"Wonderful and incisive, A Thousand and One Nights tells us in a new way what it means to be young and American. Tupper casts a keen, intelligent eye on the contemporary world, its multitude of fakeries and deceits, providing us with a witty, poignant, wholly worthwhile read."— Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout

"This is a moving and accomplished first novel.”
--Jim Shepard, National Book Award finalist

"Add [this] title to your must-read list."--The Sacramento Bee

"...shrewdly observed..."--The Boston Globe

"Funny and insightful and told in prose as resilient as Karla's spirit. Keep an eye on Lara Tupper; she is sure to go far." --Rebecca Oppenheimer, National Book Critics' Circle member

new video: If I needed You (townes van zandt) with the Bobby Sweet band

new album: This Dance

This Dance, Lara's first full-length album, a tribute to her favorite jazz and pop songs. Now available from CD Baby, iTunes and Bull Moose Music (Brunswick, ME), best record store ever.

Read my short story: "amphibians" (Maine, Speedos, planes, fiddleheads)

in nowhere magazine; nominated for a pushcart prize and collected in the 10th Anniversary Print Annual (spring 2018)

New hat and old pumpkins.

A Thousand and One Nights has been re-released as an e-book and paperback. Thanks, Untreed Reads.

untreed Reads

Cited as a "Great Summer Read"! (It's a great winter read too.)

e-book and paperback cover from Untreed Reads 2015

Lara Tupper is the author of Off Island, a fictional re-imagining of Paul Gauguin's messy marriage (forthcoming from Encircle, January 2020) and A Thousand and One Nights (Harcourt and Untreed Reads), an autobiographical novel about singers at sea. With filmmaker Greg Eismin she co-wrote the screenplay adaptation for A Thousand and One Nights. (Christopher Guest, we love you.) Her short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize; her work has appeared in Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak (Harper Perennial), The Believer, Nowhere, Five Chapters, Epiphany and other literary magazines. A graduate of Wesleyan University (BA English) and the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College (MFA Creative Writing), she taught at Rutgers University for many years and now presents writing workshops and retreats in Massachusetts. A jazz/pop singer, she has crooned in a number of Middle Eastern and Asian cities and now performs with lovely musicians throughout New England. Her first full-length album, This Dance, is a tribute to jazz and pop favorites. Lara remains a proud member of the Authors Guild and the BMIFC (Barry Manilow International Fan Club); she has recently become a Little Free Librarian. Please see MUSIC CALENDAR and WRITING CLASSES for her upcoming gigs, readings, workshops and writing guidance.

Harcourt cover

"Both an off-kilter take on the conventional coming-of-age tale and a sly commentary on the underbelly of celebrity culture, this truly original book is basically uncategorizable—blissfully so."--Elle.com

"Funny and insightful and told in prose as resilient as Karla's spirit. Keep an eye on Lara Tupper; she is sure to go far." --Rebecca Oppenheimer, National Book Critics' Circle