The Official Bio:
Gay Degani has been lucky enough to receive honors for her work both in short and long fiction, including winning the 11th Glass Woman Prize, winner of a Women on Writing Winter Competition, finalist for the Bosque Fiction Prize, as well as Pushcart and Best Small Fictions nominations. She’s published a full-length short story collection, Rattle of Want, (Pure Slush Press, 2015) and a suspense novel, What Came Before * (Truth Serum Press, 2016). An eight-story chapbook, Pomegranate Stories (Prometheus’ Forge) came out in 2010.
Between You and Me:
My story “Collision” placed second in the Atlantic Monthly Writing Contest for High School Students when I was a senior. The irony was the student editor didn’t want it in the school publication, Analecta. Thank goodness the creative-writing teacher, Mrs. Hawkins, believed in the story!
I followed this surprising honor with a twenty-five-year or so hiatus from the typewriter, turning my attention to college, career, and family. There were starts and stutters over the years. I published only one story, “Hawaiian Hairdo” in Thema. I began again when my kids grew up, working on a novel and writing six screenplays. I finally published a 1000-word piece in 2007, “One Question,” at Every Day Fiction, my very first flash online. Thank goodness for EDF. Camille Gooderham Campbell helped me gain confidence by publishing several pieces and becoming a staunch supporter of my work. At her request, I put together Flash Fiction Chronicles, an online craft ezine which can now be found in abbreviated form on Facebook.
I also had the honor of working at Smokelong Quarterly as art director and reader for a couple of years, an experience I owe to the generosity of Tara Laskowski who published my story “Complicit” and to both Randall Brown and Kathy Fish who I met through Zoetrope and who helped me learn how to write better flash. What’s that old saying, we stand on the shoulders of those who guide us? They are my giant triad and I will be ever grateful.
Gay Degani 