Cowboy Jamboree Magazine
Good grit lit.
Good grit lit.

ALICE by Sheldon Lee Compton is here! This CJ Press reissue is unlike anything we've done before. Compton's writing is as magical and ethereal as the story itself. Get it.
Adelard starts off dying and spends a long time in a strange gray world of undeath searching for his elusive and magically shapeshifting wife, Alice. Along the way he battles the mythological Native American beast the Wendigo, spends time trapped as a hungry ghost, a bored immortal, and, at times, the Wendigo itself. Alice is an imaginative exploration that blurs the lines between myth and fact, what is imagined and what is true, and the artistic lie of fiction in getting to a deeper truth.
“Held in a cryptic in-between place fraught with many Alices, new bodies that struggle to know hunger and monsters that once were men, Compton’s Alice boldly unfurls itself. With every sentence a poem and its vibrant imagery, Compton completely captures.” –xTx, author of Today I Am a Book
“Poetic, strange, mythic, and true, this work by Sheldon Lee Compton will take your breath away. It’s life and death and love and loss. It’s survival and transformation. The artistry is reminiscent of Matt Bell, but it’s Compton’s inimitable voice that shines through each and every page of this novella. Highly recommended.” –Kathy Fish, author of Rift and Together We Can Bury It
Adelard starts off dying and spends a long time in a strange gray world of undeath searching for his elusive and magically shapeshifting wife, Alice. Along the way he battles the mythological Native American beast the Wendigo, spends time trapped as a hungry ghost, a bored immortal, and, at times, the Wendigo itself. Alice is an imaginative exploration that blurs the lines between myth and fact, what is imagined and what is true, and the artistic lie of fiction in getting to a deeper truth.
“Held in a cryptic in-between place fraught with many Alices, new bodies that struggle to know hunger and monsters that once were men, Compton’s Alice boldly unfurls itself. With every sentence a poem and its vibrant imagery, Compton completely captures.” –xTx, author of Today I Am a Book
“Poetic, strange, mythic, and true, this work by Sheldon Lee Compton will take your breath away. It’s life and death and love and loss. It’s survival and transformation. The artistry is reminiscent of Matt Bell, but it’s Compton’s inimitable voice that shines through each and every page of this novella. Highly recommended.” –Kathy Fish, author of Rift and Together We Can Bury It

Call for Subs: We've done Bob, Hank, and Townes. The next in our series of anthologies of grit lit incited by musicians we love is all about Willie. RED HEADED WRITING seeks pieces inspired by the music of Willie Nelson, especially the spare and haunting album Red Headed Stranger. We want stories and cnf and verse that hit themes like love, the jilted, revenge, roaming, and redemption. We want a toke of anything you've got inspired by Shotgun Willie. Submit to cowboyjamboree@gmail.com. Deadline: August 15, 2023.
AN ANTHOLOGY OF DAMN FINE POEMS
edited by
Adrienne Marie Barrios
and
Leigh Chadwick
Coming Fall 2023 from Cowboy Jamboree Press
Move over Best American Poetry, this is going to be THE poetry anthology to get in 2023.
All proceeds will be donated to Sandy Hook Promise (@sandyhook).
edited by
Adrienne Marie Barrios
and
Leigh Chadwick
Coming Fall 2023 from Cowboy Jamboree Press
Move over Best American Poetry, this is going to be THE poetry anthology to get in 2023.
All proceeds will be donated to Sandy Hook Promise (@sandyhook).

CALL FOR SUBS: Spring 2023 Online Issue, "Country & Folk"
In honor of our new music incited series of anthologies (Blue Bob & Hank Mighta Done It This Way out now, Travelin’ Thru Townes comin’ this spring, Red Headed Stranger call soon) the Spring 2023 Cowboy Jamboree Magazine issue theme is simply “Country & Folk.” Anything inspired by country or folk music, or just in that vein, we want to see. Verse/Flash/Fiction/CNF. Deadline March 15, 2023. Send subs to cowboyjamboree@gmail.com.
In honor of our new music incited series of anthologies (Blue Bob & Hank Mighta Done It This Way out now, Travelin’ Thru Townes comin’ this spring, Red Headed Stranger call soon) the Spring 2023 Cowboy Jamboree Magazine issue theme is simply “Country & Folk.” Anything inspired by country or folk music, or just in that vein, we want to see. Verse/Flash/Fiction/CNF. Deadline March 15, 2023. Send subs to cowboyjamboree@gmail.com.
Watch for a new call for subs soon. The next in CJ's music anthology series will be inspired by Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger...
![]() Check out an Excerpt from ORCHARD here. You'll get hooked.
The Orchard Is Full of Sound one author's connection with Breece D'J Pancake: a memoir Sheldon Lee Compton $13.99 ISBN: 9798439128341 ORDER HERE!!! In this superb memoir Sheldon Lee Compton reflects on his own life, his struggles with poverty and divorce and violence and addiction and fatherhood and an early heart attack and trying to make it as a writer in rural Kentucky, all the while trying to trace the life and tragic ending of one of his literary heroes, Breece D'J Pancake. The book is part overcoming, part acceptance, part reflection on Appalachia and its stereotypes, part study in suicide among the creative. Compton seeks closure on Pancake's suicide when he travels to Pancake's last home, to the orchard where Pancake did the deed, and in doing so finds new perspective on the tragic events of his own life. |
Check out this quick interview with Sheldon Lee Compton from Grateful Studios about The Orchard Is Full of Sound.
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Out Now from Cowboy Jamboree Press
Our Magazine Style and Purpose
It's in the title.
COWBOY [kou-boi] (def.)
1. American plains animal herder who tends cows
2. one who is reckless or ignores risk, i.e. "cowboy attitude"
3. tradesman with questionable or atypical practices, i.e. "cowboy plumbing"
4. fast or careless driver on the highway, i.e. "slow down, cowboy"
5. slang for "outlaw"
JAMBOREE [jam-buh-ree] (def.)
1. a large celebration or party, typically boisterous
2. a carousel of noisy merrymaking
Follow us on Twitter @CowboyJamboree & @gritvanwinkle
All original art by Adam Van Winkle unless otherwise noted.
It's in the title.
COWBOY [kou-boi] (def.)
1. American plains animal herder who tends cows
2. one who is reckless or ignores risk, i.e. "cowboy attitude"
3. tradesman with questionable or atypical practices, i.e. "cowboy plumbing"
4. fast or careless driver on the highway, i.e. "slow down, cowboy"
5. slang for "outlaw"
JAMBOREE [jam-buh-ree] (def.)
1. a large celebration or party, typically boisterous
2. a carousel of noisy merrymaking
Follow us on Twitter @CowboyJamboree & @gritvanwinkle
All original art by Adam Van Winkle unless otherwise noted.