I’ve been on sabbatical from my day job for the past four months, taking my first real break from teaching in over a decade to write and read and give my cat severe separation anxiety once I have to return to campus on the daily.
Horse Show, looking sassy at Maze Books, Rockford, IL
This luxury has resulted in some brand-spanking-new short fiction that you’ll be able to read come spring, as my new story “Canis Ex Machina,” which features Edgar Allan Poe, Wonder Woman, and the Brady Bunch (yes, really), has been accepted by Last Syllable for publication in 2026!
In other news, the Associated Writing Programs’ 2026 annual conference is in Baltimore, one of my favorite cities on Earth. I’ll be at the Santa Fe Writers Project/Whisk(e)y Tit/Kernpunkt booth off and on throughout the con, signing/shilling HORSE SHOW.
Stop by, won’t you?
I have things I must tell you about Sigmund Freud and eels.
One of my most-anticipated new books of 2025 is tireless literary champion Adam al-Sirgany’s debut fiction collection, MORE HELL, which will be released by Whisk(e)y Tit Press later this summer!
From the publisher: “In Midwestern flyover country, the stories of More Hell weave a rich and sometimes comic tapestry of longing, addiction, sex, and loss. The wild cast of rural characters navigate a fast-changing world from their vantage point in a place unaccustomed to such change.”
But I hope that any and all denizens of the Midwest will join us at Maze Books in Rockford, IL at 6:30 PM CST this August 22 to celebrate. I’ll be reading a little something from HORSE SHOW along with Jenna Goldsmith, Don Heneghan, Rachel León, Dave Pedersen, and of course Adam al-Sirgany himself, who will be signing fresh, hot copies of MORE HELL! It’s going to be a blast!
For the latest news on Adam, MORE HELL, and this awesome event, please visit and bookmark https://www.adamalsirgany.com/
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.”
I’m thrilled that my undergraduate alma mater, Goucher College, has invited me to be the next guest at the alumni office’s Virtual Author Series, hosted in partnership with the Friends of the Goucher Library!
Held on Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM EST, the program will feature me in conversation with moderator and fellow alum Joey Fink ’15, who is a current Alumnae & Alumni of Goucher College Executive Committee member and a former captain of the Goucher Equestrian Team.
This virtual event is FREE and open to the public, but requires advance registration.
Click here to register and receive the Zoom link that will take you to the event on the day!
HORSE SHOW is galloping into 2025 by appearing on a slew (a Seattle Slew?) of “best of” and “year end round-up” lists!
Thank you to everyone who added my curious little book to your Goodreads in 2024, shouted it out via social media, reviewed it on Amazon, or otherwise shone your spotlight in its general direction. When you’re published by a small-but-mighty press like SFWP, word of mouth is priceless!
“In her striking debut collection, Jess Bowers ’03 leads us into a museum of the forgotten and the extraordinary: the world of horses in American history. Through thirteen vivid and unrelenting tales, Bowers unpacks the intricate bond between humans and their equine companions, a relationship marked by care, exploitation, and awe. From the mare who defies scientific reason to the television palomino whose charm holds a strange power, HORSE SHOW is an exploration of obsolescence, grief, and nostalgia. Bowers’s prose is arresting, her humor sharp, her imagery unforgettable.”
>blushes fiercely<
Next, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), included HORSE SHOW in its “Fiction of 2024” round-up, alongside my pressmates Tara Campbell and K.E. Semmel. Check out CLMP’s whole reading list here!
Also, Wendy J. Fox’s July 2024 list of “15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Summer,” including HORSE SHOW, was just named one of Electric Literature’s “Most Popular Articles of 2024,” which is so cool.
More exciting HORSE SHOW adventures are already on the books for 2025, including AWP in Los Angeles (!!!) and a virtual February reading at Goucher College, another beloved alma mater.
A few weeks ago I chatted with fellow author and scholar Amanda Barusch about all things HORSE SHOW! Amanda and I are both fascinated by animal studies, horses, and animal fiction, so she was a fantastic conversation partner!
By way of introduction, Amanda writes: “When I first heard about the book on the radio, I was intrigued. I grew up with horses and have never let go of their fascination. What I discovered in this book was far more than traditional equestrian fiction like Black Beauty. The thirteen stories in this collection unearth forgotten moments of American history and reimagine them with dark humor, deep empathy, and unflinching honesty. Through carnival attractions, crime scenes, and circus acts, Bowers explores the complex relationship between humans and horses—partners who together built the modern world, only for one to be left behind. Some stories break your heart, others make you laugh, and the best somehow manage to do both.”
You can read our wide-ranging conversation right here at Amanda’s blog, Swagger & Ink, where she’s also recently featured interviews with authors Katy Betts Adams and Talia Lakshmi Kolluri!
“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!
From the review: “Jess Bowers’s short story collection Horse Show (Santa Fe Writers Project, 2024) invites readers to visit “that little golden age between the horse and the automobile, when we still had wonder” (14), even as its narrators puncture the tableaus they artfully weave by pulling back the curtain on the strings and pulleys continually whirring outside the proffered frame.”
Check out the full review right here at Blackbird, then head over to bookshop.org to snag your copy of Horse Show!
“Of Course, Of Course,” which appears as the last story in Horse Show, has been selected by Santa Fe Writers Project as the press’s Pushcart Prize nominee for 2024!
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses book series, published annually since 1976, features the very best short stories, essays, and poems that are published by small presses and literary journals each year, as chosen by the prize’s stewards.
If selected as a winner, “Of Course, Of Course” will appear in Pushcart’s annual anthology, bringing the story of Carol Post’s secret double life to a new audience. Fingers and hooves firmly crossed!
This is my fifth nomination for a Pushcart Prize.
I’ve been told that once I collect ten, there’s a secret booth at AWP where you can trade in your nominations for a free personal pan pizza!
The HORSE SHOW reading tour gallops onward with a trip to Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO on 9/19, where I’m the featured guest for the Dorothy and Wedel Nilsen Visiting Writer Series!
I’ll be reading from HORSE SHOW at 3:30 PM at SEMO’s Catapult Creative House, which is located at 612 Broadway in Cape Girardeau. I’ll also have copies on hand for sale and signage.
Many thanks to fellow fictioneer and general awesome guy James Brubaker, as well as the rest of the English faculty at SEMO for hosting!
I was also interviewed by Matthew Schmidt for 1 Week Critique’s Interview Series earlier this month! 1-Week Critique (1WC) is “a 501(c)(3) nonprofit editing studio, which aims to provide literary education and pedagogical support to writers.” In the Interview Series, “our editors discuss editorial process with established writers, comparing, in particular, an early and published draft of a given piece of work.”
My “drafts” tend to be these Frankenstein’s Creature documents where I cobble together a lot of raw material, found text, quotes, etc., until I figure out what I’m doing, so I had fun trying to explain my strange process while researching/writing what became my (Pushcart-nominated!) story “One Trick Pony.”
Watch/listen to our conversation right here, and then do yourself a favor and delve into the deep well of author interviews, craft advice, and other free resources for writers at 1 Week Critique!
Jess Bowers 