"JOY DEVA BAGLIO writes with a rare, electric clarity...Her stories move with precision and emotional depth, revealing the strangeness humming beneath everyday life. She has an instinct for transformation, for the moment a character slips into a new shape or understanding, and she renders those shifts with both wonder and ache. Baglio's fiction...illuminates something true & quietly profound about being human." - Ike: A Publishing Project
About
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JOY DEVA BAGLIO (DAY - vuh | BAH - lee - oh) is a Pushcart Prize-winning speculative-literary fiction writer whose short stories have appeared widely in journals such as One Story, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Tin House, American Short Fiction, Conjunctions, The Iowa Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Fairy Tale Review, and Apex, among others. Her award-winning short story, "We Are Sorry For Your Suffering" (the December 2025 issue of One Story) is forthcoming in the 2027 Pushcart Prize anthology. A Bread Loaf and Sewanee Scholar, other honors include residencies and fellowships from Yaddo, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Speculative Literature Foundation, and The Kerouac Project, where she was the spring 2023 writer-in-residence living and writing in Jack Kerouac's Orlando bungalow. Two stories have been optioned for film/TV. Joy holds an MFA from The New School and is the founder of Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop, a literary arts organization based in Northampton MA (and virtually). She is at work on a collection of short stories and multiple novels and is represented by Peter Steinberg at United Talent Agency (UTA) and Sean Daily (for film/TV). Follow her on Blue Sky, Substack, Instagram, Threads, & Facebook.
Longer bio, artist statement, & awards/honors here. |
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Join My "Author News" List & Team!
This is different from my writing craft Substack, Alone in a Room (scroll down to read more about that!) If you join my "Author News" List (& really, Team!) you'll get (very infrequent!) emails when something big happens with my writing career, anything from a new short story out in the world, to my first novel and short story collection (both of which - I promise - are coming soon!) I've created this option because I've been getting so many emails from readers (thank you all!) and I want there to be a clearer way people can join on to learn more. I will also give all those on the list first access to giveaways and special opportunities, when they arise. You can also opt in (when the time comes) to join me word-spreading and publicity. My two novel manuscripts inching toward completion are about mermaids (one is based on this short story of mine), magic, discovered power, and transformation, with lots of references to fairy tales and mythology, yet with a voice-driven sense of character & style. I can't wait to sharing more!
To join: Click below, and send me an email with a subject line "Join Author News List" - no need to say more unless you want to.
To join: Click below, and send me an email with a subject line "Join Author News List" - no need to say more unless you want to.
Upcoming & Recent News
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CURRENT: Until November 13, 2026
F(r)iction Series Fall Short Story Contest Judge: Joy is the guest judge for F(r)iction's Fall Short Story Contest, which offers cash prizes to winners, and is open from July 1 - November 13. Learn more! UPCOMING: November 2 - 6, 2026 Retreat Guest Instructor: Joy will be a guest instructor at A Reason to Write's Kathy Fish Writing Retreat in Charles Town VA, alongside Kathy Fish, Sarah Freligh, and Ellen Weeren! (Three spots still left! Learn more!) UPCOMING: Wednesday, October 28, 2026 "Witches Save the World" Reading at Forbes Library: Joy will read alongside authors D.M. Gordon and Jesse Sterling Harrison at Forbes Library, in a witches-themed reading. More details coming soon! UPCOMING: Sunday, October 25, 2026 Reading at THCC in Easthampton, MA: Joy will read alongside author Andrew Mondry at The Heavy Culture Collective (THCC) in Easthampton, MA (6pm). Learn more UPCOMING: October 18, 2026 Symphony Space's Selected Shorts includes "Ron": Joy's short story "Ron" (published in Tin House in 2018) will be performed by professional actors as part of Symphony Space's Selected Shorts program, on tour, at the Stissing Center in Pine Plaines NY. Learn more / get tickets here September, 2026 MVICW Faculty (Week Three): Joy joined Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing (MVICW) as faculty during Week Three of the conference, held annually on Martha's Vineyard. She consulted with attendees, participated in a Writer's Life panel with the other faculty, gave a reading of her fiction, and taught three craft classes: Developing Characters Through the Lens of the Enneagram; "What If?" Writing Toward the Strange, Terrifying, & Ridiculous; and Mining Primordial Plots: Retelling & Borrowing From Fairy Tales & Myth. August, 2026 AWP 2027, Accepted Panel: I'm delighted to share that a panel I am on was accepted for the 2027 AWP conference in Chicago! The panel is Threading the Needle: The Craft of a Perfect Ending, and it will feature organizer/moderator Blair Hurley, Vu Tran, Jamil Jan Kochai, Ricky Fayne, and me. We have a lot of thoughts and very different approaches, and we can't wait to have this discussion! June, 2026 Pushcart Prize: Joy won a Pushcart Prize for her short post-apocalyptic story "We Are Sorry For Your Suffering" (One Story, 2025). The story is sold out at One Story, but will be in the 2027 Pushcart Prize Anthology as well as Joy's in-progress short story collection (tentatively of the same name). December, 2025 Publication in One Story: Joy's short story "We Are Sorry For Your Suffering" —a winner (third place) in the 2023 Zoetrope: All-Story Fiction Contest—is the December 2025 issue of One Story! Read an excerpt & interview here. |
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Selected Short Stories
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for complete list of published works, with excerpts, audio recordings, & videos
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Substack / Craft Newsletter
Welcome! Alone in a Room is my semi-regular writing newsletter/Substack, featuring craft musings, original writing prompts, what I'm reading and thinking about, upcoming events, and general inspirational/literary goodness! It's free to subscribe, and you'll receive the latest issue delivered direct to your inbox! (If you don't see it, make sure to check spam & promotions folders.)
Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop
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In 2016, Joy founded Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop, a literary arts organization and community based in the Pioneer Valley of Western MA / Northampton MA (now completely virtual) - offering a changing schedule of writing workshops in all genres, literary readings & events, manuscript consulting services, and a 10-Long Manuscript Program. PVWW now has over thirty author-instructors teaching virtually, as well as close to a hundred workshops and classes each year. It welcomes writers of all levels and genres. Joy leads a monthly generative Community Writing gathering (live via Zoom) that's free to attend.
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