Jess Wells

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.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

Her short stories have appeared in more than four dozen anthologies{{cite book |title=Lavender Mansions: 40 Contemporary Lesbian and Gay Short Stories |publisher=Westview Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-8133-2031-3 |editor-last=Zahava |editor-first=Irene |location=San Francisco |pages=294–297}} 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,{{Cite web |title=Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/wells_jess}} Lesbian Culture: An Anthology, The Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBT Literature{{Cite book |last=Nelson |first=Samuel |title=The Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBT Literature of the United States |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0313348594 |location=Santa Barbara, California |publication-date=July 14, 2009 |language=en}}, and All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America.{{Cite journal |last=Porfido |first=Giovanni |date=October 2008 |title=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 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13634607080110050606 |journal=Sexualities |volume=11 |issue=5 |pages=651–653 |doi=10.1177/13634607080110050606 |s2cid=143399688 |issn=1363-4607|url-access=subscription }}

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,{{Cite book |title=All the Ways Home: Parenting and Children in the Lesbian and Gay Communities |publisher=New Victoria Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=0-934678-65-0 |pages=128–133}}{{Cite book |last=O'Reilly |first = Andrea |title=From Motherhood to Mothering: The Legacy of Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born |date=2004 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-6287-4 |oclc=897112574}}{{Cite book |last=O’Reilly |first=Andrea |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1k2j331 |title=Matricentric Feminism |date=2021-04-01 |publisher=Demeter Press |isbn=978-1-77258-380-9}} 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,{{cite journal |date=August 2007 |title=Review of The Mandrake Broom |url=https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-mandrake-broom/ |journal=Historical Novel Review |issue=41}} (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,{{Cite journal |title=Review of "A Slender Tether" |url=https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/a-slender-tether/ |journal=Historical Novel Review}} (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.

File:Jess Wells.jpg

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 {{Cite journal |title=Review of Jaguar Paloma and the Caketown Bar |url=https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/jaguar-paloma-and-the-caketown-bar/ |journal=The Historical Novel Review}}(Mirador Publishing, 2021) is a volume of magical realism{{Cite book |last1=Clute |first1 = John |last2 = Nicholls |first2 = Peter |title=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |date=1999 |publisher=Orbit |isbn=1-85723-897-4 |oclc=893344955}} 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.

• 2022: Silver Medal [https://www.nautilusbookawards.com/ Nautilus Book Award] for Small Press Fiction{{Cite web |title=Nautilus Award Winners 2022 |url=https://nautilusbookawards.com/2022-winners-cat-1-10/ |website=Nautilus Prize}}
• 2020: [https://www.forewordreviews.com/awards/books/straight-uphill/ Bronze Winner for Adult Fiction/Romance] for Foreword Reviews INDIES Award{{Cite web |title=Foreword Reviews Book Awards |url=https://www.forewordreviews.com/awards/winners/2020/romance/ |website=Foreword Book Reviews}}
• 2009: Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Hall of Fame{{Cite web |title=Saints and Sinners Literary Festival |url=https://www.sasfest.org/ |website=Saints and Sinners Literary Festival}}
• 2008: Finalist for Lambda Literary Award in Women’s Fiction for The Mandrake Broom{{Cite web |title=Lammys Directory: 1988 to Present |url=https://lambdaliterary.org/awards/lammys-directory-1988-present/ |website=Lambda Literary Awards}}
• 2007: San Francisco Arts Commission Grant for Literature{{Cite web |title=San Francisco Arts Commission Grants for Individual Artists |url=https://sfartscommission.org/grants |website=San Francisco Arts Commission}}
• 2001: Finalist for Lambda Literary Award for Love Shook My Heart II
• 2000: Finalist for Lambda Literary Award for Home Fronts: Controversies in the Non-Traditional Parenting Community
• 1997: Finalist for Lambda Literary Award for Lesbians Raising Sons
• 1986: Excellence in Journalism, Lebhar-Friedman Publishing{{Cite web |title=Lebhar-Friedman Publishing |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/lebhar-friedman-inc |website=Encyclopedia.com}}

