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 Stories Win
33:12 Reading Short Stories Differently
35:50 Writing Short Stories Takes Patience
40:18 Ideas Over Plot
42:12 Visual Thinking and Photos
46:22 Dialogue and Script Curiosity
50:29 Horses and Forgotten History
53:29 Advice for Aspiring Writers
55:46 New Work and Animal Collection
58:36 Final Thoughts and Farewell
If you like what we do, you might consider buying us a coffee. You can do so here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/booklovercom or here: https://ko-fi.com/bookcompanion Follow us: Web: https://book-lovers-companion.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/book_companion Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ez.fiction.7/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/book_companion/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vyAyrh3zzsxNeexfyU0uA Feedback is always welcome: bookcompanioncontact@gmail.com Music: English Country Garden by Aaron Kenny Video Link: https://youtu.be/mDcADD4oS5E