Tag Archives: fiction

HORSE SHOW is an Editor’s Choice @ The Historical Novel Society!

Bonnie DeMoss over at the Historical Novel Society wrote a lovely review of HORSE SHOW, naming it an Editor’s Choice title!

DeMoss writes: “I was so impressed by “Two on a Horse,” set on the Steeplechase ride at Coney Island in the early 20th century. Although the horses were made of wood, they were part of a harrowing ride, and Bowers describes the personal stories of the riders in vivid detail. From the first lady to attempt to ride the Steeplechase astride to a sexual assault occurring during the ride itself, the story has a strong impact, and the reader can see and feel the violence of the ride as well as the trauma of the riders. Equally fine is “Of Course, Of Course,” which on the surface is about a young newlywed couple who discover a horse abandoned on their new property. However, underneath lurks a saga of a wife awakening to her own abandonment, abuse, and neglect in 1960s California. These perfectly crafted tales create a tragic picture that will have an emotional impact on the reader. Highly recommended.”

Click here to read the rest of the review over at the Historical Novel Society!

Then, click here to order your very own copy of HORSE SHOW!

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Horse Show Named One of “The Most Exciting Debut Short Story Collections of 2024” by Electric Literature!

Ouch!

Sorry, I just can’t stop pinching myself since Electric Literature named Horse Show one of “The Most Exciting Debut Short Story Collections of 2024!”

“In thirteen short stories, Jess Bowers details the ways horses have been used and abused throughout American history. Bowers’ writing is ridiculously smart and meticulous, but also lyrical and driven by the story itself. Horse Show forces a reader to examine the history of abuse and spectacle of horses, but it also shows how horses have come to be companions. Bowers shows us the best and the worst of the historical relationship between man and equine, and you don’t need to be a horse lover to thoroughly enjoy and become engrossed in this short collection.”

Appearing alongside absolute bangers by the likes of Amy Stuber (Sad Grownups), Jessie Ren Marshall (Women! In! Peril!), and Ananda Lima (Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil), Horse Show is among excellent company on this list, which is a great place to start holiday shopping for all the short story readers in your life!

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HORSE SHOW Reviewed @Barrelhouse! New Interview @Bold Journey!

Washington D.C.’s mighty mighty Barrelhouse showed HORSE SHOW some love on 7/18 with a stellar review by fellow fiction writer Emily Webber! Click here to read her review in its entirety!

Webber writes: “In many stories, Jess Bowers often plucks an actual incident involving a horse from history and re-imagines the surrounding people, resulting in lively and innovative storytelling. Along with these lesser-known horse stories, she includes artifacts and photographs that sent me searching the internet for details on the real story. For many, there isn’t much information readily available except confirmation that the horse did exist. It turns out Bowers’s horse stories also entail examining grief, our complicated relationships with each other and with animals, and humanity’s insatiable need for dominance. No matter how much technological progress occurs, it seems like the darkest parts of the human heart remain.”

Thank you, Barrelhouse!

I was also interviewed by Bold Journey, an online magazine that talks with creative people about the many challenges that can stand in the way of creative practice. You can read the interview, where I compare creative risk-taking to jumping horses over scary obstacles, right here!

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HORSE SHOW: Mule Tested, Mule Approved!

I was in Columbia, MO at Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center’s Art On The Saddle fundraiser at Ozark Mountain Biscuit & Bar this past weekend!

Audie! (Photo by Katy Raymon.)

I had a blast reading “Of Course, Of Course” to the terrific crowd, selling signed copies of HORSE SHOW to benefit CCTRC’s riders and horses, and watching the bids rise on saddles whimsically decorated by a number of local artists! All twelve custom saddles were claimed by eager art collectors, raising more than 4K for CCTRC!

Best of all, we loaded up Audie, one of CCTRC’s therapy mules, and brought her along to the event for photo ops and general mule merriment! Ozark Mountain Biscuit Company is located in Columbia’s Stockyards District, right next to the Wright Brothers Mule Barn. So it was cool to bring a molly mule back to the Stockyards!

Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center is taking donations online at their website, so if you missed the festivities, you can still help out a great cause!

I was also thrilled to do an interview/reading with my friend Laura Wacker on local radio station KOPN’s “Evening Edition” on 6/11. For the next two weeks, you can stream the show online at KOPN.org.

Last but not least, I wrote a lil’ book list for shepherd.com, a new online initiative that asks “9,000+ authors to share five of their favorite books around a topic, theme, or mood and why they love each book.” My Shepherd list, “the best books for animal lovers who are also history geeks,” features five of my all-time favorites, both fiction and nonfiction–check it out!

