David Bowles

@davidbowles.us

5503 Followers 1304 Following

Writer. Translator. Nahuatlahtoh. Chicano. He/él/yehhua. Pan [💖💛💙]. Representation: Full Circle Literary. Associate Professor at UTRGV. Ca notoca Tlahzotic Mazacnihuitl.

LATINX POP MAGAZINE: INTERVIEW Inside THE MATRON: David Bowles on horror, craft, and the art of building worlds. "At its core, THE MATRON is a feminist story. It's about no longer letting society force you into a life you don't want." —David Bowles
Dani from MIDSOMMAR, crowned and dressed in flowers as the May Queen, smiling as off screen her boyfriend Christian is consigned to sacrificial flames.
Come meet the Matron. Australian Comic Creators Collaborating with the World. Featuring Drew Edwards & David Bowles, co-creators of THE MATRON comic series. 4-5 PM Friday July 24. Room: Grand 10 & 11. Marriott Marquis San Diego. San Diego COMICCON International.
A blurry Mitch McConnell is smirking in the darkness behind the hand from the movie TALK TO ME.
A t-door or entrance in a stone building that has a narrow space at the bottom which then expands out 1/3 of the way up to double its size (in a sort of "t" shape).
Ihiyol—[teihiyo] the living spirit that animates the flesh and undergirds spoken spells; the subtle breath that may linger after death as a ghost, revenant, or possessing entity. Masaliohwi—Path of the Deer. A term for a sub-society parallel to, and sometimes orthogonal to, mainstream society. Mages, vigilantes, bandits, refiners of tonalteyo, etc. are all living on the Path of the Deer, according to the Imperial Legal Code. This society exists in liminal spaces collectively known as Makispan. Momaihmatilisli—martial arts (as practiced in Makispan, separate from yaotilisli, warfare) Nawatlahtol—the language of the Toltekame, lingua franca of Anawak. Teyochipawalisli—the art of refining the tonalteyo found in sunlight and living things so that one can channel it into one’s own triple souls (specifically the tonalli) and then through one’s teyokokohli (channels of divine energy), allowing one to perform feats of magic and skill (primarily shapeshifting). Teyokokohli—metaphysical conduits spreading in a network that overlaps with the physical body, connected to the three souls. For most humans, these meridians are dormant and empty, but some are born with a stronger tonalli that bleeds into them. They can be filled through the refining and channeling of tonalteyo … or yowalteyo, Toltekayol—the Toltec Way. Life lived by the laws and religious precepts of the Empire. Tonalli—[tetonal] the soul, shaped from tonalteyo beginning at birth, that ties a human to a fate in the natural world; connected to one’s day sign; can be bolstered and enhanced to allow one to shapeshift or wield tonalteyo in other powerful ways. Tonalteyo—divine energy (poured down in sunlight and retained by living things to varying degrees) Yaotilisli—warfare using conventional weapons and skills under the auspices of a city-state Yoliwani—[teyolia] the eternal, undying spiritual core of every sapient being Yowalteyo—shadow or chaos energy (generated by death and destruction or darkness)
A young Thai prince with his hair dyed reddish-blond, wearing a frilly beige shirt, is in the arms of a dark-haired royal bodyguard wearing a tuxedo.
A sepia photo of my father, David Oscar Bowles (Garza), at the age of 20. He is a Latino man with brown skin, dark brown eyes, and curly black hair cut short and parted to the side. He is wearing a tan suit and tie.
Image of a jiangshi (hopping vampire) from the film MR. VAMPIRE. Character has pale, blue-cast skin and sharp fangs, but is dressed in period Chinese clothes.
An image of killer the Matron facing off against a young Latina and a blonde woman. The image reads THE MATRON: TFW YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S GRANDMOTHER TURNS OUT TO BE A CANNIBAL SLASHER.
Hanmegsiko Slang: Smashing Korean and Mexican Spanish Together. In Korean, 오심 (osim) is what soccer fans shout at referees when they make bad calls. It means “misjudgment.” Mexican fans shout “ratero” (a crude word for thief or pickpocket) to indicate that they feel the referee is stealing from their team. So to show our solidarity against bad calls even in a friendly match between Mexico and South Korea, we could yell 오심, 라테로야! or “osim, rateroya!”
