"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 speculative-literary fiction writer whose short fiction has appeared widely in such journals 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. Two stories have been optioned for film/TV. 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. 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 three speculative-literary 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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Upcoming & Recent News
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March 4 - 7, 2026: AWP26 UPDATE! Joy will be at AWP in Baltimore! She'll be on two panels ("Speculating the Machine: How Fiction Writers Are Rendering a New AI Reality" and "Smiling at the End of the World: Why Dystopian Fiction Gives Us Hope"), as well as co-hosting an offsite reading, Nevermore: A Haunted Literary Reading at the Lord Baltimore Hotel Theater. See "Events" for longer descriptions and RSVP!
February 8, 2026: Joy will be hosting a virtual "Pre-AWP" Reading, featuring authors from a panel she will be moderating at AWP26, titled Speculating the Machine: How Fiction Writers Are Rendering a New AI Reality. The panel features speculative authors Sequoia Nagamatsu, Erika Swyler, Jane Pek, and Allegra Hyde. The reading begins at 4pm on 2/8, is free and open to all, and is sponsored by Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop. Learn More / RSVP Spring, 2026: Joy's short story "Frog Heart" - first published in Ploughshares in 2024, edited by Rebecca Makkai - is getting a second life as a stand-alone chapbook from Ike: A Publishing Project! Checkout their website for ordering and bookstore distribution! December 18, 2025: 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! Order the issue here - and read an excerpt of the story and an interview with Joy on the process at that link too! November, 2025: Joy is the judge for Prospect Street Writers House Radiant Collective Fellowships, & will be choosing six writers from a finalist pool of fifteen who will receive fully-funded week-long residencies at PSWH in August, 2026! October 18, 2025: Joy led a session on Embracing the Strange: An Introduction to Speculative Fiction at the WriteAngles Conference, in Greenfield MA. |
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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 monthly 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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