And if you haven’t gotten your copy of HORSE SHOW yet, now’s a terrific time to join the herd!

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HORSE SHOW @ Art On The Saddle, 6/8/24!

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be returning to Columbia, MO this June for another reading, this time with a real live horse in attendance!

This one’s at a much earlier hour, and for a most excellent cause: I’m joining the program for Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center‘s first-ever Art On The Saddle Fundraiser at Ozark Mountain Biscuit Company‘s outdoor “Bullpen” on 6/8/24!

The party starts at 4 PM. And when we say party, we mean it! There will be food, craft beer from Logboat Brewing Company, live music by Mr. Fun, a real live therapy horse on-site for cuddles and photos (who will it be?!), and an auction of nine saddles repurposed into one-of-a-kind works of art by local Columbia artists! Check out my favorite below–Lisa Bartlett used found objects to transform an English saddle into a whimsical moth that’ll look incredible on someone’s wall!

Lisa Bartlett’s “Moth,” one of nine objets d’art on offer!

I’m not sure when exactly I’ll be reading, but it’ll be something “family friendly” from HORSE SHOW. I’ll also have copies on hand for sale and signing, with all proceeds going to CCTRC!

Cedar Creek was founded in 1988 and provides comprehensive equine-assisted therapy to more than 150 individuals per year. All classes include instructors that are certified by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH). Cedar Creek is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization and does not receive any United Way, state or federal funding, but instead relies on the generosity of the community to help children, adults, and veterans with special needs experience the benefits of horsemanship.

Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center is my favorite place on the entire planet, my new cat’s name is literally “Ozark Mountain Biscuit Company” (Oz for short), and it’s cicada summer in Missouri, so if you’re local, I can’t think of any reason why you shouldn’t come have a beer in the sun for my very favorite cause: connecting humans who need horses with horses who need humans!

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HORSE SHOW @ Left Bank Books, 5/2/24

It’s been a little over two weeks since HORSE SHOW hit bookstore shelves nationwide!

I’m beyond excited for the next stop on my book tour, which will be at St. Louis’s own Left Bank Books at 7 PM CST on 5/2/24 alongside Travis Mossotti!

Travis is celebrating the recent release of his latest poetry collection, Apocryphal Genesis! And after reading his bio, you’ll see right away why it makes perfect ecological sense that we read together:

“Travis Mossotti has worked and volunteered over the last decade+ alongside his wife (a carnivore biologist) with U.S. government, university, and nonprofit organizations on data collection, animal captures/ releases and lab work for various endangered species recovery efforts all across North America. TRAVIS MOSSOTTI’s previous collections are ABOUT THE DEADFIELD STUDY, and NARCISSUS AMERICANA. His fourth collection, RACECAR JESUS, won the Christopher Smart-Joan Alice Poetry Prize and is forthcoming in 2023 with the Black Spring Press Group/Eyewear in the UK. Mossotti’s fifth collection, APOCRYPHAL GENESIS, won the Alma Book Award and is forthcoming with Saturnalia Books in 2024. He currently serves as a Biodiversity Fellow for the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University. He lives and works in St. Louis.”

We will have copies of both HORSE SHOW and APOCRYPHAL GENIUS for sale and signing at the bookstore on the day (natch!) but you can also order signed copies shipped anywhere in the world direct from Left Bank Books!

Left Bank will also be livestreaming the reading via their YouTube channel for any curious out-of-towners.

Onward!

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New Interview @ Speaking of Marvels and Review @ Automachination!

With just three days until my debut HORSE SHOW officially bursts out of the starting gate, I’m happy to share this interview I did for Speaking of Marvels. This delightful blog features “interviews with authors of chapbooks, novellas, and books of assorted lengths” run by poet, fiction writer, and generally excellent human being William Woolfitt.

The concept behind Speaking of Marvels is novel (at least to me!) with each interviewee leaving behind a question for the writers to come, like a guestbook signature. This makes for surprising and varied conversations that go places other interviews might not. Check out my contribution to the Speaking of Marvels palimpsest right here.

Behold! Su Zi’s gorgeous block printed logo for The Red Mare chapbook series.

In other news, Zoeglossia fellow and founder/creator of the Red Mare chapbook series Su Zi kindly read HORSE SHOW and wrote a review for Automachination!

We cannot stand next to a horse and be blithe to their extermination; however, so many of us have not, and might not ever stand next to a horse, we might not ever feel their subtle vibration next to our own physical selves, we might not get a sense of some ancient memory. Thus, in our obliviousness to the extinction of horses, to their barbaric treatment, we are missing both their ancestral place in our collaborative relationship, and the symbolic nature of our brutality now. If we can be so cruel towards horses, then there’s no surprise at our cruelty towards each other.

