Jess Wells

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Jess Wells (born 1955) is an American author of modern realism, historical fiction and magical realism. She has blogged on under-represented women in history and feminist topics. Wells participated in the foundational years of lesbian and feminist publishing [1] [2] during the time of second-wave feminism in the 1980s and 1990s.

Contents

Career

Wells participated in the foundational years of lesbian and feminist publishing during the time of second-wave feminism in the 1980 and 1990s beginning with an article in Spare Rib magazine on the history of prostitution, which she subsequently published as a book with Shameless Hussy Press in 1982 as A Herstory (sic) of Prostitution in Western Europe. She self-published her short stories under the name of Library B Books until selling her novels to small press publishers.[ citation needed ]

Her short stories have appeared in more than four dozen anthologies [3] and journals, including those from the University of Wisconsin Press, Alyson Books, Firebrand Books, Arsenal Pulp Press, Simon & Schuster, Papier Mache Press, Harrington Park Press, Wising Up Press New Millennium Writings, Owen Wister Review and Chronicle Books. She is included in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [4] , Lesbian Culture: An Anthology, The Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBT Literature [5] , and All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America. [6]

Wells edited several anthologies including Lesbians Raising Sons (Alyson Publications, 1997), and HomeFronts: Controversies in the Non-traditional Parenting Community (Alyson Books, 2000), addressing the stereotypes and social pressure on lesbian and gay families, [7] [8] [9] both of which were finalists for the Lambda Literary Award. She also edited several volumes of lesbian erotica, as well as producing her own volume of lesbian erotica, The Price of Passion (Firebrand Books,1999).

In 2007, Wells produced her first piece of historical fiction, The Mandrake Broom, [10] (Firebrand Books, 2007) which dramatizes the fight to save medical knowledge during the witch-burning times in Europe 1465-1540. This novel imagines a group of women carrying the work of Trotula to midwives and healers throughout Europe and includes as characters the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum and the scientist Paracelsus. It was re-issued as The Mandrake Broom: When the Witches Fought Back, (Mirador Publishing, 2022).

A Slender Tether, [11] (Fireship Press, 2013) imagines the early years of Christine de Pizan, an intellectual of the Middle Ages and arguably Europe’s first feminist. It is a novel in three linked stories and ponders questions of ambition, disillusionment, and identity.

Jess Wells, American author Jess Wells.jpg
Jess Wells, American author

Straight Uphill: A Tale of Love and Chocolate (Cortero/Fireship Press, 2020), imagines five generations of women chocolatiers in a small Italian village, including their travails WWI and WWII, and the introduction of chocolate into Italy in the 1500s.

Jaguar Paloma and the Caketown Bar [12] (Mirador Publishing, 2021) is a volume of magical realism [13] set in a southern jungle, where a woman who effects the weather and her friend with extraordinary beauty establish a trading post for cast-off women and the dispossessed.

Dancing Through a Deluge (Mirador Publishing, 2024) imagines a post-plague world in England, 1351, when a lapsed nun struggles to free peasants and survive an epic flood.

