In 2014, she received a Soros Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Foundation. Her book God in Captivity: Redemption and Punishment in American Faith-Based Prisons is forthcoming from Beacon Press in 2016. Her first book, Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement (California, 2006), received the Ruth Benedict Prize and the Gustave O. Arlt award. Erzen also authored Fanpire: The Religion of Twilight (Beacon Press, 2012) and is co-editor of Zero Tolerance: Quality of Life and the New Police Brutality in New York City (NYU, 2001). She is a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Science Research Council, Open Society foundations and Hedgebrook Writer in Residency.