Jess Hagemann Author Event- MOTHER-EATING

Calling all horror readers, join us in celebrating the release of Jess Hagemann's newest novel, MOTHER-EATING. Jess will be in conversation with author Richard Z. Santos.

Each ticket to this event will come with a paperback copy of MOTHER-EATING that will be picked up while checking in to this event.

ABOUT THE BOOK: A modern retelling of Marie Antoinette’s reign as the queen of France, set in Austin, Texas. Instead of marrying her daughter off to King Louis, Resa Habsburg sells Mary Toni to a pseudo-religious torture-happy sex cult in exchange for a TV contract.

“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

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jess Hagemann’s recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beneath the Bluebonnets: Tales of Terror from Texas Women, Three Seasons of Winter, and Last Girls Club, among others. Her debut novel Headcheese (2018) won an IPPY Award in Horror. Her sophomore novel Mother-Eating (2025) marries Marie Antoinette and cults. Jess received her MFA from the Jack Kerouac School, and has been awarded a teaching fellowship at McNeese State University as well as a writing residency at Dear Butte. She lives in Austin. More at www.jesshagemann.com.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR: Richard Z. Santos' debut novel, Trust Me, was a finalist for the Writer's League of Texas Book Awards and was named one of the best debuts of the year by Crime Reads. He's the editor of the acclaimed anthology A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories. His fiction has been nominated for The Pushcart, Best of the Net, the International Thriller Writers Awards, and has appeared as a Distinguished Story in Best American Mystery and Suspense. His nonfiction and essays have appeared in Texas Monthly, The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review of Books, Like the Wind, and more. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Austin Noir (Akashic Books), Lone Stars Rising (Harper Wave), Sandra Cisneros: Portraits of a Writer (Texas A&M Press), Untitled Latino Folklore Anthology (Flametree Press), and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. In a previous career, he taught in high schools and before that he worked for political campaigns, consulting firms, and labor unions.