At Capitol, Camille and her peers confront a modern version of the same economy: grueling expectations, blurred boundaries and exploitation disguised as prestige.
This work is inspired by and aspires to be shelved beside the likes of Mona Awad, Ottessa Moshfegh, Melissa Broder, Coco Mellors, Donna Tartt, Eliza Clark and more.
girlhood
girl friendship
obsessed artist
bad habits
forced proximity
antiestablishment
coming of age
perfectionism
mildly dystopian
elite institution
Grace Andersen
grace.andersennn@gmail.com
Grace hosts bi-annual open mic events. She attends art exhibitions, interviews artists and occasionally curates shows herself.
My long-term goal as a writer is to build a body of work that examines art, selfhood and connection in a commodified age— stories that are culturally engaged and emotionally resonant. I aim to write fiction that interrogates contemporary systems— art, power, and technology— while remaining intimate, character-driven and accessible. I want my work to feel unsettling but familiar.
Grace Andersen
(Mock Cover)
unpublished
A grieving ballerina at an elite, screen-free arts academy is pushed toward a public comeback after her best friends’ betrayal—forcing her to confront whether ambition is worth surviving a system built to consume young artists.
Set in present-day New York City, Capitol Interdisciplinary Performing Arts Academy is an elite conservatory where one hundred of the country’s most promising young artists train without social media, brand deals or outside contact. Smartphones are banned entirely within the academy’s decaying walls, and success is measured not in followers, but in who survives the pressure long enough to be seen.
Twenty-year-old dancer Camille is limping toward the end of her second year, consumed by grief and resentment after her two closest friends sabotaged her debut at last year’s Spring Gala. When a last-minute casting complication offers Camille a second chance at the spotlight, she is torn between securing the future she’s sacrificed everything for or exposing the dark truth about the institution that made her.
LES PETITS RATS is monikered by the nickname given to the exploited young ballerinas of Degas’ paintings of the Paris Opera House. At Capitol, Camille and her peers confront a modern version of the same economy: grueling expectations, blurred boundaries and exploitation disguised as prestige. Told in lyrical, melancholic prose, the novel explores, at its core, girlhood, and the mythic messiness of girl friendship.
My name is Grace Andersen. I hold an English degree and manage a weekly writers’ workshop in Salt Lake City, Utah. My work is shaped by a deep interest in digital minimalism during a hyper-connected age. I’m particularly drawn to conversations with artists and I enjoy translating their lived perspectives into fiction that reflects the psychological and social pressures of the present moment.
Sirens & Muses Antonia Angress
Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro
Bunny Mona Awad
The Secret History Donna Tartt
Rules of Attraction Bret Easton Ellis
film + tv
Black Swan Darren Aronofsky
Whiplash Damien Chazelle
Suspiria Luca Guadagnino
Moulin Rouge Baz Luhrmann
Dance Moms C.A. Productions