie. She wonders if she’s losing her grip on her sanity or linking with ancestral memory. In order to survive the wild west, Minnie must reconcile her past, figure out who she can trust, and choose what kind of friend she wants to be. IN THE GREAT QUIET is a dual-timeline, feminist story about memory and perception, isolation versus community, and one’s elemental, propulsive search for home.

For fans of Delia Owen's WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, Amy Harmon's WHERE THE LOST WANDER, and Shelley Read's GO AS THE RIVER.

Novel - Historical Fiction and Fabulism

Aesthetic - link to Instagram aesthetic reel (with sound)

BLUE BEYOND THE SEA

available from Bottlecap Press

Something calls from the wilderness, but

we must choose to answer.

Bavaria, 1108. Edigna flees an arranged marriage and creates a home in the hollow of a linden tree. She illuminates manuscripts for a nearby abbey, and as she becomes a legendary story told round fires, she begins to lose her grip on the physical world. She doesn’t want to be only a story: she wants to be a body too.

A magical short story that reimagines the medieval legend of Edigna of Puch as the original Rapunzel, for fans of V. E. Schwab’s Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, and Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi. Inspired by the surprising blue fragments of lapis lazuli found by archeologists in the remains of a medieval woman’s teeth, Blue Beyond the Sea is a rewrite of the history of women

in art.

Novelette, 8,500 words - Historical Fiction, Fabulist, Literary

Aesthetic - Link to Instagram Reel

"The Lost Colors" in Pleiades: Literature in Context, in spring 2024 issue

"hey, we're in the hospital again" in Fourteen Hills, in summer 2024 issue

"Folklore of Past Lives" in South Carolina Review, in spring 2024 issue

"the other day, a woman" in Enchanted Living Magazine, autumn 2023 issue, available at Barnes & Noble

"weight" in Rust & Moth, summer 2023 issue

"atmospheric instability (noun)" in Chapter House Journal, winter 2023 issue

"Smallflower Desert Chicory: an Auguring," forthcoming in Calla Press, spring 2025

"Modernday Mythologies" in 3Elements Review, winter 2024 issue

"Alongside the Gorge" in Wildness, winter 2024 issue

"Timelapse; or Reasons to Pause" in Pulp Literature, in summer 2024 issue

"excavation" in Arkansas Review, spring 2023 issue

POETRY

publications

"mother (noun): goddess of time" in Enchanted Living Magazine, autumn 2023 issue, available at Barnes & Noble

"Faded-Mulberry Lunchbox: Or, I've Loved You, Twenty-Two Years or So," forthcoming in The Broadkill Review, summer 2025 issue

"On the 1980s Chintz Floral Sofa" forthcoming in The MacGuffin, spring 2025 issue

"Oat, Thistle, Muddy Citrine, Butterscotch," forthcoming on JMWW, spring 2025

"Perhaps, a Moment of Stasis," forthcoming in Calla Press, spring 2025

"Flooded; or, I'm tired of your opinions," November 2024 issue of Chronogram Magazine

"Another Tuesday, Maybe Thursday," in Vine Leaves Press, spring 2025

"regret (noun): a time traveler" on One Sentence Poems, winter 2022

"nostos" in Frost Meadow Review, summer 2022 issue

"achillea millefolium" in Frost Meadow Review, summer 2022 issue

• Honorable Mention for the 91st Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition, Literary category

Flash Fiction, 1,900 words - Fabulist, Literary

In modern day (2022) Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria a museum guide wonders about the medieval concept of doubles -- and if her own shadow is detaching from her body. "Three Words for What We've Lost" explores pandemic isolation & trauma and the many versions of self & identity.

Aesthetic - link to Instagram reel

forthcoming from The MacGuffin, spring 2025