Awards and recognition

Bibliography

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References

  1. ↑ Penelope, Julia; Wolfe, Susan J. (1993). Lesbian Culture: An Anthology. Crossing Press. pp. 131–134. ISBN   0-89594-592-4. OCLC   756896235.
  2. ↑ Knight, Pollack (1993). "Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States". Greenwood Press. ISBN   9780313282157.
  3. ↑ Zahava, Irene, ed. (1994). Lavender Mansions: 40 Contemporary Lesbian and Gay Short Stories. San Francisco: Westview Press. pp. 294–297. ISBN   0-8133-2031-3.
  4. ↑ "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction".
  5. ↑ Nelson, Samuel (2009). The Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBT Literature of the United States. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press (published July 14, 2009). ISBN   978-0313348594.
  6. ↑ Porfido, Giovanni (October 2008). "Book Review: Suzanna Danuta Walters, All the Rage. The Story of Gay Visibility in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,2001. 338 pp. ISBN 0-226-87231-9. $19.00". Sexualities. 11 (5): 651–653. doi:10.1177/13634607080110050606. ISSN   1363-4607. S2CID   143399688.
  7. ↑ All the Ways Home: Parenting and Children in the Lesbian and Gay Communities. New Victoria Publishers. 1995. pp. 128–133. ISBN   0-934678-65-0.
  8. ↑ O'Reilly, Andrea (2004). From Motherhood to Mothering: The Legacy of Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born. State University of New York Press. ISBN   978-0-7914-6287-4. OCLC   897112574.
  9. ↑ O’Reilly, Andrea (2021-04-01). Matricentric Feminism. Demeter Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1k2j331. ISBN   978-1-77258-380-9.
  10. ↑ "Review of The Mandrake Broom". Historical Novel Review (41). August 2007.
  11. ↑ "Review of "A Slender Tether"". Historical Novel Review.
  12. ↑ "Review of Jaguar Paloma and the Caketown Bar". The Historical Novel Review.
  13. ↑ Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1999). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Orbit. ISBN   1-85723-897-4. OCLC   893344955.
  14. ↑ "Nautilus Award Winners 2022". Nautilus Prize.
  15. ↑ "Foreword Reviews Book Awards". Foreword Book Reviews.
  16. ↑ "Saints and Sinners Literary Festival". Saints and Sinners Literary Festival.
  17. 1 2 3 4 "Lammys Directory: 1988 to Present". Lambda Literary Awards.
  18. ↑ "San Francisco Arts Commission Grants for Individual Artists". San Francisco Arts Commission.
  19. ↑ "Lebhar-Friedman Publishing". Encyclopedia.com.
  20. ↑ Wells, Jess (October 11, 2024). Dancing Through a Deluge. United Kingdom: Mirador Publishing. p. 292. ISBN   978-1-917411-06-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  21. ↑ Wells, Jess (2022). The Mandrake Broom: When the Witches Fought Back (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Mirador Publishing. p. 352. ISBN   978-1-914965-79-1.
  22. ↑ Wells, Jess (2021). Jaguar Paloma and the Caketown Bar. United Kingdom: Mirador Publishing. ISBN   978-1-914965-00-5.
  23. ↑ Wells, Jess (2021). Straight Uphill: A Tale of Love and Chocolate. Tucson, AZ: Fireship Press. ISBN   978-1-61179-394-9.
  24. ↑ Wells, Jess (2017). The Disappearing Andersons of Loon Lake. San Francisco CA: Library B Books. ISBN   978-1-5136-2050-3.
  25. ↑ Wells, Jess (2013). A Slender Tether. Tucson, AZ: Fireship Press. ISBN   978-1-61179-261-4.
  26. ↑ Wells, Jess (2007). The Mandrake Broom. Ann Arbor, MI: Firebrand Books. ISBN   978-1-37082-614-8.
  27. ↑ Wells, Jess (1999). The Price of Passion. Ann Arbor, MI: Firebrand Books. ISBN   1-56341-112-1.
  28. ↑ Wells, Jess (1992). AfterShocks (Triangle Classics ed.). Los Angeles, CA: InsightOut Books. ISBN   0-965-36778-9.
  29. ↑ Wells, Jess (1992). AfterShocks (UK ed.). London, UK: The Women's Press. ISBN   0-7043-4383-5.
  30. ↑ Wells, Jess (1992). AfterShocks. Third Side Press. ISBN   1-879427-08-7.
  31. ↑ Wells, Jess (1987). Two Willow Chairs. San Francisco, CA: Library B Books. ISBN   0-940721-01-5.
  32. ↑ Wells, Jess (1986). The Dress/The Sharda Stories (Combined reprint ed.). San Francisco, CA: Library B Books. ISBN   0-940721-00-7.
  33. ↑ Wells, Jess (1985). The Dress, The Cry and a Shirt with No Seams. San Francisco, CA: Library B Books.
  34. ↑ Wells, Jess (1982). The Sharda Stories. San Francisco, CA: Library B Books.
  35. ↑ Wells, Jess (1982). A Herstory of Prostitution in Western Europe. Berkeley, CA: Shameless Hussy Press. ISBN   0-91-5288-48-6.
  36. ↑ Wells, Jess (1981). Run. San Francisco, CA: Library B Books.
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