Jess Wells

Jess Wells is an award-winning author whose fiction brings forgotten women in history vividly back to life. She has written eight novels and five short story collections, blending meticulous research with compelling storytelling to illuminate women’s resilience, ingenuity, and strength across the ages.

Her latest novel, "The Secret-Keeper's Shipwreck: Mayhem in Gold Rush San Francisco", features an enterprising Irishman and his wife who pose as undertakers to bury the secrets of the upper class and hide a gun-running business until they are targeted by vigilantes and the demand for land forces them to bury secrets of their own.

Previously, "Dancing Through a Deluge", was a Book of the Year finalist by Forward Indies. Set in the aftermath of the Black Death, the story follows a lapsed nun who must reinvent herself while guiding others toward hope, freedom, and community. Like much of Wells’s work, it captures the timeless human struggle for agency in times of upheaval.

Wells’s previous books include "Jaguar Paloma and the Caketown Bar", winner of the Silver Nautilus Book Award, praised for its magical realism and unforgettable characters. Her work has also been honored as a Bronze Winner in the Foreword Indies Awards, shortlisted four times for the national Lambda Literary Awards, and featured in more than three dozen anthologies worldwide. She is a member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Hall of Fame and recipient of a San Francisco Arts Commission Grant for Literature.

When she isn’t writing, Wells delves into history to uncover the overlooked stories that inspire her novels. Readers who enjoy Gabriel García Márquez, Louise Erdrich, and richly layered historical fiction will find her books both thought-provoking and deeply immersive.

Learn more at jesswells dot com.