My second novel, String Follow, was published by MCD/FSG on February 1, 2022.

Available from MCD/FSG, Bookshop.org, your local independent bookstore, or your local library. Add/rate it on Goodreads.

“String Follow is a work of evil genius that put me in a literal trance and didn’t relinquish me until the final page. Like the irresistibly wise, dark, and unfathomable force it conjures, the voice got in my head and tainted my soul. I loved every insidious second.”
—Mona Awad, author of All’s Well and Bunny

”String Follow is a horrific descent into the madness that alternately connects and isolates us. Simon Jacobs creates a world where the characters’ everyday terrors are taken advantage of by a larger force, a brilliant web of evil that stretches over an entire southern Ohio town. It’s a riveting and unstoppable journey.”
—Rachel Eve Moulton, author of Tinfoil Butterfly

”String Follow is a deliciously dark modern gothic that deftly mines the terrors and vicissitudes of the suburban teenager. A small town in Ohio and, indeed, the reader are soon stalked by a mysterious dark force as it hunts for the perfect prey, but it is Simon Jacobs’s sly and simmering prose that is the most undeniable force, slipping under your skin to haunt you long after the last page.”
—Kira Jane Buxton, author of Hollow Kingdom

”The prose is intoxicating and hypnotic . . . and the characters, whether they make you cringe or break your heart or both, wind up being people you feel like you know.”
—Chris Harding Thornton, author of Pickard County Atlas

”A terrifying glimpse into teen anomie and rootlessness . . . Grim, violent Midwestern gothic—hard to watch, hard to turn away from.”
—Kirkus

”A horrific take on coming of age.”
—Publishers Weekly

”String Follow reads kind of like if the Ice Storm was a horror story. . . . Moody, quirky, and funny, this is the perfect possession story for the social media age.”
—Molly Odintz, CrimeReads, Best Horror Fiction of 2022

Press:

• review in Publishers Weekly.

• review in Kirkus Reviews.

• Listed in The Best Horror Fiction of 2022 (CrimeReads).

• Interview with Tobias Carroll in Vol. 1 Brooklyn.

• Featured in Chantal V. Johnson’s “A Year in Reading” (The Millions).

• Interview with Malavika Praseed on the Your Favorite Book podcast (about Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day).

• Interview with Alex Higley and Lindsay Hunter on the I’m a Writer But… podcast.

• Chris Harding Thornton on String Follow at 5 Years of MCD.

• Other roundups: Chicago Review of Books; Vol. 1 Brooklyn; Alta Journal; Tor Nightfire; This Is Horror, Gizmodo; CrimeReads.

My short fiction collection, Masterworks, was published by Instar Books in August 2019. Order it directly from the publisher or at your local independent bookstore!

Available from Instar Books (20% off!), Small Press Distribution, or your local indie.

Press:

• add/rate it on Goodreads.

• listen to the opening story, “Let Me Take You to Olive Garden,” and an interview, at The Other Stories. [9.19]

• review by Tobias Carroll in Vol. 1 Brooklyn. [11.19]

• review by Ian Mond in Locus Magazine. [10.19]

• review by Amanda Krupman at Gertrude Press.

• review by Brook Shelley at dill & fennel. [9.19]

• review by Mark Andresen at The Pan Review. [9.19]

* A Small Press Distribution Fiction Bestseller! *

"Masterworks is an absolute weird original. It’s a frantic, funny tumbling of culture into the abyss—or maybe just a catastrophic date in an Olive Garden. Either way, read it at your peril and pleasure.”
—Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World and Other Stories

"Simon Jacobs writes like he’s grabbing your hand and pulling you fast through a crowd. You’re laughing and gulping and thrilled. These stories are both told and inhabited, ripe for revisiting, because even as Jacobs is moving you, you yearn to linger.”
—Lindsay Hunter, author of Eat Only When You’re Hungry

”Jacobs’ sly, whip-smart stories take you to the uncanniest of places—to an anomaly in Olive Garden, to a plank at sea, to the pleasure-scapes of Heironymous Bosch. Here you’ll find all of the daring, curious and soul-baring ways humans love and seek meaning. Masterworks is a masterful delight.”
—Hannah Pass, author of Our Reincarnated

My first novel, Palaces, was published by Two Dollar Radio in January 2018. Order it directly from the publisher or visit your favorite independent bookstore.

Booksellers, critics, librarians, and others can request copies from Two Dollar Radio here.

Press:

• starred review in Publishers Weekly. [2.18]

• starred review in Foreword Reviews. [1.18]

• interview with Freddie Moore at Full Stop. [6.18]

• review by Tobias Carroll on Tor.com. [1.18.]

