Jess Taylor, Writer

A 2020 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in Bisexual Fiction!

Blurbs

“…elegantly written and cleverly executed, all aimed at capturing the human condition and the often surprising content of our secret lives.” - Sarah Murdoch of the Toronto Star on Just Pervs.

“Just Pervs imagines a world in which women’s sexual desire isn’t disgraceful; it’s communicated, expressed, fulfilled, and accepted.” - Jessica Rose, Rabble.

“…readers will dance from emotions like disillusionment and intrigue…Within each tale, the barriers to fulfilling female sexuality are exposed, unearthed, and reimagined, loudly, until the way last page… I felt repulsed in the best way possible.” - Ash Jodha, This Magazine.

Two sex addicts meet and fall in love. A woman catches her husband cheating on her with their dog and escapes to her sister’s farm. Four friends—fellow pervs—grow up and drift apart, pining for each other in silence until one of them is murdered.

In Jess Taylor’s sophomore story collection, contemporary views of female sexuality are subverted, and women are given agency over their desires and bodies. Through these characters, sex is revealed to be many things at once: gross, shameful, exhilarating, hidden or open—and always complicated. Reminiscent of the works of Maggie Nelson, Mary Gaitskill and Chris Kraus, the stories in Just Pervs explore the strange oppression and illumination created by desire, the bewilderment of adolescence, and the barriers to intimacy both discovered within and imposed upon ourselves.

Awards

Lambda Literary Awards Current Finalists (Just Pervs named a Finalist in Bisexual Fiction)

These Are The Finalists for the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards by Michelle Hart - Oprah Magazine

Reviews and Interviews

The Nature of Personal Desire and Millennial Loneliness in Jess Taylor’s Just Pervs by Sanchari Sur - The Puritan

Review: Just Pervs by Marta Balcewicz - Shameless Mag

“When You Really Start Going With Writing, It Feels Like Flying”: Jess Taylor on the Freedom and Healing of Short Fiction by Grace O’Connell - Open Book

Power and pleasure dominate two new books about women’s desire, Review of Just Pervs and Three Women by Jessica Rose - Rabble

In Just Pervs, Jess Taylor Writes about Sex - Minus Trauma, Q & A by Rachna Raj Kaur - Now Magazine

Five New Books Leave You with Something to Chew On, Review by Sarah Murdoch - Toronto Star

Book Lists

12 Books Everyone Will Be Talking About this Season by Kathleen Newman-Bremang - Refinery29