JoSelle Vanderhooft was born in 1980 in Framingham, Massachusetts when Leo ruled but Gemini was on the rise. By no means a young woman yet, she nonetheless migrated West to Salt Lake City just like her pioneering Mormon ancestors. She wrote her first produced play at 16 and graduated from the University of Utah with honors bachelor degrees in English and Theatre Studies. While studying here she received the Steffenson-Cannon fellowship which she held from 1999-2001. She also served as literary intern and/or dramaturgy intern for several theatres including New Dramatists, The Women’s Project and Productions and the Actors Theatre of Louisville.
A dramaturg and something of a lapsed playwright, Vanderhooft now works as a freelance editor, writer, copyeditor, and journalist–in addition to being a poet and novelist. Her work has appeared or will soon appear in print and online in such venues as Aofie’s Kiss, Byzarium, Cabinet des Fées, Jabberwocky, Not One of Us, MYTHIC, Mythic Delirium, Reflections Edge, Star*Line and several others.
To date, she has published seven poetry books: 10,000 Several Doors (Cat’s Eye Publishing, 2005), The Minotaur’s Last Letter to His Mother (2007, Ash Phoenix Press, to be re-released by Sam’s Dot Publishing in the future), Ossuary (2007, Sam’s Dot Publishing), The Handless Maiden and Other Tales Twice Told (2008 Sam’s Dot Publishing), The Memory Palace (2009, Norilana Books) and Fathers, Daughters, Ghosts & Monsters (2009, VanZeno Press).
Her first novel The Tale of the Miller’s Daughter was released from Papaveria Press in June, 2006 and her second and third, Owl Skin, and Ebenezer, a retelling of A Christmas Carol, are forthcoming from Papaveria and Zumaya Publications, respectively . She edited the Torquere Press anthology of lesbian fairytales Sleeping Beauty, Indeed (reissued in 2009 by Lethe Press) as well as Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, Steam-Powered 2: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories (2011, Torquere Press), Bitten by Moonlight (2011, Zumaya Publications) and (with Catherine Lundoff) Hellebore & Rue, an anthology of stories about lesbian magic users (Lethe Press, 2011). With Steve Berman she has also edited the inaugural volume of Heiresses of Russ, Lethe Press’ annual anthology series of the year’s best lesbian spec fiction.
As a critic, Vanderhooft reviews novels, poetry and short story collections for The Pedestal Magazine, Publishers Weekly, the Lambda Literary Foundation, Booklist, and other publications.
She currently lives in South Florida with her partner and one gloriously orange cat.