“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!
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!
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!
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!
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?
Jess Bowers 