Author Jess Bowers on Horse Show: Spectacle, History, and Writing Short Stories
About this episode
Host Edith interviews author Jess Bowers about her debut short story collection, Horse Show, exploring themes of equine culture and human-animal relationships.
Host Edith interviews author and college professor Jess Bowers about her debut short story collection, Horse Show, named one of Electric Literature’s most exciting debut collections of 2024. Bowers, a lifelong equestrian and haflinger owner, explains that each story features a horse (or horse-adjacent animal/object) and a “show,” using entertainment and spectacle to examine human mistreatment and misunderstanding of horses and other sentient beings. She discusses research methods shaped by her PhD in English, including archives, photographs, and repeated film viewing, and shares a disturbing unused anecdote about Eben Byers giving radioactive water to racehorses. Bowers reflects on favorite stories, the appeal and demands of short fiction, challenges of dialogue, harmful breeding trends, and her next animal-focused collection, including a new story, “Canis X Machina.” 00:00 Welcome and Introductions 00:29 Horse Woman Origins 02:06 Vienna Horse Culture 05:14 Inside Horse Show 07:37 Write What You Know 12:36 Research Rabbit Holes 16:17 Darkest Unused Fact 19:39 Most Touching Stories 22:23 Breeding for Vanity 26:50 Spanish Riding School 29:51 Why Short Stories Work 31:28 Why Short…
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