• on Pitchfork's "18 New Music Books to Read this Summer" (by Niina Pollari). [6.18]

• playlist on Largehearted Boy. [3.18]

• interview with Two Dollar Radio. [5.17]

• interview with Henry Milek at Midwestern Gothic. [9.18]

• review by Jimmy Cooper in Razorcake. [7.18]

• reviewed in the The Arkansas International. [1.18.]

• "Hitting Shelves" feature on Fiction Advocate. [1.18]

• on BookRiot's "8 Small Press Books to Read in January." [1.21.18]

• recommended by Nate McNamara in "15 Books You Should Read This January" on Literary Hub. [1.18]

• among "Spring Reads" in Philadelphia Weekly, by Sarah Rose Etter. [3.18]

• in Dayton Daily News, by Sharon Short. [1.18]

• included in "Most Anticipated Small Press Books of 2018!" on Big Other. [1.18]

• included in "What You Should Be Reading This January" on Culture Trip (UK). [1.18]

• add/rate it on Goodreads.

"Jacobs’s terrifying debut novel is a master class in anxiety and atmosphere."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Palaces is robust, both current and clairvoyant, and answers the question of what happens when our deepest fantasies become reality. With a pitch-perfect portrayal of the punk scene and idiosyncratic, meaty characters, this is a wonderful novel that takes no prisoners."
—Foreword Reviews (starred review)

"In Simon Jacobs’ tense, unwinding novel Palaces, two midwestern punks wander an anarchic, eerily unpeopled landscape . . . Even as the narrator progresses farther north and away from his old life, the indeterminate noise and violence of a musty punk house pit are never far."
—Niina Pollari, Pitchfork

"Palaces utilizes aspects of speculative fiction and horror as its story unfolds, but its questions are thoroughly primal. . . . Whether he’s outlining a harrowing vision of a sparse tomorrow or providing a lived-in perspective on a small punk scene, Jacobs has unsettling questions on his mind, and the disorienting narrative of Palaces is the means by which he’s asking them."
—Tobias Carroll, Tor.com

"Palaces is post-apocalyptic, but stranger than that. It’s a novel that’s gritty, moving, and punk."
—Nate McNamara, Literary Hub

"If you’re looking for something a little more punk rock this spring, look no further... Surreal, strange, and drenched in mosh scenes, it’s a bit of a nailbiter, too."
—Sarah Rose Etter, Philadelphia Weekly

"A fierce fever dream paused at that worst moment before we wake up. A tightening loop of the tension of untying and retying ourselves down: to people, to place, to motive and motivation. Less a meditation than a persistent jab in the ribs, repeating patterns of distrust and surrender. Addictively disorienting."
—Jac Jemc, author of The Grip of It and My Only Wife

"In this singular debut novel that reads like a cross between Derek Jarman's Jubilee and an unsettling folk ballad, Jacobs narrates the journey of two Midwestern pilgrims, each striving for ascetic purity both in their possessions and in their emotional lives, as they silently war against the ostentation of the wealthy, the dread expectations of gender, maybe against object permanence itself. It feels like The Road, but with less faith in humanity, and this S. Jacobs is a literary talent to watch."
—Jeanne Thornton, author of The Dream of Doctor Bantam

A new edition of my first book, Saturn, a collection of David Bowie stories, is forthcoming from Long Day Press in May 2024.

SATURN was first published by Spork Press in 2014. Now, in 2024, it returns to print in a 10-year anniversary edition, featuring new stories.

“The stories in Saturn are inventive, playful, and meditative—Simon Jacobs orbits Bowie the icon in order to write Bowie as both the person and the imagined person, and to great effect. I'm very glad this book is back in print again.”
—Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else

“I will forward one to DB.”
—Mark Adams, Bowienet

Preorder from Long Day Press.

★

Selected press for previous editions:

• review in PANK by Emily-Jo Hopson.

• review in Entropy Magazine by Derek Sapienza.

• review in NANO Fiction by Christopher Bundy.

• review in The Rumpus by Benjamin Rybeck.

• review in DIAGRAM by Alison McCabe.

• review in Fiction Advocate by Brian Hurley.

• on Chelsea Hodson's "Inventory."

• "Wearing Your Fiction on Your Sleeve," by Freddie Moore; an interview with Black Balloon about the Safety Pin Review and SATURN.

• "An Analog Experience," by David Mendez in Tucson Weekly, a feature on Spork that talks about the production of SATURN.

• "Spork's Six New Books," by Rauan Klassnik in HTMLGiant, featuring a blurb from Francis Bacon.

• in Luna Luna Magazine, Dena Rash Guzman includes SATURN among her AWP finds.

• by Momus.

• by J. Bradley.

Other Writing

FICTION:

• Saturn (Long Day Press, 2024). Fiction collection, 10-year anniversary edition.

