More About Joy
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Originally from Buffalo NY, Joy graduated from Bard College, where she studied writing and literature. After two years teaching high school English in NYC as part of Teach for America, Joy switched gears to pursue writing full-time. She holds an MFA from The New School, where she also taught as a TA under music journalist and cultural critic Greil Marcus. In 2016, after leaving NYC for Western MA's Pioneer Valley (Northampton MA), Joy founded Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop, a literary arts organization (now virtual) with a commitment to rigorous craft-based writing workshops and seminars.
Joy's short stories have appeared in various literary magazines, including Conjunctions, Tin House, American Short Fiction, The Iowa Review, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, SmokeLong Quarterly, New Ohio Review, PANK, and F(r)iction, and are forthcoming in The Missouri Review and The Fairy Tale Review. Her novel-in-progress has been generously supported by grants from The Elizabeth George Foundation and The Speculative Literature Foundation, and she's received residencies/fellowships from Yaddo, Vermont Studio Center, and Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. Joy was also the Margaret Bridgman Scholar in Fiction at The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference (2018) and a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the 2021 Sewanee Writers' Conference. Her short stories have received recognition from numerous contests, including The Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions and Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest (Honorable Mention for "How to Survive on Land"). |
Represented by Peter Steinberg, at Fletcher & Co, in NYC For film/TV: Sean Daily at Hotchkiss, Daily, & Associates. |
Joy has served as Associate Fiction Editor at the literary magazine West Branch and has been part of admissions boards for Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and most recently as the guest judge for the Teach! Write! Play! fellowship at Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. She has proposed and moderated panels at a number of conferences, including the 2020 Association of Writers & Writing Program (AWP) virtual conference. In 2022, she will moderate two panels at AWP in Philadelphia (The Literary Ghost Story: The Power of Haunted Fiction and Wrangling the Beast: Playing with Structure in the First Novel) and will present at Grub Street's The Muse & The Marketplace.
She lives in Northampton MA, with her philosopher-artist fiance and silkie hen Pom Pom, and is at work on a centuries-spanning ghost novel and a collection of short stories. Other things Joy loves: chess, playing bagpipe, learning languages, animals, and vegan food. She is also a proud alumna of Aurora Waldorf School in Western NY, where she was part of the first graduating class.
She lives in Northampton MA, with her philosopher-artist fiance and silkie hen Pom Pom, and is at work on a centuries-spanning ghost novel and a collection of short stories. Other things Joy loves: chess, playing bagpipe, learning languages, animals, and vegan food. She is also a proud alumna of Aurora Waldorf School in Western NY, where she was part of the first graduating class.
Artist Statement
I’m a fiction writer - of short stories, and a first novel-in-progress - and stylistically and thematically, I’m interested in “distortion…to get at truth,” as Flannery O’Connor has said: the idea of creating “imaginary gardens with real toads in them” (Marianne Moore) to better fully explore human truth. My current projects (novel-in-progress and stories) have evolved from my thoughts about the strangeness of existence itself, of living in a physical body, in a world, with other humans and creatures, contending on a daily basis with all the petty and insurmountable happenings, yet ultimately living on the precipice of crushing mystery. (For example, what are we all doing here, exactly? Do you know?) There is something more true to me about fiction that embraces this strangeness—acknowledges the deep mystery that surrounds us—and this is why I’m drawn to stories that incorporate elements of the fantastic, that push outside of boundaries, and why I’m working on the novel that I am. I’m inspired by genre-bending writers such as Angela Carter, Madeline Miller, Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Ted Chiang, and George Saunders, to name just a few of the many. I love asking the big, philosophical questions in my work while also attempting to subvert expectations and ways of seeing. Yet I’m also at my core a very narrative writer who wants to hook readers (you!) and tell a story in a way that will surprise and delight you, maybe even make you laugh. I believe that the best fiction casts a riveting spell that has the power to transform, inspire, and save, all while compelling you to keep turning pages.
Honors and Awards
- Tennessee Williams Scholar, Sewanee Writers' Conference (2021)
- Fellowship, Yaddo (2019)
- Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center (2019)
- Teach! Write! Play! Fellowship, Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing (2018)
- Margaret Bridgman Scholar in Fiction, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference (2018)
- Grant awardee, The Elizabeth George Foundation (2018)
- Gulliver Travel Research Grant, The Speculative Literature Foundation (2017)
- Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions of 2017, for "Night Circus," published in PANK, Wigleaf (2017)
- Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest (Honorable Mention), Ploughshares (2016)
- Flash Fiction Contest Winner, F(r)iction Magazine (2016)
- Short Story Challenge (4th Place overall), NYC Midnight (2016)
- Mary McCarthy Award in Writing, Bard College (2007)
- Connect - |
- Upcoming Events -Story Sketching: Outline Your Book in Three Acts (virtual)
January 30 (1 - 4pm EST) at Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop AWP Panels: The Literary Ghost Story & Structure in the Novel March 23 - 26, in-person in Philadelphia Publishing Short Fiction in Literary Magazines (virtual) April 16 (1 - 3pm EST) at Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop Hooked from the First Line: The Art of the Opening (virtual) April 23 (1 - 4pm EST) at Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop Community Writing at Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop (virtual) Ongoing: First Friday of Every Month (6 - 7:30pm EST) |
- Alone in a Room: Newsletter -Welcome! Alone in a Room is my monthly writing newsletter, featuring craft musings, original writing prompts, what I'm reading and thinking about, upcoming events, and general inspirational/literary goodness!
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