Text reads: "From bestselling author Arise Zhang, also known as Fei Tian Ye Xiang—LEGENG OF EXORCISM: TIANBAO FUYAO LU #1" Image shows an auburn-haired young man with an orange-red vest staring into the eyes of a dark-hair man wearing a green silk uniform. Between them, some metal object with feathers attached appears to spin magically.
HANMEGSIKO SLANG: Smashing Koreand and Mexican Spanish Together. In Korean, 어라 (eora) is an interjection used to express slight surprise, realization, or confusion, like “huh?”, “oh?”, or “wow!” In Mexican Spanish, “ora” is a sort of ironic shortening of the affirmative exclamation “órale,” used to express .. slight surprise or disbelief. No mashing needed, unless we want to create an extension of 어라 that works more like órale: 어라레 or eorare
David Bowles is an award-winning author and translator of forty books for children and teens, among them THEY CALL ME GÜERO, MY TWO BORDER TOWNS, and THE SEA-RINGED WORLD. June 13, 2 pm to 3:30 pm 101 E. Tom Landry, Mission, TX. Speaker series. David Bowles presents AZTEC PRIDE: INDIGENOUS LGBTQ+ IDENTITIES IN PRE-SPANISH INVASION MEXICO.
Read the full interview! https://texasbookfestival.org/announcing-the-2026-texas-writer-awardee/
A photo of light-coplexioned Chicano author David Bowles, with a mesquite tree blurred in the background. Caption reads: DAVID BOWLES, 2026 Texas Writer Awardee
A poster for the series KHEMJIRA showing a handsome man in his late 20s clutching a cute man in his early 20s against him protectively, his right hand on the back of the younger man's head, as he stares at something approaching off-screen.
A political poster reads "In Texas November 2026, Vote the Matron for governor. Eat the rich." In the middle is an image of the woman ax murderer and cannibal from THE MATRON comic series, wearing a red-streaked white mask, a hooded burgundy cloak, and a bearded ax. She's standing in front of the Texas flag.
A poster for the series ClaireBell that features two Thai women wearing green prison garb in a cell, one with long dark hair lying on the top bunk reaching down to give the other, with lighter hair and sitting on the bottom bunk, a red rose.
In the last few days, I've watched several writers and librarians push back against criticism of Mac Barnett. When a large number of kid lit authors, mostly from underrepresented demographics, attempts to hold the National Ambassador for Children’s Literature accountable, getting indignant and scholding us for being negative is absolutely NOT the right move. Given the present racist autocratic move to make the US an [overtly] white christofascist apartheid terror state, it's shameful to see writers of the tone-policing respectability faction defend his honor as if he were some saint under attack by ... brown barbarians.
Is there crud being published each year, directed at kids? Undoubtedly. But the vast majority of books are earnest attempts by writers and illustrators to make something beautiful and meaningful, to value lives and traditions that are otherwise erased, to teach children important life lessons, or to simply keep them entertained with goofy fun. Let's not dismiss ANY OF THOSE REASONS for being a writer / illustrator of kid lit.
In addition, children's books are LITERATURE. They don't just exist because of the interest of the readers, but because of the creative impulse of the writers and illustrators. And like all art and literature and music that is created with great skill and deep knowledge of craft, some kid lit requires refinement of taste rather than just the natural impulses and interest of children to be appreciated.
For kids belonging to historically oppressed communities, they can be reminders of roots and identities that are otherwise erased from the public sphere (including books by white dudes). Amazing scholars like Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop (not a white dude) have shown with decades of research how transformative it is to have a BIPOC or LQGBTQ+ or disabled child's identity and community foregrounded in a book.
Of course it's a straight white dude author who works with white dude illustrators to produce breezy, hilarious, kid-friendly and topically safe picture books who is scolding the kid lit community for producing books that kids won't go ga-ga for immediately. Deeply imbedded in privilege, he fails to see the role of picture books as more than mere entertainment.
