NEW BOOKS
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FROM "AUSTIN'S FAVORITE HORROR AUTHOR"
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NEW BOOKS | FROM "AUSTIN'S FAVORITE HORROR AUTHOR" |
“HAGEMANN MIGHT BE THE BEST HORROR WRITER IN AMERICA.”
—Daniel Kraus, author of Whalefall and Angel Down
“Mother-Eating gleefully penetrates and butchers all you thought was possible in fiction. It is a literary impalement. Perverted, shocking, and unprecedented. Jess Hagemann is one of the most singular and distinct voices I’ve encountered since first reading authors like William S. Burroughs and Georges Bataille. There is no literary equivalent to this raw, uncompromising masterpiece. It truly exists in its own superior class.”
—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
appearances
April 4
Austin Book Trail | Birdhouse Books (ATX)
author signing 12:00-3:00 p.m.
Free
April 25
Independent Bookstore Day | Reverie Books (ATX)
author signing 12:00-2:00 p.m.
Free
May 28
Beneath the Bluebonnets | First Light Books (ATX)
reading and signing
Free
headcheese by
jess hagemann
From sexual fetish to the clinical diagnosis of Body Integrity Identity Disorder, Headcheese makes the first cut, peeling back the epidermis to peer inside the minds and hearts of 26 people navigating the topography of flesh.
Winner of a 2019 IPPY Award in Horror!
“Reading Headcheese is like realizing the chainsaw was the hero of Texas Chain Saw Massacre and that nothing brings us closer to our true selves than understanding what we'd cut away. Jess Hagemann does for dismemberment what Ishmael did for whales—revealing the whole world inside the tiniest details.”
—Newsweek
“A provocative and ingeniously assembled novel with enough debauched imagination—and perverse reality—to satisfy even the most morbidly curious reader. If this book was a Google search, you’d read it in incognito mode.”
—Katie Rife, A.V Club
About jess
Jess Hagemann’s debut novel Headcheese won a 2019 IPPY Award in Horror. Her sophomore novel Mother-Eating was named a “Most-Anticipated Horror Book of 2025” by Paste Magazine and made Bloody Disgusting’s list of Best Horror Books of 2025. That same year, Rapture Publishing issued a standalone chapbook of her short story “Resurrection.” In 2026, she will be novelizing a movie for Encyclopocalypse Publications. Jess received her MFA from the Jack Kerouac School, and is the former recipient of a teaching fellowship at McNeese State University and a writing residency at Dear Butte. She lives in Austin.
More at www.jesshagemann.com.
other publications
2026
excerpt from Sweet Cheeks, Three Seasons of Winter Vol. 2 (forthcoming)
“The Last Taboo,” Beneath the Bluebonnets: Tales of Terror by Texas Women
2025
“Who’s Got the Salt?” San Antonio Current
Resurrection, Rapture Publishing
2024
“Woman Among Women,” Last Girls Club
“A Certain Level of Discernment,” Ghoulish Tales
2023
“Something Like Grief,” Sky Island Journal
2022
“House of Many Rooms,” Castle of Horror: Young Adult
2021
2020
“Mistook in Manor,” Southwest Review
“The Purple,” HorrorGirl Problems
2014
“To Have and to Hold,” NPR Illinois
“Exoskeleton,” under the gum tree
2013
“Crane,” Your Everyday Heroes
“Study of Retinoblastoma Homolog in C. elegans,” Utter Magazine
“The Red Pearl,” Looseleaf Tea
“That Sainted Gash,” Almost Five [Quarterly]
“Veiled,” Doorknobs & BodyPaint
2012
“Things to Save,” Inquiring Mind
“Room for Saltwater,” The Oklahoma Review
“Taboo Blue,” Five [Quarterly]
“On Blasphemy,” Esque Magazine
“Sheer Like Gauze,” Kweli Journal
2011
“On Ecology,” Gambling the Aisle
“Off the Dome: An Interview with Ronaldo V. Wilson,” Bombay Gin
“The Cardigan and the Carnalval,” Fiera Lingue
2010
“MySpace: Begin,” Pank Magazine
“On Breasts and Testicles,” Lethologica
2009
“Static,” “Castro Lauds Elections,” & “To My Fellow Cannibal Christians,” Re:Visions
“Fixtures,” Spires Magazine
in the news
2026
Queens podcast (forthcoming)
ALPLM Oral History Archive interview (forthcoming)
Horror Anthology Anthology podcast (forthcoming)
Women in Horror Month Spotlight, C. M. Rosens
Women in Horror Month Spotlight, Timber Ghost Press
2025
“The Best Horror Books of 2025!” Bloody Disgusting
“The Best Horror Books of 2025,” Blog Without a Face
Print Magazine, “23 of the Best Book Covers of Fall 2025”
“Mother-Eating, Cults, Queens, and the Grotesque with Author Jess Hagemann,” Mostly Horror podcast
“The Films of Jan Svankmajer with Jess Hagemann,” The Scares That Shaped Us podcast
Ghoulblog, Egg Decapitation Contest Winners!
CrimeReads, “Five Central Texas Hubs for Horror”
Review of Mother-Eating in The Austin Chronicle
The Paisano, “Eating Away Interest”
Maudlin House, “10 Indie Horror Books from 2025 You Won’t Be Able To Stop Reaching For”
Mother-Eating on the Yellow Bird Editors blog
Jess gets interviewed on the Ghoulblog
Ghoulblog, “Let Us ALL Eat Cake!”
“New Books Today,” Mother Horror
Jess reads at Armadillocon 2025
Review of Mother-Eating by Blog Without a Face
Mother-Eating sneak peek, Ghoulblog
This Is Horror, “Look Out for Mother-Eating”
The Lineup, “4 Terrifying New Releases”
Thriftbooks, “What Fresh Horrors Await? 15 Terrifying New Titles”
Paste Magazine, “The Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2025”
Rue Morgue on Mother-Eating cover reveal
Pretty In Papercuts, “Even More Must Read Horror Book Releases in 2025”
2024
Countdown to Mother-Eating on the Ghoulblog
Jess reads at Smushed Blueberries
Jess gets interviewed on Curious Blend
Jess gets interviewed on The Purpose-Driven Entrepreneur
2022
Jess at the virtual launch for Castle of Horror: YA (28:15)
Review of Into the Forest by Publishers Weekly
Encyclopocalypse Publications acquires Headcheese
2021
Jess at the virtual launch for Castle of Horror: Femme Fatales
2020
2019
Headcheese wins an IPPY Award in Horror
Jess performs at Something Indecent
Jess gets interviewed on The BodPod
Jess gets interviewed by Morbidly Beautiful
Jess gets interviewed on Retro Movie Geek
Jess gets interviewed on Trick or Treat Radio
Review of Headcheese by Into the Void
“Reggae, Amputations, and Trice,” Brave Tutu
LitHub’s “Five Books You May Have Missed in December”
2018
Review of Headcheese by Killer Horror Critic
Jess gets interviewed by PopHorror
Review of Headcheese by PopHorror
Daily Dead on Headcheese artwork
Dread Central on Headcheese novel release
Jess gets interviewed on Bizzong!
Review of Headcheese by One-Legged Reviews
Jess gets interviewed on The Corpsepaint Show
Get in touch.
Jess is available for conferences, visiting writers’ weekends, and other speaking engagements.