Jessica Owers is an award-winning Australian writer. In 2011, and to great acclaim, she published Peter Pan: The Forgotten Story of Phar Lap’s Successor, which earned the Bill Whittaker Award for Best Australian Racing Book. In 2013 she was again the recipient of this industry award with the release of Shannon.
Jessica has specialised in long-form feature journalism for 20 years. She is the senior writer year round for Magic Millions and Waikato Stud and a columnist with The Straight. She is also a freelance contractor for HIA (Housing Industry Australia) and is published each year in Inglis and Aushorse magazines. Her commitment to deadlines and work ethic have made her a lucrative ‘writer for hire’. In 2023, Jessica was one of three finalists in the national Kennedy Awards for the Rod Allen Award and in January 2026 she was one of two finalists for the NSW/ACT Racing Woman of the Year Awards.
In October 2025 she released her third book, Magic Millions, an epic, industry hardback with Penguin.
published work
Jessica’s work has been both award-winning and extensively published in specialist industry fields. From human interest features to biographies and daily news, she has written across many fields. She has interviewed the likes of Hedley Thomas, Jason Scott, Dr Aman Ashaab, Katie Page and Gerry Harvey, John Singleton, Lee Freedman, Joseph O’Brien, Daniel MacPherson, and so on. Click the button to read some of Jessica’s vast portfolio of printed and online work.
about jessica
Jessica was born in Cork and emigrated to Australia when less than a year old. From then until the age of 10, she grew up in Sydney with a typical Aussie childhood spent at the beach and camping. She then relocated back to Ireland where she completed high school before moving to Scotland for five years. At the University of Stirling she completed a combined honours BSc. Environmental Science & Media across four years. Thereafter, she returned to Sydney. Jessica worked in subediting and staff-writer roles before going freelance. In 2011 she published the first of her three books, and her career has since been carved out of contract and freelance work for some of the leading industry mastheads in various Australian industries. All of this has been juggled with full-time motherhood. Julien was born in 2013 and Charlotte followed in 2016.
For Jessica, writing is a craft that goes beyond professional boundaries. Her favourite author is Charles W. Bean. Jessica loves to kayak, has a boat licence and is an accomplished horsewoman. She has an Irish Setter called Fox, a ragdoll named Lexington, and her front garden is full of wild birds. She lives in Sydney’s east with Julien and Charlotte.
books
Despite a consistent career in journalism, Jessica is best known for her books, and the era-biographies of both Peter Pan and Shannon, and then Magic Millions in 2025, stand as the monuments of her professional life. Peter Pan was published in 2011 after six years of research, and it was an exciting new title for Penguin Random House, which threw support behind this new female voice in horse racing. Peter Pan was award-winning and it’s still earning royalties to this day. The first print run, which featured beautifully coloured plates, is increasingly hard to come by, so much so that Singleton Public Library won’t allow its copy to be loaned out.
In 2013, Shannon was released as the second of this biography series. Set in the 1940s, it was a mature book with beautiful storytelling. The writing and research took less than two years as Jessica travelled to Los Angeles, Kentucky, Saratoga and the Hunter Valley to accurately recreate the life of this incredible horse. Shannon was widely read as a worthy sequel and it proved a fascinating and accurate look into wartime Australia and post-war America, involving such names as Hollywood mogul Louis B. Meyer and champion racehorses Bernborough and Flight.
In October 2025, Jess released her third book with Penguin Random House, Magic Millions, the story of the Gold Coast thoroughbred auction house.