Works by
Jess Wells
(Writer)

As Editor

• Love Shook My Heart 2: Lesbian Love Stories (2001) -- Finalist, 2001 Lambda Literary Award for Fiction Anthologies
  Editor Jess Wells, taking over the helm for this follow-up to the best- selling Love Shook My Heart, has brought together an assemblage of contemporary writing's brightest talents, including award-winning authors Elana Dykewomon and Ruthann Robson as well as Karen X. Tulchinsky, M. Christian, and numerous others to explore the inescapable power of romantic attraction, enduring love, and crushing heartbreak.

• Lip Service: Alluring New Lesbian Erotica (1999)
  From the dark, foggy streets of New Orleans to the back room of a sex shop to a turn-of-the-century brothel to a church in a small Norwegian town, editor Jess Wells takes readers on a sexy, freewheeling ride through today's hottest lesbian erotica.
  
  Includes work by Anne Seale, Amie M. Evans, Karen X. Tulchinsky, Kate Dominic, Merril Mushroom, Renette Tolver, Sarah Van Arsdale, Wendy Carter, and others.

Books

Anthologies

• Lesbians Raising Sons: An Anthology (1997) -- Finalist Lambda Literary Award
  Traditional philosophy maintains that women alone raising sons cannot make them into "true men"--that households without men have no true "role model" for sons. Working from this presumption, this book addresses the many challenges faced by lesbians raising sons.

Fiction

• The Mandrake Broom (2007)
  In this ambitious and far-reaching new historical novel, The Mandrake Broom, Wells dramatizes one woman's courageous fight to save medical knowledge during the witch-burning era. Set in Europe in 1465-1540, The Mandrake Broom follows Luccia Alimenti as she fights the forces that attempt to keep medical knowledge out of the hands of women. Daughter of a medical professor at the University of Salerno, Italy, Luccia is destined to carry ancient texts and herbal lore into the dangerous and groundbreaking future.
  
  Meet:

  • Luccia Alimenti, daughter of a medical professor at the University of Salerno, Italy, destined to carry ancient texts and herbal lore into the dangerous and ground-breaking future.

  • Fiona, her Irish godmother, who tries to protect Fiona and forge a family while struggling with epilepsy and grief.

  • Marcelle, a hunter and co-conspirator as they are pushed to the brink and take up arms for revenge.

  • Theo Paracelsus, father of modern chemistry, a brilliant eunuch and addict who works with Luccia to forge a bridge between the new and old medicines.

  The Mandrake Broom is based on extensive research of historical sources, herbal remedies and the medicines of the time.

• The Price of Passion: An Erotic Journey (1999)
  In The Price of Passion, Simone -- the orphaned, emotionally neglected daughter of a wealthy family -- must earn her inheritance by traveling the globe delivering a message to her dying grandmother's lovers. The young woman hopes that the pilgrimage will help her reconstruct her shadowed family history -- the shape of lives lived without her, but learns that there is a price to be paid for the emotions one is willing to feel, and the truths one is capable of acknowledging.

• Aftershocks (1992)
  AfterShocks re-released as a Triangle Classic, InsightOut Books, 1992.
  
  This classic tale of control, fear and upheaval, features Trout, a successful businesswoman unaccustomed to losing control...Her partner-in-life Patricia, eyewitness to the collapse of a building she helped construct...Cherice, a bisexual trapped in an elevator with a straight man... Louise, whose bar becomes a haven for so many whose lives have suddenly become upended.

• The Dress, The Cry and a Shirt with No Seams: Lesbian Fiction and Erotica (1985)

Non-fiction

• Home Fronts: Controversies in the Nontraditional Parenting Community (2000) -- Finalist Lambda Literary Award
  From magazine covers to the U.S. Senate floor, gay and lesbian parenting has been one of the most hotly debated issues of the past few years. Is it right? Is it good for the children? Until now these have been the questions asked primarily by conservative politicians and fundamentalist religious zealots. But what of the issues existing among gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals themselves? Is it the rosy picture of perfect health and happy families we have been led to believe? Jess Wells, parent and author of Lesbians Raising Sons, has invited a host of alternative family advocates to explore the truths that are not always easy to examine: Suzie Bright discusses the navet that lesbians have brought to their parenting; Loree Cook-Daniels levels an explosive indictment of the conditions under which transgender people are forced to parent; James Johnstone recounts the trials and tribulations of being a donor dad; Rachel Pepper charges lesbians with villainizing the biological mother in custody cases; Amity Pierce Buxton examines the process of parenting with hostile heterosexual ex-spouses; Cindy Rizzo explores the pain and confusion of custody and divorce; Tzivia Gover investigates the readiness of sperm banks to deal with the pending generation of "willing-to-be-known donors" and the reunions with their offspring. The result is a hard-hitting, controversial critique of the state of gay and lesbian parenting.

• Herstory of Prostitution in Western Europe (1982)

Short Stories

• Two Willow Chairs (1987)

• Dress/The Sharda Stories (1984)

• The Sharda Stories (1982)

• Run: Stories and Collages (1981)