Marc Barnett appears poised to do for children's literature in his role as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature what RFK Jr. has done for health care in his role as Secretary of Health and Human Services. In a time when books by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors are under attack and book bans are the norm across the nation, to inanely suggest that 94.7% of children’s books are “crud” is dereliction of his duties as an advocate for authentic kid lit. A shameful dismissal of the literary dignity of his fellow writers, (that completely undermines any of the actual insights he shares in the book from which his crud comment comes, MAKE BELIEVE).
A poster for the Korean horror film DARK NUNS featuring the heads of two Korean nuns and a burning building.
The monks shook their heads at this. “One soul,” they instructed. “El ánima. Deposited in our flesh there in our mother’s womb.” And as their culture and faith twist down the years around those indigenous strands, we mestizo children nod in growing epiphany sent from Dual God or Trinity— There has always been one soul, just braided from the three.
Ihiyotl was the breath, soul of emotions and passions, the source of personal magic, which shamans pooled and channeled.
Tonalli was created upon birth, congealing from the divine energy that infused blood and brain, capricious and slippery animal soul, often straying.
Braided Soul Before the monks came, the original peoples had three souls. Teyolia—to use one of its names—was the spirit, living on after death, released into paradise and whatever lies beyond even that unknowable realm.
Queens New Music Festival 2026. Celebrating adventurous sounds from around the corner and around the world. April 30-May 3, 2026. Culture Lab Lic
An image of the Matron (bloody cloak, combat boots, bearded axe, white mask with red lines). Above it are these words: "Gentrification took her town. Eminent domain took her home. Now Zina Krenek is out for vengeance. And she is going to eat the rich. Quite literally." Below the image is the title: THE MATRON and in smaller print "Issue #1 May 27."
The cover of THE MATRON #1, featuring a woman in a burgundy hooded cloak, covered in blood, with a white mask with a pattern of red lines and a bloody ax, walking through the snow. Beside the cover is the following text: (W) David Bowles and Drew Edwards (A) Monica Gallagher and Harry Saxon (CA) Monica Gallagher Forty six years ago Rozina Krenek, cannibal serial killer known as the Matron, was killed in a battle with police. Today her daughter and granddaughter live with her legacy in central Texas. Zina's diner job keeps the family afloat while Roz navigates college life. But times are hard, and as the winter draws near and the killing winds rise, the Matron will live again. Includes the 22 page story, an article, artist concept art and a pinup. Retail: $4.99 Initial Due Date: 3/26/2026 FOC Date: 4/27/2026 In-Store Date: 5/27/2026 UPC: 72402224396100111 Page Count: 32 Product Code: 0326IP0799
A drawing or engraving of Cristóbal de Olid, a beardless Spaniard wearing plate armor.
A 17-year-old David Bowles stands with his hips cocked in a arrogant pose as he holds his black guitar upside down. He was wearing a white BamBam T-shirts, aquamarine, beach, shorts, and white sunglasses. There is a swatch, watch, pink, on his wrist. His short hair is curly.
The album cover for Ghost's Skeleta, featuring a bony pope in a cathedral.
An image of Mexican wrestler El Santo, wearing his silver mask, tights, and cape.
The J-pop group XG, six Asian women and one trans man wearing silver space outfits.
Chicano author David Bowles poses next to former Georgia House Minority Leader and children’s book author Stacey Abrams, who is holding a copy of David’s book MY YWO BORDER TOWNS.
The situation in Dilley, Texas should shock and horrify all of us and demand an urgent response from all of us. The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas — a sprawling complex of trailers and dormitories 72 miles south of San Antonio, run by the private prison firm CoreCivic — has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. After President Biden closed it in 2021, Donald Trump reopened the facility quickly upon returning to office, and it has since become the primary holding site for immigrant families detained across the country. [Source: The Children of Dilley," ProPublica, by Mica Rosenberg, February 9, 2026. Read the original article] What makes the current wave of ICE detentions new and unique is who is being held. The current population is largely made up of families who had been living in American communities for years — some for over a decade. They were detained at routine ICE check-in appointments, at bus stops, outside hospitals, and at airports. Many had active asylum cases, U.S. citizen spouses, or had been granted humanitarian parole. The vast majority of the adults had no criminal record in the United States. Children and parents have described awful conditions inside the Dilley detention center: food with worms and mold; hard metal bunks shared by a dozen or more people; extreme medical neglect of children, including toddlers; and pervasive boredom and mental health crises. Since reopening, roughly 3,500 people have cycled through Dilley — more than the entire population of the town itself. More than half are minors. A ProPublica data analysis found that about 300 children were held there for more than a month, in violation of the law. Our neighbors being held inside the South Texas Family Residential Center need our voices. Join us in building public awareness of these grave conditions. We will #ReadThemHome.