• Dancing Through a Deluge, (Mirador Publishing, October, 2024){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=Dancing Through a Deluge |date=October 11, 2024 |publisher=Mirador Publishing |isbn=978-1-917411-06-6 |location=United Kingdom |pages=292 |language=English}}
• The Mandrake Broom: When the Witches Fought Back, (Mirador Publishing, August, 2022){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=The Mandrake Broom: When the Witches Fought Back |date= |publisher=Mirador Publishing |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-914965-79-1 |edition=2nd |location=United Kingdom |publication-date= |pages=352 |language=en}}
• Jaguar Paloma and the Caketown Bar, (Mirador Publishing, September 2021){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=Jaguar Paloma and the Caketown Bar |publisher=Mirador Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-914965-00-5 |location=United Kingdom}}
• Straight Uphill: A Tale of Love and Chocolate, (Cortero/Fireship Press, February 2020){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=Straight Uphill: A Tale of Love and Chocolate |publisher=Fireship Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-61179-394-9 |location=Tucson, AZ}}
• The Disappearing Andersons of Loon Lake (Audio book of short stories, Library B Books, June 2017){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=The Disappearing Andersons of Loon Lake |publisher=Library B Books |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-5136-2050-3 |location=San Francisco CA}}
• A Slender Tether, (Fireship Press, 2013){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=A Slender Tether |publisher=Fireship Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-61179-261-4 |location=Tucson, AZ}}
• The Mandrake Broom, (Firebrand Books, 2007){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=The Mandrake Broom |publisher=Firebrand Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-37082-614-8 |location=Ann Arbor, MI}}
• The Price of Passion (Firebrand Books, 1999){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=The Price of Passion |publisher=Firebrand Books |year=1999 |isbn=1-56341-112-1 |location=Ann Arbor, MI}}
• AfterShocks, Triangle Classic (InsightOut Books, 1992){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=AfterShocks |publisher=InsightOut Books |year=1992 |isbn=0-965-36778-9 |edition=Triangle Classics |location=Los Angeles, CA}}
• AfterShocks, British edition (The Women's Press, London, 1993){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=AfterShocks |publisher=The Women's Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-7043-4383-5 |edition=UK |location=London, UK}}
• AfterShocks, (Third Side Press, 1992){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=AfterShocks |publisher=Third Side Press |year=1992 |isbn=1-879427-08-7}}
• Two Willow Chairs (Library B Books, 1987){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=Two Willow Chairs |publisher=Library B Books |year=1987 |isbn=0-940721-01-5 |location=San Francisco, CA}}
• The Dress/The Sharda Stories (reprint Library B Books, 1986){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=The Dress/The Sharda Stories |publisher=Library B Books |year=1986 |isbn=0-940721-00-7 |edition=Combined reprint |location=San Francisco, CA}}
• The Dress, The Cry and a Shirt with No Seams, (Library B Books, 1984){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=The Dress, The Cry and a Shirt with No Seams |publisher=Library B Books |year=1985 |location=San Francisco, CA}}
• The Sharda Stories, (Library B Books, 1982){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=The Sharda Stories |publisher=Library B Books |year=1982 |location=San Francisco, CA}}
• A Herstory of Prostitution in Western Europe, (Shameless Hussy Press, 1982){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=A Herstory of Prostitution in Western Europe |publisher=Shameless Hussy Press |year=1982 |isbn=0-91-5288-48-6 |location=Berkeley, CA}}
• Run, (Library B Books, 1981){{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Jess |title=Run |publisher=Library B Books |year=1981 |location=San Francisco, CA}}

{{reflist}}

• {{official website|http://www.jesswells.com/}}

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Category:1955 births

Category:Living people