• String Follow (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2022). Novel.

• Masterworks (Instar Books, 2019). Fiction collection.

• Palaces (Two Dollar Radio, 2018). Novel.

• "Masterworks" was a mostly-monthly short fiction series about reenacting famous works of art, which was originally published by Paper Darts from 2014 through 2017. The best way to read the collected stories is in Masterworks (the book), but earlier versions are also online: Part I. Part II-IV. Part V. Part VI. Part VII. Part VIII. Part IX. Part X. Part XI. Part XII. Part XIII. Part XIV. Part XV.

• "Disasters"; Gargoyle (66, Summer 2017).

• "Let Me Take You to Olive Garden"'; Joyland (November 2016).

• "The Histories"; Tin House (June 2016). Also featured on the Guardian.

• "Secret Message"; Paper Darts (March 2016).

• "The Ways I'll Kill Him / The Ways I'll Die"; Black Warrior Review (41.2, Spring/Summer 2015).

• "Accession"; Everyday Genius (October 2014).

• "Something Else Irreversible (Leg Faces #2 and #4)"; Forklift, OH (Issue 28, Summer 2014).

• "David Bowie Bids on a Piece of Modern British Art" and "David Bowie Watches His Own Cameo in a David Lynch Movie"; Handsome (Vol. 6, No. 1).

• "How I Found Her Men"; cream city review (Vol. 37, No. 2, Winter 2014).

• "David Bowie Sleeps with 1001 Arabian Nights Next to His Bed"; The Knicknackery (Issue One, February 2014). Nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

• "Booties"; Fractured West (Issue Five, Winter 2014).

• "David Bowie Approaches Tilda Swinton to Play Him in the Movie of His Life" and "David Bowie Confronts His Digital Self in Omikron: The Nomad Soul"; Skydeer Helpking (Issue One, 2014).

• "Our Bodies"; Weave Magazine (Issue 10, Winter 2014).

• "The Inventory of Marcus, Level 16"; The Collagist (Issue 54, January 2014).

• "Two Heads"; Crime Factory (Issue 15, Winter 2014).

• "CAT-STEALER"; Word Riot (August 2013).

• "The Movies Made in Our Basement"; Passages North (July 2013).

• "The Theatre of the Floating World"; Best Gay Stories 2013 (Lethe Press).

• "SINCE" & "THE REVEREND"; Columbia Poetry Review (Issue 26, Spring 2013).

• "David Bowie Takes a Commercial Space Flight"; Everyday Genius (April 2013).

• "Evacuees"; Paper Darts (April 2013).

• "David Bowie and Damien Hirst Collaborate to Build a Minotaur"; The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review (April 2013).

• "Villains"; Monkeybicycle (April 2013).

• "Adventures of a Yak in a Flying Teacup" (a new installment, comic); Hobart (March 2013).

• "Enemies"; Spork Press (February 2013).

• "A Practical Guide to Cadet Safety"; Star*Line 36.1 (January 2013).

• "Cover Letter"; Hobart (January 2013).

• "Allies"; NANO Fiction 6.1 (Fall 2012).

• "Adventures of a Yak in a Flying Teacup" (comic); Rocksalt #5 (October 2012).

• "Intruders"; Necessary Fiction (October 2012).

• "The Theatre of the Floating World"; PANK 7 (September 2012).

• "Partners"; SmokeLong Quarterly (September 2012).

• "The Objects in Your Throne Room"; Word Riot (July 2012).

• "Dedications 30-36"; decomP magazinE (June 2012).

• "As She Comes Back (Dedications 7-10)"; Monkeybicycle (April 2012).

• "The Spirits of Imaginary Animals"; Bluestem Magazine (March 2012). New audio version recorded by My Audio Universe in July 2012.

OPINIONS ON BOOKS:

• Beneath the Liquid Skin; review at PANK (June 2013).

• "We Are All Blocking Doors for You Modern-Day Illusionists" (Recommendation for Jordan Stempleman's No, Not Today); The Lit Pub (August 2012).

• "And With These Hats We Will Fly" (Review of David James Keaton's Zee Bee & Bee (Aka Propeller Hats for the Dead)); PANK (July 2012).

INTERVIEWS WITH ME:

• The Collagist.

• Black Balloon.

• NANO Fiction.

• SmokeLong Quarterly.

• Los Angeles Times book blog.

• Dayton Daily News.

INTERVIEWS WITH OTHERS:

• Here's a list of all the authors I've interviewed for PANK.

And some longer-form conversations:

• David James Keaton.

• Never Angel North.

• Eric Raymond.

[In past incarnations, I created and ran the Safety Pin Review, edited flash fiction at Flywheel Magazine, and interviewed people for PANK.]

