Erin Bowman

Erin Bowman grew up in rural Connecticut, where she spent most of her childhood penning tales. She studied web design (and minored in Creative Writing because she couldn’t stay away from stories) at the Rochester Institute of Technology. After several years working in advertising and designing websites for various brands, she moved from Boston to New Hampshire, where she now lives with her family and writes full-time.

When not writing, Bowman can often be found hiking, geeking out over good typography, and obsessing over all things Harry Potter. She drinks a lot of coffee, buys far too many books, and is not terribly skilled at writing about herself in the third person.

Bowman is the author of the Taken trilogy, Vengeance Road, Retribution Rails, and the newly released Contagion.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

With launch approaching and a new baby in the house, I'm not reading something at the moment. But I recently finished and adored Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough. This is a verse novel about the life of Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who was raped by her teacher and endured a lengthy trial prosecuting him in which she was tortured to verify her testimony. Blood Water Paint was a powerful, haunting read, and in the heat of the MeToo movement, it resonated with me strongly. Gae Polisner, one of the authors who blurbed the book, said it is “a grave reminder of how little has changed and a hopeful testament to how much more we might achieve." I can't agree more. Women have so much to lose from speaking their truth—in the 1600s and even still today. The subject matter was tough, but the writing was beautiful. This is a book everyone should read.

Visit Erin Bowman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Contagion.

--Marshal Zeringue