Tune in. National Vigil to End Family Detention. Dilley, Texas. Watch the livestream. Read them home. End family detention. www.readthemhome.org
Tobias Forge, singer of Ghost, poses as Papa Perpetua, dressed in black and wearing a silver skull mask.
Though I have hardly been back in Tenochtitlan for half a day, I am unsurprised at the summons from Prime Minister Tlacaellel. The Emperor and his nephews may be the face of the Triple Alliance, but the difficult work of bringing royal families across Anahuac into compliance with the new order falls to other, less prominent figures. I have no doubt that in the annals of history, the name Quetzaltoch will not figure prominently, if it indeed merits a mention. I am, after all, a forty-year-old spinster who prefers the occasional intimate company of other women to any prospects of marriage to a noble man. Yet I have made myself invaluable over the years, first to the Kingdom of Mexihco and now to the Empire which it leads. I am an imperial adjudicator. Arguably the best in Tenochtitlan. I have arbitrated solutions to dozens of conflicts, primarily between the nobility of conquered city-states and the House of Acamapichtli, the imperial dynasty. Therefore, despite my having just begun a well deserved vacation after resolving a potentially disastrous kerfuffle in Xaltocan, I can only surmise that my talents are urgently needed elsewhere.
A Chinese wizard, played by actor Sammo Hung, is wearing a white, hooded robe. His long white beard, moustache, and eyebrows are being blown by the wind as he looks sternly at something off screen.
A photo of David Bowles, a light-complexioned Mexican American wearing a flannel shirt and vest, with a blurred mesquite tree behind him. Above him are the words "SABF San Antonio Book Festival" and below him "Book Festival Author David Bowles."
Best Spanish Language Picture Book List & Award The Best Spanish Language Picture Book prize is a biennial prize given to a book that was published or translated into Spanish. Award candidates are identified from the annual Best Spanish Language Picture Book of the Year list, which is prepared by the Spanish Language Affiliate (SLA) of the Children’s Book Committee. The award jury is comprised of Spanish speaking members of the SLA, CBC, Bank Street College, New York Public Library, and City University of New York. As with its English language prizes and lists, the SLA of the CBC aims to help parents, teachers, and librarians choose books that children will find captivating and transforming. The award is meant to encourage more publishers to create high quality materials in Spanish for children. 2026 Spanish Language Picture Book Awards for Books Published or Translated in 2024 and 2025 Gold Medal La Intéprete/The Interpreter by Olivia Abtahi, illustrations by Monica Arnaldo, translated by David Bowles, Kokila (2025) Silver Medals Alberto Salas Juega a la Paka Paka con la Papa: Únete a la búsqueda con el célebre científico y experto en papas peruano Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa: Join the Quest with Peru’s Famed Scientist and Potato Expert by Sara Andrea Fajardo, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, translated by Mariana Llanos, Roaring Brook Press (2025) Prohibido Llorar by Gama Valle, illustrations by Lorenzo Sangio, Editorial Destellos (2024) Wanda Oye Las Estrellas: Una Astrónoma Ciega Escucha al Universo Wanda Hears the Stars: A Blind Astronomer Listens to the Universe by Amy S. Hansen and Wanda Díaz Merced; illustrated by Rocío Arreola Mendoza, Translated by Gabriela Carrión, Charlesbridge (2025)
Image of the Aztec goddess of corn, Chicomecoatl, with a multi-hued headdress that comes down to her feet.
