SHORT BIO:

Amanda Valerie Judd has an AFA in Creative Writing from Normandale Community College.  She is currently attending Southern New Hampshire University earning her BFA in Creative Writing – Poetry.  In 2020, she won the Patsy Lea Core Prize for Poetry.  In 2021, her poem, “My Only Label” was nominated for “Best of the Net 2021.”   She has published three collections of her poetry and numerous individual poems in literary journals and online zines.  Most recently, her work has been published or is forthcoming in PAN-O-PLY Magazine, MockingOwl Roost, and Talking Stick 31.

LONG BIO:

Amanda Valerie Judd found her love of poetry early in the pages of Dr. Suess. She began writing her own poems at the age of 7. She continued to write throughout her childhood, publishing her first poem at 17 in her high school’s literary journal. Although she thought for sure she would follow the call of the pen, she got sidetracked by the law. At 22, she took a job as a receptionist in a law firm and was forever changed. She decided to become a paralegal and attend Indiana University at South Bend, completing their Paralegal Certificate Program, and achieving Level 2 status (the highest status). In 2019, after a 28-year career in the legal industry (25 as a paralegal), she made the decision to return to school at the age of 50 to earn her AFA in Creative Writing from Normandale Community College. It was life-changing. While she considers herself a poet first and foremost, she also writes articles, books, plays, and screenplays. Her topics can range from stuffed animals to cats to death to the meaning of life and everything in between. However, she always seems to find herself returning to write about love, the good and the bad, in all its many forms.  

She has been writing poetry since she was about 7 years old, when she would send her poetry to her pen pal in Detroit, Michigan, and anxiously await the review.  At 18, she was published “for real” for the first time - her poem “Then You” was included in a hard-bound national anthology.  She has been employed as everything from a nude model to a nanny to a concession stand worker for a minor league baseball team to a soldier in the U.S. Army.  And while most of them were fun or interesting (and definitely fodder for writing), the best job ever is that of author. In February 2016, she self-published her first poetry collection, which reached #11 on Amazon’s Best-Seller List for poetry books written by women.  She quickly followed that with two more collections. She is currently a student at Southern New Hampshire University, where she is earning her BFA in Creative Writing - Poetry. Since 2020, she has had nearly 50 individual poems published in numerous print and online literary journals, blogs, zines, periodicals, and anthologies, she has won two poetry contests, had her poem “My Only Label” nominated for Best of the Net 2021, and had her one and only play published twice.

She has left the legal world in her rearview mirror and doesn’t regret it for a minute.  She is currently working part-time at a local television station, where she is happily writing her first screenplay, and wondering why she waited so long to follow her heart.