Jessica Powers-Excerpt-This Thing Called the Future (2011)
This excerpt is from my novel, This Thing Called the Future, forthcoming from Cinco Puntos Press in April 2011. This coming of age story is set in South Africa in the modern era during the HIV-AIDS epidemic and explores the conflict between tradition & modernity, African culture & western culture, traditional forms of healing & western medicine, as well as the lingering effects of apartheid, poverty, and violence in South Africa’s townships.
Jessica Powers-excerpt-The Confessional (Knopf, 2007)
“Powers’s first novel powerfully combines timely story lines regarding illegal immigration, school violence, and racial tension….The structure Powers builds is ambitious, and she manipulates it for maximum surprise.” — Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
“Powers confronts issues of anti-immigrant prejudice and antiterrorist hysteria with brutal honesty, describing a world not often depicted in literature for young people.” –The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“Readers…will appreciate Powers’s approach to the psychology of school violence, and fans of books with multiple narrators will be fascinated by the differences in each character’s experience of the same event.” –Voice of Youth Advocates
NON-FICTION
Ghost in my House–Adoption Story–Jessica Powers
“Ghost in my House” is an essay I wrote after extensively interviewing Teresa Martin, who, with her husband, has adopted eight children through Child Protective Services. It explores how she feels about the parents who abused their children and how she copes with their emotional and physical problems as a result. The story is told in Teresa’s voice. This is an example of dozens of articles and essays I’ve written over the years on wide-ranging social justice issues. Forthcoming from Silent Embrace: Perspectives on Birth and Adoption, edited by Ann & Amanda Angel, published by Catalyst Book Press (November 2010).
Homeless on the Border (Colorlines Magazine)
“Homeless on the Border,” published in Colorlines Magazine in the fall of 2008, charts the changing services provided by Annunciation House as the Border Patrol cracked down on immigration. This is an example of dozens of articles and essays I’ve written over the years on wide-ranging social justice issues.
The Red Coat-Jessica Powers-Rough Copy Magazine
“The Red Coat” is a literary essay I wrote about being sexually harrassed by classmates throughout third grade, as I struggled to adjust to the new cultural realities of being the only non-Spanish-speaker in my new classroom after we moved to El Paso, Texas. It was published in Rough Copy Magazine in March 2010.
