J.S. Howes
Author. Filmmaker. Reporter.
After graduating from Stanford, I lived abroad and watched my classmates spy for the CIA in Turkey, conduct business in China, and lose their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recently, back home, I nearly lost my wife, an asylum-seeking undocumented immigrant, to deportation by ICE, a danger we're still fighting.
That's why I sat down to write my debut novel about the American Empire's effects on ordinary people, at its best and its worst, at home and abroad.
Join my newsletter to get publication updates, tips on the craft of writing, book recommendations, political and cultural commentary, literary criticism, and behind-the-scenes looks at my life as a writer, citizen, and husband of an undocumented spouse.
I believe in living with Love, Compassion, Empathetic Joy, and Equanimity. And writing with Honesty, Heart, and Humor.
A Novel of the American Empire,
of Good People Facing Bad Choices in Worse Situations,
from Syria to the Congo to back home in Gary, Indiana.
About J.S. Howes
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J.S. Howes has been, in various times and places, an author, filmmaker, Chicago Tribune reporter, Ivy League professor, NGO staffer, small business owner, political activist, and writing teacher. As an author, he has published multiple stories in Ploughshares, as well as fiction in The Mind’s Eye and The Best Young Writers and Artists in America; been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the Nelson Algren Award, and the David Nathan Meyerson Memorial Prize; been awarded the Bocock-Guerard Fiction Prize at Stanford University; and taught fiction at Columbia University, where he earned an MFA. As a filmmaker, he is the writer/director of the forthcoming feature film Corona Boys; the writer of the short Jackson Parish (2011), which won awards from BET, the Johnson & Johnson Lens on Talent Competition, the NYU First Run Film Festival, and more; and the co-writer and co-director (with Liam Brady) of Rock Paper Scissors (2003).
Outside of the arts and letters, J.S. Howes has co-founded a green energy storage company, worked in nonprofit educational programming, and advised on progressive political campaigns. He has spent much of his life involved in and fascinated by American entanglements with the rest of the world. He has lived in New York, Chicago, London, Spain, India, and Malaysia, and traveled to more than 60 countries. Among his good friends, one college roommate became a CIA agent in Istanbul; another became an entrepreneur in China; a third spent time working with migrants and guerillas in Central America; and a fourth is an artist and activist in Patagonia. His first wife was an immigrant from Malaysia, while his second wife is an asylum-seeking refugee who fled the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 and has been subjected to deportation proceedings, despite having followed all the rules and done everything "right." Together, they are still fighting for her right to stay safely in the United States.
J.S. Howes comes from a multifaith, multiethnic family. He lives near Chicago with his two children. He is a basketball fan, a fantasy and sci-fi enthusiast, an aficionado of art and serious literature, and a practicing Buddhist.
Selected Works of J.S. Howes
Imagine the novel The Corrections meets the film Traffic: a sprawling, relationship-driven saga that follows three broken Midwesterners from the Asian pop circuit to Syrian battlefields to Congolese mines and back home to a dangerous Fourth of July reckoning with ICE agents in Gary, Indiana, tracing American imperialism from the frontiers to the homefront.
Cancelled, secretly homeless pop star K.T. Shine can barely pay rent or pick up her kid on time, but then a mysterious phone call sends her on a lucrative tour of a war-torn Asian nation that could either revive her fortunes or torch what’s left of her reputation—or cost her life. A U.S. Green Beret in Syria risks his career to vouch for a seductive tribal chief to whom he’s powerfully attracted, even though he’s fought both with and against his unit. And a corporate rising star falls in love with a Congolese NGO director whose crusade to protect his township just might stop her from beating China to a billion-dollar mining contract—unless she betrays him. The paths of these three compromised souls collide back in their rusting hometown of Gary, Indiana, during an ICE raid gone violently awry, as the tactics of empire come home.
Forthcoming Soon. Currently being queried to agents.
A lyrical and heartwarming feature film about the power of community during a time of loss and isolation, CORONA BOYS is the story of Leo and Ja'Sir, two 11-year-old best friends who run away during the height of the coronavirus lockdowns. When the film opens, the boys are trapped in a repetitive mix of heaven and hell -- endless days playing on summer streets in an abandoned world, and awful nights listening to their parents furiously fight (Leo) or worrying that their mom will come home sick from her essential job (Ja'Sir). Unable to cope, the two boys run away and explore an entire city almost entirely free of people. But their rash actions will prompt one family to break apart, another to come back together -- and their community to find new purpose and connections amidst illness and isolation.
This film has been made primarily by local residents of Evanston, Ill., working together on weekends and holidays, under the direction of professional filmmaker J.S. Howes. It stars the director's actual son and his real best friend, along with their family members and friends, alongside professional actors. It is a labor of love and a testament to the power of community and the arts.
Currently in Post Production at NOLO Digital Studios in Chicago.
Sign up for J.S. Howes' newsletter or contact him directly to gain access to his many older works, including:
- Short stories published in anthologies like You Are Here, This Is Now: The Best Young Writers and Artists in America (available on Amazon), magazines like Ploughshares and nominated for prizes such as a Pushcart, the David Nathan Myerson Memorial Prize, and the Bocock-Guerard Award for Fiction.
- Award-winning short films such as Jackson Parish (Johnson & Johnson Lens on Talent winner, NYU First Run Film Festival winner, etc) and Rock Paper Scissors (opening and closing night selection at the Stanford Film Festival).
- More than a hundred articles from his days as a newspaper reporter at the Chicago Tribune, including five published on Page 1.
- Poetry, literary criticism, video content, and social media content.
- Also follow J.S. Howes on his socials at Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok!