THE DELCO YEARS by Bill Owens (Jamaica)

Bill Owens has written an irreverent, funny dystopian novel about a pandemic mitigated by drinking unpasteurized beer. Rich with illustrations by Italian Illustrator Francesca Cosanti, this book is a unique interactive experience.

THE DELCO YEARS is the story of how a community of craft beer drinkers flourish and survive after a dystopian event. Hunting and gathering would be at Costco, Target, Home Depot, and CVS. Eventually, they would barter wine for salt, sugar, flour, and hay to feed the horses and cows. From the unhappy Bobby releasing the pandemic to the world in revenge for the televangelists’ sins to the various members of the Craft Beer community who thrive in Livermore Valley and beyond, THE DELCO YEARS is a darkly whimsical romp.  See more at THE DELCO YEARS website here: delcoyears.com.

The Delco Years: A Dystopian Novel
Bill  Owens (Jamaica 1964–66), Francesca Cosanti (Illustrator)
Delco Years Publishing
April 2022
$32.85 (paperback), $42.58 (hardcover)

Bill Owens Biography

Bill Owens

Bill Owens was born on September 25, 1938, in San Jose and lives in Hayward, California. From his travels as far afield as India and including a Peace Corps tour in Jamaica, he developed his unique skills and aptitude as an anthropological and social photographer. His book Suburbia, one of the 100 seminal photography books of the 20th century, captured the change in his home territory with much the same spirit of the traveler that he brought to foreign places. Our Kind of People (1975), Working (1977) and Leisure (1979), followed Suburbia.

Bill’a work is in museums and collections throughout the world.

Bill Owens established Buffalo Bill’s Brewery as the first brewpub in America since prohibition on 
August 2, 1983. His book How to Build a Small Brewery opened the door to the brewpub movement.  Owens sold Buffalo Bill’s in 1994, continuing to publish American Brewer Magazine, which he sold in 2001. Owens used the proceeds from the magazine’s sale to photograph America, and this journey planted the seeds for his next venture, the American Distilling Institute, and Distiller Magazine. ADI was established in 2003 as a professional membership organization and publishing house to promote the art of craft distilling.

Artifacts from Buffalo Bill’s Brew Pub were acquired by the Smithsonian Institute and sit alongside Owens’ photographs previously collected by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts grants.

He is also working on his memoir and a book of his collected poetry.

Bill Owens Photographic/Creative Publications

Suburbia, Straight Arrow Books,  San Francisco, 1972

Our Kind of People, Straight Arrow Books,  San Francisco,1975

Working: I Do It For the Money, Simon and  Schuster, New York, 1977

Documentary Photography, a personal view by Bill Owens, Addison House Publishers, 1978

Publish Your Own Photo Book, Livermore,  California, 1979

Suburbia (New and Improved), Fotofolio, New York, Edited by Robert Harshorn Shimshak, 1999

Leisure, Fotofolio, New York, Edited by Robert Harshorn Shimshak, 2004

Bill Owens, Damiani, Italy, Edited by Claudia Zanfi, 2007

Working, Fotofolio, New York, Edited by Robert Harshorn Shimshak, 2008

The Village Bill Owens – Jamaica, True North Editions, Edited by John Thacker and Geir Jordahl, 2014

Bill Owens Cars: A Completely American Reality, True North Editions, Edited by Geir and Kate Jordahl, 2015

Altamont to America: Bill Owens and the Legacy of Suburbia. True North Editions,  Edited by Geir and Kate Jordahl,   2018

Bill Owens: Altamont 1969, Damiani, Italy, Edited by Claudia Zanfi, 2019.

Bill Owens: The Legacy of Suburbia Photographs 1964-2022. True North Editions,  Edited by Geir and Kate Jordahl, 2022