About Elle Petra
Elle Petra writes upmarket fiction about intimate relationships under pressure. Her stories explore desire, identity, grief, survival, and the choices people make to preserve or escape the lives they have built. Her novel FLYTRAP is a Silver Winner in Romance in the 2026 Storytrade First Look Prize.
Elle lives in downstate New York with her husband, two children, and two dogs, one massive and one tiny. By day, she leads an HR department. In nearly every other spare moment, she writes. She is a member of Manuscript Academy and Scribophile, and when she is not working or writing, she is probably baking.
Love under pressure
After eighteen years of marriage, I realized that love had changed not only my life, but my understanding of who I was. That recognition became the emotional engine of my fiction.
I began calling the idea Love in Peril: stories in which desire, loyalty, grief, identity, and survival place our closest relationships under pressure. Love matters deeply in my work, but it is never a shortcut around consequence. Sometimes people accept the bargain it offers. Sometimes they cannot.
For more, explore my Books page or get in touch. I’m also currently seeking representation.