Long ago (age 19) I co-authored an erotic novella, but you can't buy that online anymore. Maybe if you say something nice.

Events

2022

February 24, 2022, 7pm EST (virtual)
@ Literati Bookstore
Ann Arbor, MI
At Home with Literati: Simon Jacobs with Eugene Lim
Virtual event

February 16, 2022, 7pm EST (virtual)
@ Two Dollar Radio Headquarters
Columbus, OH
Simon Jacobs in Conversation with Jeff Jackson
Register for the virtual event.

February 1, 2022, 5pm OR / 8pm NY (virtual)
@ Powell’s Books
Portland, OR
String Follow Book Launch: Simon Jacobs in Conversation with Mona Awad
Virtual event - recording via Youtube.

2019

December 9, 2019, 8pm
@ Franklin Park
Brooklyn, NY
Franklin Park Reading Series
with Rion Amilcar Scott, Jennifer Baker, Ryan Chapman, and Addie Tsai
Facebook event

November 21, 2019, 7:30pm
@ Tattooed Mom
Philadelphia, PA
Tire Fire Reading Series
with Ron Austin, Malka Older, and Tyler Mendelsohn
Facebook event

October 7, 2019, 7pm
@ Bluestockings
New York, NY
Book launch for Masterworks
with Eugene Lim, Miracle Jones, Casey Plett, and Jeanne Thornton
Event

August 14, 2019
@ Hinterlands Bar
New York, NY
Ditmas Lit
with Audrey Olivero, Rax King, and Meher Manda

2018

September 16, 2018, 7pm
@ KGB Bar, NYC
Reading with Sara Batkie
Event

April 6, 2018, 5pm
@ Mission Creek Festival, Iowa City, IA
Lit Walk at Mission Creek 2018
@ RSVP (Round #1)
with Hanif Abdurraqib, Shy Watson, Amy Saul-Zerby, Steven Fletcher, and James D’Agostino.
Event / Facebook event

April 5, 2018, 7pm
@ Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, IL
Reading with Lindsay Hunter, Alex Higley, Rachel Hyman, and Alexis Pope
Event / Facebook event

April 4, 2018, 7pm
@ Wells & Co. Custom Tattoo, Dayton, OH
Wells & Co. Presents Simon Jacobs and Cricketbows
with Cricketbows!
Facebook event

April 3, 2018, 7:30pm
@ Two Dollar Radio HQ, Columbus, OH
Reading and Discussion
Facebook event

April 2, 2018, 7pm
@ Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI
Reading and Discussion
Event / Facebook event

March 29, 2018, 4:30pm
@ Earlham College, EPIC Co-Lab, Richmond, IN
Reading and Discussion

February 23, 2018, 7:30pm
@ Babycastles, New York, NY
Unlit
with Jeanne Thornton, Sarah Bridgins, and a swarm of others.
Facebook event

February 15, 2018, 7pm
@ Gina's 45, Philadelphia, PA
Rare Jawn: Machado / Beilin / Winnette / Jacobs / Oka
with Carmen Maria Machado, Caren Beilin, Colin Winnette, and Cynthia Dewi Oka.
Facebook event

January 29, 2018, 6:30pm
@ Mid-Manhattan Library at 42nd Street, 476 5th Avenue
New York, NY
Apocalyptic Visions - Dystopian Fiction:
Simon Jacobs in Conversation with Leni Zumas (Red Clocks) and Eugene Lim (Dear Cyborgs)
Event / Facebook event

January 20, 2018, 7pm
@ Bluestockings
New York, NY
Book Launch for Palaces
with Jeanne Thornton, Miracle Jones, and more!
Event / Facebook event

2017

August 24, 2017, 7pm
@ KGB Bar
New York, NY
Instar Books 3-Year Anniversary
with Todd Anderson, Miracle Jones, Allison Parrish, Jonathan Reiss, and Jeanne Thornton.
Event

January 29, 2017, 8pm
@ Manhattanville Coffee
New York, NY
The Shapes We Make With Our Bodies Fundraiser
Facebook event

2016

December 3, 2016, 7pm
@ Bluestockings
New York, NY
TJY Book(s) Tour: Dance on Yr Face
Facebook event

January 24, 2016, 4pm
@ Pineapple Reality
Brooklyn, NY
LINE & HOOK Book Release
Facebook event

2015

2April 11, 2015, 8pm
@ Public Functionary, MPLS
LIT + ART PARTY
hosted by Paper Darts & FSG Originals
Facebook event

April 8, 2015, 6pm
@ Dublin Underground, Iowa City, IA
Mission Creek Lit Crawl
hosted by Spork Press, Black Ocean, Third Man Books
Event page

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