Jessica Powers

By Daniel Chacón,

Will Rose

Published October 5, 2025 at 11:00 AM MDT

On this episode of Words on a Wire, host Daniel Chacón speaks with Jessica Powers—publisher at Catalyst Press, author, and editor—about the hard truths and hopeful possibilities of a writing life. Jessica, who also writes under the name J.L. Powers, reflects on why so few books sell beyond a hundred copies, what creative writing students need to thrive, and how authors must learn to think like entrepreneurs as much as artists. She also discusses the evolution of publishing models, including hybrid approaches, and shares why she remains committed to championing human-driven stories at Catalyst Press. Together, Daniel and Jessica explore the shifting landscape of literature, creativity, and business in an era of AI, self-publishing, and new definitions of success for writers.

Additional information

For more information on Jessica Powers ou can visit: https://www.jlpowers.net/books

Originally aired on October 5, 2025

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Words On A Wire KTEP Programming

Daniel Chacón

Daniel Chacón’s collection of stories, Unending Rooms, was the 2007 winner of the Hudson Prize. He has also been awarded the American Book Award, the Chris Isherwood Foundation Grant, and the Southwest Book Award. His first collection of stories, Chicano Chicanery was a finalist in the Patterson Fiction Prize and his novel and the shadows took him is available from Simon and Schuster. His new book is a collection of stories called Hotel Júarez: Stories, Rooms and Loops. He’s a professor of Fiction Writing, Kafka, and Latino/a literature in the Creative Writing Department at UTEP.

See stories by Daniel Chacón

Will Rose

Will Rose is a longtime technology and marketing executive based out of NYC and Texas. He is the co-founder of Words on a Wire’s publishing imprint, eRadical Books, and now spearheads marketing strategy for the Words on a Wire podcast. He also serves as Chief Technology Officer at the EdTech startup, Student Select, and as Head of Data Science at the artificial intelligence company, Harqen AI.

See stories by Will Rose