I’m grateful to receive such a thoughtful and insightful review from a fellow writer/equestrian! After you’re done reading, make sure to check out Will and Su’s incredible eco-conscious work!

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AWP Recap & A New Interview

AWP ’24 was my favorite AWP ever, I must say.

It wasn’t my first AWP, but it was the first where I had a book to sell, a press to represent my work, and an off-site event to read it at, which made a huge difference in how being at the conference felt. I had things to do beyond wandering around aimlessly searching for my friends and something to eat! Though I did a fair amount of that, too, natch–it’s the AWP way.

Santa Fe Writers Project‘s booth, shared with the incredible Whiskey Tit Books, was hopping with signings by fellow SFWP writers Monica Prince, Steve Eoannou, Charles Jensen, Lilly Dancyger, Wendy J. Fox, Elizabeth Gonzalez James, Ted O’Connell, and Andrew Gifford.

HORSE SHOW on the SFWP table!

I sold all 50 advance copies of HORSE SHOW (!!!), signed a bunch, and met many fellow introverts who are excited about books, specifically my book, which was a joy and a shock, like being plunged into an ice bath after a long hot day. Thank you to everyone who came by to say hello!

The good people at Laurel Review and SEMO Press (which is being shut down, along with Big Muddy, in a shortsighted and stupid blow to arts and letters) hosted an off-site reading at Cinder Block Brewery in North KC. I read part of “Based On A True Story,” which is probably the finest short story you’ll read all year about the 1976 John Travolta vehicle The Boy In The Plastic Bubble.

The cherry hard cider was delicious, the crowd was great, and I had a blast hearing fellow Midwest fictioneers Luke Rolfes, Ron Austin, James Brubaker, Khem Aryal, and Robert Long Foreman rock the mic, even if Travis Kelce and T-Swift skipped our party for some “big game” I heard was happening in Las Vegas. Their loss!

HORSE SHOW’s out 4/9/24, so advance press is coming out. Here’s an interview with me by A.A. Balaskovits in Full Stop earlier this week–we talked about women and violence and animals, as well as how the order of the stories in HORSE SHOW came to be.

HORSE SHOW is still, of course of course, available for pre-order wherever books are sold–but if you have to choose, might I recommend bookshop.org or direct from my press at SFWP?

Book tour updates soon!

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HORSE SHOW is “A Small Press Book You Should Be Reading This Winter” @Electric Literature, AWP Shenanigans, And More…

With HORSE SHOW’s release date of 4/9/24 rapidly approaching, lots of irons are in the fire!

Over at Electric Literature, Wendy J. Fox included HORSE SHOW on her list of “15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Winter.” She writes, “Horse Show has a sweeping, cinematic quality to it, and a thematic cohesion that tightly ties the stories together. A distinctive accomplishment.”

The Associated Writing Programs’ annual conference is being held in Kansas City this year, from February 7-10 at the Kansas City Convention Center. I’ll be camped out at Santa Fe Writers Project’s booth, which we’re sharing with Whiskey Tit Books.

AND I’ll have 50 special preview copies of HORSE SHOW with me for sale and signing!

I’ll be at Booth #3124 from 11:00-1:30 CST on Thursday, 2/8, and from 1:30-2:00 CST on Friday, 2/9. Come say hi and nab your copy of HORSE SHOW months before its official release!

AWP is also all about the nightlife, baby, and the good people at Laurel Review, SEMO Press, Braddock Avenue Books, and Puerto Del Sol have put together an off-site reading at Cinder Block Brewery that all the cool kids are going to attend on Thursday, 2/8 from 6:00-8:00 PM CST.

Come out for tall beers and short readings by some up-and-coming Midwestern authors, including Khem Aryal, James Brubaker, Luke Rolfes, Ron A. Austin, Robert Long Foreman, and yours truly!

The full lineup is listed above. I can’t promise that Taylor Swift will be there, but I also can’t promise she won’t be! I bet she and Travis Kelce love independent literary presses and craft beer!

Last but not least, folks in and around St. Louis should mark their calendars for April 9th!

This is, of course, HORSE SHOW’s global release date, and Maryville University’s ready to celebrate with a reading/Q&A at 3:30 PM in the Morton May Gallery on campus. This event is free and open to the public, so come on down!

More news to come soon. Stay tuned…I may be coming to a bookstore (or horse barn!) near you this spring/summer!

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