The name glyph of King Nezahualcoyotl. It features a dog's head with a collar around the neck that's got three strips hanging down.
Kintsukuroi (The following poem, from my collection SHATTERING AND BRICOLAGE, was quoted in “Innocence,” episode 14.4 of the CBS drama CRIMINAL MINDS.) Like a hammer deliberate Or careless, jostling child, Life tumbles us From safe, oblivious heights To smash to shards And scattering dust. Yet, though shattered, We may have the fortune To feel warm, compassionate hands Collect the fragile fragments Of our broken selves. With care that glitters brighter Than even the purest gold, They join the misshapen bits together Leaving a webbing fretwork Of shimmering seams That forever remind us— When wounds are healed by love, The scars are beautiful.
TRANSLATIONS BY DAVID BOWLES PUBLISHED IN 2025 • Niña del pueblo de floricanto: Luz Jiménez, hija de los nahuas (November 2025)—My Spanish translation of Child of the Flower-Song People: Luz Jiménez, Daughter of the Nahua by Gloria Amescua. • El otoño de las luciérnagas (October 2025)—My Spanish translation of Fall of the Fireflies by Guadalupe García McCall. • El Pez Arcoíris se escapa de la red (October 2025)—My Spanish translation of Rainbow Fish and the Great Escape by Marcus Pfister. • El Pez Arcoíris [board book] (October 2025)—My Spanish translation of the Rainbow Fish board book. • Buenas noches, pequeño Pez Arcoíris (April 2025)—My Spanish translation of Good Night, Little Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. • El Pez Arcoíris (April 2025)—My Spanish translation of Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. • Los héroes gemelos y la magia de la canción (April 2025)—the Spanish version of my graphic novel The Hero Twins and the Magic of Song. • La intérprete (January 2025)—My Spanish translation of The Interpreter by Olivia Abtahi. SHORT STORIES AND ESSAYS BY DAVID BOWLES PUBLISHED IN 2025 • “Whispering Shards.” In Latin American Shared Stories, edited by V. Castro (November 2025). • “Vigil.” In the January 26, 2025, Sunday Morning Transport. • “Borrowed Blossoms.” In All the Love under the Vast Sky, edited by Kip Wilson (January 2025). • “‘Latinx’ Is a Defiant Act of World-building.” In The Emancipator, February 13, 2025).
A gay historical romance set in 1434 in the Confederation of Chalco. When upbeat rookie fighter Mac joins the Duchy of Atlauhtlan's boxing team, popular but prickly champ Pilton finds him grating, if attractive. As the team edges out the competition, the two men fall for each other, only to find themselves facing off in a deadly ritual bout. Even if they survive, can their love do the same?
A gay historical romance set in 1434 in the Confederation of Chalco. When upbeat rookie fighter Mac joins the Duchy of Atlauhtlan's boxing team, popular but prickly champ Pilton finds him grating, if attractive. As the team edges out the competition, the two men fall for each other, only to find themselves facing off in a deadly ritual bout. Even if they survive, can their love do the same? Image of two Indigenous Nahua men kissing, one of them wrapping his legs around the other as he is lifted.
Three covers. Each featuring a woman wearing a hoaded cloak and a mask, painted white with a pattern of red lines. She is wielding an ax, leaping in the first one, trudging through the snow in the second, brandishing it bloody in the third. The titles read THE MATRON: A WIND THAT KILLS; THE MATRON: THE BITE OF HER AX; THE MATRON: THE CHILL OF HER BREATH. Each cover also reads, at the bottom, "The Annotated Script. David Bowles and Drew Edwards."
Even the Matron supports small business—especially shops in her hometown that haven't been destroyed by rich folks seeking to gentrify the community. This small business Saturday, please support indie publisher IPI Comics by pre-ordering Volme 2 of our feminist slasher—THE MATRON: THE BITE OF HER AX
Three images: The Matron, hooded with red-striped red mask; the Matron, her ax covered in blood as she stands in the snow; the Matron, without her mask, surrounded by her family. Text reads "THE MATRON: THE BITE OF HER AX. Season's greetings from the Krenek clan."